CreditBook - Small and Medium Enterprise Financing Web App
The SME Financing Web App offers an efficient, user-friendly portal for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to obtain fast, hassle-free financing. It enables business owners to easily apply for and manage an approved credit line tailored to their needs, while also tracking their application status. By providing low-collateral, quick financing options, the platform fosters trust and supports the growth of businesses.
User Research
In an extensive user research initiative, we focused on interviewing Small and Medium Business (SMB) owners across Karachi, Lahore, and Islamabad, Pakistan. With the assistance of our dedicated User Research team, we embarked on a journey to deeply understand the financial challenges and preferences of these businesses. This collaborative effort was instrumental in uncovering the nuanced financial needs and obstacles faced by SMBs in these regions, leading to the following insights:
Extended Processing Times
Traditional financial institutions often have processing times exceeding 2-3 months, a significant barrier for customers in need of swift solutions like invoice financing.Lack of Transparency
A history of opaque dealings has left many users wary of applying for financing through banks, emphasizing the need for clear and detailed financial information.Preference for Flexibility
The study revealed a strong preference among many users for borrowing from friends and family, valuing the repayment flexibility that formal financial channels typically lack.Banks' Focus on Government Lending
Due to the exhaustive effort involved in KYC and credit checks, banks have shown a preference for lending directly to the government. This approach saves them the hassle of dealing with hundreds of individual clients, further alienating businesses in need of financing.
Understanding the Current Manual Loan Disbersement Process from the Operations Team.
Given the operational team's varying levels of familiarity with design tools, we chose a more traditional approach to the design process. By physically mapping out customer profiles and their pain points, we facilitated a deeper, more tactile understanding among the team of the challenges customers face with current financing options in the market. This "back-to-basics" strategy not only democratized the design process but also ensured a comprehensive grasp of user needs and frustrations, laying a solid foundation for our solution development.
User Needs Statement/Problem Statement
Following our in-depth ideation process, where we closely examined customer profiles and their financial hurdles, our team was able to distill the complex array of insights into a clear, focused needs statement. This statement captures the essence of what we discovered to be a pivotal requirement among our target users.
Need Statement:
An established SME has a need for capital injection and support addressed by a Islamic financing option.
Mapping out the Current State of Loan Disbersement
Our team meticulously mapped the journey and interactions between SMEs and the Ops team, uncovering critical insights that laid the groundwork for our digital product:
Documentation Challenges: Identified inefficiencies in gathering necessary documents, highlighting the need for a streamlined process.
Non-scalable Sales-First Approach: Revealed the limitations of a sales-centric strategy, underscoring the need for a relationship-focused model.
Dependency on a Single Point of Contact (POC): Uncovered as a major bottleneck, this dependency hinders trust-building and efficient communication.
Lack of Visibility: SMEs were left without insights into their application's status due to the absence of a tracking system.
Re-application Process: The need to contact a POC for re-applications emphasized the system's inefficiency.
User Persona
Competitor Analysis
To gain a deeper understanding of the market and examine how lending products gather information and conduct KYC, we conducted a competitor analysis. This analysis yielded several key insights and themes:
Competitors provide detailed financing information upfront on their landing pages.
They employ a well-defined initial onboarding questionnaire designed to avoid overwhelming users.
They offer visibility on application status to minimize user confusion.
The entire process from document verification to contract signing is handled online, eliminating the need for manual interventions.
Wireframes
High Fidelity Designs & Learnings from the Project
What I Learned:
With the basic infrastructure for SME financing now operational, here are some reflections and insights shared with the team:
Key Insights:
- Recognize the diversity of business types and tailor products to meet their specific needs.
- Shift towards a standardized business credit scoring system to enhance scalability.
- Collaborate with the Data team to develop infrastructure that supports automation and eliminates manual verification processes.
Areas for Improvement:
- Implementing usability testing could have preempted some user journey issues. Nonetheless, post-launch event tracking will enable us to monitor and understand product adoption effectively.
Landing Page
Allowing users to get upfront details about the financing products and eligibility process to allow them the ability to understand the product better.
KYC Information & Document Gathering
After initial signup, a fast KYC information and business documentation gathering process was required to verify the authenticity of business and ownership details.
Financing Details Verification
The next step in the process is the verification of past financial records to understand viability of financing businesses and to do credit underwriting.
Contract Signing & Dashboard
After first contract signing, a dashboard is created for the user to see their current Credit limit and financing details alongwith the option of seeing history and for newer financing applications.
Additional Screens
What I learned:
Now that the basic infrastructure of financing for SMEs is up and running, some things to ponder that were shared with the team were:
Key Insights:
Recognize and cater to the unique requirements of various business types by tailoring products specifically for them.
Transition to a standardized credit scoring model for businesses to improve scalability.
Collaborate with the Data team to enhance infrastructure, focusing on automations that eliminate the need for manual verification processes.
What could have been done better:
Usability testing could prevent problems in user journeys. Nonetheless, we can effectively monitor outcomes and understand product adoption through event tracking after launch.