Latitude Financial Services is one of Australia’s largest non-bank lenders offering consumer finance through personal loans, credit cards, insurance and interest free retail finance. In 2020 Latitude launched their interest rate quote experience which delivered much needed price transparency to both customers and brokers across Australia and New Zealand. As a Senior Product Designer, I worked collaboratively with our product, tech and business partners within the Lending business to tackle project complexities with a thoughtful and systematic approach.
The problem
Latitude offers risk-based pricing where personal loan interest rates are personalised to each customer based on their credit history and current financial circumstances. However, customers regularly expressed significant concern around not knowing what their interest rate will be until after submitting a full loan application, which in turn impacts their credit rating and may present an undesirable rate.
The objective
Immersed in the end-to-end product design process, I led the design phase to clearly understand the pain points customers were experiencing in the absence of this product, what the customer needs to achieve their goals and the value proposition we aim to provide.
As the quoting journey is such an important part of the acquisition stage of the customer lifecycle it was imperative to craft an experience that is simple, quick and intuitive. Early storymapping sessions helped the team thoroughly understand the current state and touchpoints, nuances between customer and broker journeys and between Australia and New Zealand regions, break down functionality across complex systems, identify risks and challenges early on, and align delivery scope to the identified customer needs.
I collaborated closely with our PO, BA and tech team to unpack customer problems, understand the current system functionality, requirements and technical feasibility, and helped stakeholders empathise with our users by amplifying the voice of the customer in every conversation. In a challenging stakeholder environment, it was crucial to effectively communicate design rationale and reiterate the experience vision in every engagement to promote the product direction whilst balancing both customer and business needs.
Conducting research allowed us to validate our working hypotheses with customers regularly throughout the project. I co-led 5 rounds of remote research with our research partner seeking feedback on prototypes and published product, gathering learnings from over 80 customers and brokers using a combination of moderated and unmoderated usability tests. Promoting a feedback-driven culture and encouraging team members to develop hypotheses to validate was imperative in showing the inherent value research and design has to achieving business outcomes.
I successfully balanced the needs of the customer with the overall business strategy, synthesised research insights into actionable recommendations, and supported implementation by delivering detailed UX/UI web designs and conducting thorough build reviews to identify issues. All in all, I relished the opportunity to work collaboratively with my cross-functional team to contribute to the direction and success of the product.
The outcome
Our new quoting experience provides certainty to customers in an upfront quotation of their personal loan interest rate by asking a few quick questions about their circumstances and credit history to provide them with a personalised interest rate and repayment amount without affecting their credit score.
The launch of our quoting tool had an incredible impact on our digital application experience resulting in an NPS uplift of +40% from baseline just 5 weeks after launch and an increase of +22 NPS points from the previous year.
Once implemented, I regularly promoted a continuous iteration mindset within our squad and leveraged analytics, customer feedback and Hotjar screen recordings to identify opportunities to enhance the experience. Evangelising the partnership model and showcasing the value of customer centricity was crucial to not only elevating the design practice within the organisation but to contributing to the success of a product that has a meaningful impact on millions of customers.
Website: Latitude Financial Services (AU)
Latitude Financial Brokers (AU)
Gem Finance (NZ)