Financial Services
Small Business Lending
How might we digitize data collection to expedite the underwriting process to relieve Small Business Lending during a global pandemic?
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Financial Services
Real Estate Capital
How might we increase efficiency and conversion rates by creating a client self-service platform to track their transaction property loan applications?
Timeline
2-months
My role
UX Lead
Deliverables
User journey map, user personas, wireframes and prototypes
Overview
As one of the nation’s leading commercial and multi-family real estate finance providers, KeyBank focuses on building relationships with our clients and offering financing options for short and long-term goals.
As a squad, our goal is to address the end-to-end experience by optimizing the process and automating the input, flow, transaction, and information output. Creating a streamlined and automated process will considerably reduce pain points for both clients and employees.
Problem
Outcome
Too many systems
Underwriters, third-party vendors, and borrower clients use up to 50 systems to gather and review information related to real estate capital lending.
Platform modernization
Integrated with Salesforce, Client Relationship Management, Box.com, and DocuSign.
System inefficiencies
Prolonged complex transactions make it difficult to centralize information and track access to specific data and documents related to the underwriting process.
Bulk process user flows
Minimized manual, administrative data entry across multiple systems by streamlining upload/edit capabilities.
Approach
Our project kick-off included breakout sessions, during which we mapped critical milestones in real estate capital, from prospect opportunities to portfolio management.
We identified critical user flows and utilized sticky notes to highlight steps, systems, pain points, and opportunities. This initial phase laid a solid foundation for strategic innovation and user-centric design.
Methodology
I partnered with a User Researcher to design an onsite workshop methodology to engage 15 participants, including 5 Prospect Loan Borrowers, 5 Relationship Managers, and 5 Underwriters. The workshop focused on journey mapping and low-fidelity prototyping.
Key findings
- The communication and document collection process can take up to 32 days.
- A lot of manual input of repeated information across systems creates more opportunities for user error.
- Loan borrowers lack transparency about where their application is and how long it takes until completion.
- Competitors provide more flexibility to underwriters by traveling onsite to collect information directly from borrowers.
- Competitors are digitizing and reducing print and scanning with modern platforms.
Recommendations
- Reduce the time of application for loan borrowers by improving the process for underwriters and third-party vendors.
- Improve the application review process by providing more transparency for loan borrowers on application progress.
- Adapt and become more omnichannel-focused on enabling onsite handheld technology support.
- Reduce paper by digitizing and providing a centralized electronic document repository.
- Integrate with a client relationship manager platform to initiate the next steps for individual parties.
User Flow
Empathy Map Canvas
James, Loan Borrower
"Time is money, I don't want to miss on a great rate!"
Demographic
50 years old
Massachusetts
Employment FPO
What do they say?
"Who is this person? What does this status mean? What do I need to do next? This is too long. Why is there so much information?"
What do they think?
I want to look at market rates. Understand if I can lock a rate, check on my loan status, upload multiple documents, and know my closing date.
What do they do?
Provide information, Review documentation, Email and video calls
What do they feel?
I wish there was a timeline. I want a faster closing process!
Jane, Relationship Manager
"I am on the front lines and need to be in the know with our customers and their loan applications."
Demographic
36 years old
Ohio
Relationship Manager
What do they say?
"What is outstanding? Do I need to re-enter all this information? We have too many tools! This is slow and very manual."
What do they think?
Bloomberg, treasury rates, competitors work from home andtravel to meet with clients, have smart checklists that are digital.
What do they do?
Process data of applications, create pricing alternatives, pre-approval deposits, complete pricing and quoting
What do they feel?
Anxious for change, frequently needs to communicate with clients frustration from a slow loan application process, frustrated.
Patrick, Underwriter
""I support our relationship manager by being in the know with client information.""
Demographic
26 years old
Texas
Underwriter
What do they say?
""Where can I find that information? Can we have the offshore team distribute this information? The information being collected is confusing our clients.""
What do they think?
I want to have flexibility to adopt underwriting to deal type. I need to share data with multiple audiences to inform decision making, review, and analyze documents submitted in a short time window.
What do they do?
Spend ~10 hrs in Excel per deal, gather information from multiple systems, spend hrs in Closer looking for incorrect inputs, manually create documents to present risk, mitigate and deal points
What do they feel?
Frustrated, I want a faster closing process!
Constraints
Our cross-functional team was structured in a 2-week window to plan an engagement lasting 2-months. This timeframe required that we set up our working agreement quickly.
To reduce the back-and-forth of collecting user requirements to ideate solutions:
Critical
Team is new to Agile methodology
Attempted to define clear sprint goals for providing transparency on progress to leadership as the team attempts to leverage agile methodology.
Risk
Limited tech support
We set up daily ideation sessions that did not initially include developers to determine feasibility due to availability constraints.
Ideation
Following our co-creation workshop sessions, two prevailing themes emerged as key focal points for our strategic direction.
Transaction details
Participants expressed a pressing need for a comprehensive transaction details feature that would cater to the diverse roles involved in transactions and ensure transparency and efficiency.
Underwriter client portal
There was an apparent demand for an underwriter client portal, which would provide a secure platform for managing and requesting critical client information, enhancing collaboration, and streamlining processes.Features
As a blue sky concept, there were no bounds to how we could ideate agnostic to component or UX pattern availability. Our approach became a hybrid, combining features from multiple platforms in a single experience.
Bulk upload
Upload more than one file and maintain version and document tracking.
System simplification
Reduce clicks and navigation systems into a centralized platform.
Deal showcase
View recent transactions portfolio from KeyBank Real Estate Capital.
Real Estate Capital overview
Recent transaction portfolio & sign-on
Borrower enrollment experience
Launch application from desktop or mobile device.
Transaction dashboard
View all transactions in a central experience.
Loan status tracker
Follow up with any outstanding actions needed for underwriting.
Transaction dashboard
View all transactions in a central experience.
Loan status tracker
Follow up with any outstanding actions needed for underwriting.
Documents
List of documents needed for application.
Impact
While this short-term engagement primarily focused on developing a proof of concept exploration of what this experience can look like, we ultimately informed a new product area for expanding commercial business.
7.5 million
Funded for moving forward with this initiative.32 tools
Consolidated into one unified experience.Takeaways
As a sole designer, sometimes designing in real-time with multiple stakeholders weighing in on opinions, I learned to prioritize adopting a human-first approach rather than technology.
Lessons learned
- Invest time in building and establishing a working relationship with cross-functional team members.
- Leverage existing UX sources to help educate and influence stakeholders, especially on accessibility.
- Familiarize yourself with the terminology used for product engagement conversations.
Some potential next steps
- User testing to measure effectiveness, efficiency, and satisfaction.
- Modify design based on user testing insights.
- Partner with technology to launch first MVP release.
More work
View all work