NERDWALLET

Connecting small business owners with tailored loan options - faster, with Plaid

MY ROLE
  • Research
  • Conceptualization
  • Design
  • A/B testing
  • Dev handoff
TEAM
  • Design manager
  • Product manager
  • 1 Engineer
DURATION
  • 1 month
INTRODUCTION

A point of friction

NerdWallet's lending application helps business owners find tailored financing by matching them with loan options from multiple lenders. The step where users are prompted to upload their bank statements had a ~52% drop off rate across both desktop and mobile platforms.
Existing state of the Bank Statements Page

Adding Plaid to the equation

By integrating Plaid into the NerdWallet lending application, we hypothesized that we could streamline the experience and make it significantly easier for business owners to continue the flow.
PROBLEM BREAKDOWN

Adding Plaid to the equation

With drop off being sub 5% on all the following steps of the lending funnel, the bank statements page was clearly not accurately addressing the needs of our users, in turn impacting business metrics of conversion and revenue.
🔍 Privacy
  • Users might feel uncomfortable sharing sensitive financial information or may not trust the platform with their data
🔒 Security
  • Users don’t know whether or not we have any security measures to protect and store their financial data
🤝 Up-front and Back-end Efficiency
  • The integration of Plaid reduces the user’s interaction cost when it comes to collecting, saving, and upload their bank statements
  • Users don’t see that minimizing the time it takes for Sales Reps to receive their bank statements can significantly speed up the process of being matched with lenders

Setting goals

Before pushing any pixels, I wanted to establish the parameters of what I was trying to achieve. How can we craft a a seamless and impactful experience that addresses both business goals and the needs/expectations of our users?
🙋 User
  • To quickly upload my necessary financial documents
  • To ensure that my information won’t be sold or distributed without my consent
  • To ensure that my information is being protected
🏢 Business
  • An intuitive and accessible user experience that makes it easier for Sales Reps to help business owners
  • Increase in revenue/opp by minimizing drop off and boosting the amount of users that go through the lending funnel
📈 HOW CAN WE QUANTIFY OUR GOALS? 📈
Clickthrough rate (CTR)
48.7% -> 60%
Conversion
6.5% -> 10%
3-day app submit rate
27.9% -> 35%
OUTLINING BOUNDARIES

Laying out constraints

⚠️ Big changes = Big risk
NerdWallet’s lending funnel accounted for a significant portion of our vertical’s revenue, so it was important to focus on smaller, incremental improvements to optimize the user experience, minimizing the potential for significant revenue loss in case the changes didn’t deliver as expected
⚠️ Consistency with feedback-driven design system
There have been multiple tests in the past that validated specific design decisions like left-aligned input fields, 8-column spacing, so I wanted to stay as consistent as I could with the existing design system
ANALYZING THE CURRENT EXPERIENCE

Identifying areas of opportunity

1. Copy changes for trustbuilding
The current copy on the page doesn’t do much to explain why we need their bank statements or provide reassurance on how we handle sensitive data
2. Improve visibility on existing elements
The security notice above the page’s CTA is lower on the visual hierarchy with it’s smaller font size and greyed out text. Can we enhance the clarity of such an important piece of information?
3. Unused screen real estate
For such an important step, the page feels barren which can come across as untrustworthy or incomplete
PROBLEM BREAKDOWN

Adding Plaid to the equation

Some of the explorations we considered
During rapid prototyping, my team and I narrowed down the themes we wanted to focus on:
How do we communicate what the user gets out of connecting with Plaid?
Connecting with Plaid ultimately helps Sales Reps submit the user’s loan application much faster. But users aren’t concerned about how this experience benefits a business, they want to know how it benefits them.
In the digital age, transparency on data handling and retention is key. How can we ensure that customers feel in control of their information?
Giving out financial information is a big ask so we wanted to put more emphasis on reassuring the users with how we protect and handle their information. NerdWallet treats their users’ data like it’s their own so how can we better communicate that with them?
Giving users the option to adapt to a new experience rather than forcing it upon them
Not everyone is familiar with an experience like Plaid so we wanted to give users the option to connect via Plaid or manually upload their information.
FINAL OUTPUT

High-fidelity deliverable

Following multiple rounds of A/B testing, the final design includes elements focused around boosting the user’s confidence during such a crucial step.
1. “Why do we need this information?” drop down
A dropdown feature with additional information to provide full transparency on why lending services require their bank statements
2. “Did you know?” tool tip
After our first round of testing, we found that business owners who connected via Plaid received offers 35% faster! Informing our users of this statistic lets them know what benefits they’re getting out of this feature.
3. Emphasized value propositions
To better support our users, we wanted to clearly communicate the value props of integration with Plaid: This new feature ensures their data is secure and handled responsibly, while also accelerating their chances of being matched with a lender.
4. Trustpilot footer
Added a trustpilot rating and BBB Accreditation to fuel customer confidence and validate NerdWallet’s legitimacy
DATA-DRIVEN SUCCESS

Key performance indicators

Plaid makes it significantly easier for reps to submit apps and increases the likelihood business owners will fund!