Small Business Lending
How might we digitize data collection to expedite the underwriting process to relieve Small Business Lending during a global pandemic?
Introduction
Overview
The impacts of Covid-19 led to a $2.2 trillion coronavirus stimulus bill that was signed into law in March 2020 to set aside $349 billion for a new small-business loan program.
The Paycheck Protection Program is a federal loan intended to help thousands of businesses quickly gain funds. These funds help cover certain business costs related to payroll expenses, the continuation of group health care benefits, lease payments, mortgage interest payments, utility payments, and interest on other pre-existing debt obligations.
My contributions
I was the only designer joining a core team of business and technology to convert SBA Paycheck Protection Program Borrower Application Forms into a digital experience to streamline the underwriting process and expedite review and approval for funds for our small business clients.
Notable deliverables include: wireframes, interactive prototypes, user acceptance testing, data analysis of system user feedback on OpinionLab, a Software as a Service (SaaS) product
Timeline
1-week
Role
UX Lead
Problem
Limited loan funding shared across financial institutions to fund generated a speed to market initiative to provide Commercial and Small Business Clients a method to complete their applications digitally to expedite the reviewal and approval process.
A digital application will allow our branch associates to invite eligible clients to apply as we compete against other Small Business Administration (SBA) lenders and exhaust PPP funds. We need to create a Minimal Viable Product digital application to queue for applications and create a pipeline to track and review applications to approve funds to support our Small Business Clients.
Goals
01
Trigger
Banker Experience: Bankers can enter the streamlined application in Small Business Originations platform for prospects and clients.
Client Experience: Bankers can send email links for prospects and clients to enter at home digital experience.
02
Action
An eligible KeyBank client receives an email with a new digital application to complete for more convenience and faster processing.
Loans are not guaranteed and are on a first-come, first-serve basis.
03
Investment
For businesses and non-profits with 500 or fewer employees, eligibility for loans may result in an opportunity for complete loan forgiveness.
Any amount not forgiven after Dec 31, 2020, is converted to a term loan not to exceed ten years or 4% interest.
04
Variable Reward
The loan amount is less than $10,000,000 or 2.5x the total average monthly payroll costs incurred one year before origination.
Monthly payments differ between 6 and 12-months.
Constraints
Critical
Speed to market
A 1-week turnaround to design and implement does not create an opportunity to test and validate. As an alternative, our team is leveraging Saas feedback tools to track and gather quantitative and qualitative data to evaluate usage, prioritize enhancements, and address defects.
Medium
Small Business Association (SBA) Guidelines
As details of the loan program become available, guidelines are updated to reflect details needed for digital and print applications. These guidelines create continuous changes to our acceptance criteria while developing, impacting our offshore team by creating confusion and tracking change requests with timezone differences.
Research
We strategically employed a pre-existing, meticulously tested methodology tailored for enrollment flows in commercial and business lending. By harnessing this established framework, we maximized efficiency by leveraging the current technology stack. This approach allowed us to channel our primary efforts towards optimizing the collection of user information during the underwriting process.
User insights
Mapping the experience
Key features
Employee admin portal
We implemented a Client Relationship Manager (CRM) for inviting clients to apply for the loan.
Account summary
We integrated authenticated client-facing access to the loan application.
Email communications
We supported client communications with updates on the status of their loan application.
Key screens
Sign on
Requires email validation for invite-only loan application.
Loan offering selection
Tiles are modular for eligibile offers to display
Loan details
Determine eligibility based on business expenses
Business information
Add information for up to 5 business owners
Identity verification
Required for authorization of loan application
Document upload
KeyBank contacts on a transaction
Electronic disclosure
Required by the USA PATRIOT act
Loan confirmation
Next steps communicated via e-mail
Invitation email
Shared exclusively with clients in contact with Branch Managers
PPP Loan Tracker
Automated generated emails with updates on the loan application progress for clients
Outcomes
We ranked #7 in the nation for the Paycheck Protection Program with a historically high 91% click-through rate for our portal.
28,000+ clients applied
Small business, commercial and institutional clients
$8 billion in funding
Over 40,000 loans processed
Reflection
While I transitioned roles shortly after this engagement, some next steps I would take would include:
Next steps
- Continue to review usage data and conduct user research sessions to discover potential pain points and opportunities
- Revisit UX patterns for multi-owner enrollment to be able to support gathering information for up five owners in one application
Takeaways
Invest in understanding how your team operates, especially for a short-term engagement. If guidance is required to be effective and efficient, plan to level set how the team can work quickly to onboard and establish a working agreement, especially with design handoff with offshore teams.
Find ways to maintain morale, even when powering through 2-3 am deadlines for 10 am user acceptance testing. Remain empathetic and remember the client and employee users this digital experience will impact during a global pandemic.