Easyknock

EasyKnock was a startup offering various financial products that help homeowners access the equity in their homes without having to sell. I led different product design initiatives across this sale-leaseback startup’s product suite.
2024
2021 - 2022, 2024
CLIENt
Easyknock
Role
Design Lead

Main Challenges

Building From Scratch

Every project began from the ground up, requiring me to gather requirements, propose strategies, and collaborate closely with developers to bring ideas to life from scratch.

Part of the user journey created from scratch with different company departments

Customer Financial Strain

Many customers were facing difficult financial situations, relying on their home as their last asset to manage their challenges. The product had to address these urgent and emotional circumstances, providing a viable solution.

Easyknock main user persona

Introducing New Financial Products

While the sale-leaseback model was familiar in real estate, it was new to customers looking to access home equity. Many compared it to traditional financial products, not fully understanding its unique benefits. The challenge was educating users on how EasyKnock’s flexible financial criteria offered a viable alternative to traditional loans.

UX product analysis, this impacted products positioning, architecture and copy strategy

Main Projects

Customer Portal

The portal provided an end-to-end experience for customers from qualification to long-term tenancy. It also served as an educational hub, informing customers of their benefits and next steps.

Key Goals
Transparency

Simplify the complex process of accessing home equity, a process similar in complexity to a mortgage, and ensure customers fully understood each step.

Scalability

Accommodate various products, brandings and processes with a flexible design that maintained a consistent, intuitive user experience.

Product Estimate

The Initial Estimate was a key step in the sales funnel, with over 20% of users who accepted the estimate ultimately closing a deal with EasyKnock. The challenge was to effectively communicate the complexity of the product in a transparent way, highlighting both the benefits and potential drawbacks, so customers could make informed decisions.We regularly tested the estimate, interviewed users, and iterated based on feedback to ensure clarity and ease of understanding.

Different screens and versions of the same estimate

Qualification Form

This was designed to assess whether users pre-qualified for EasyKnock’s financial products. Our goal was to create a form that collected the minimum required information while ensuring users felt comfortable sharing sensitive financial details.

Even though there were few questions, the form went through constant iterations, with adjustments to the questions, copy, and order. These changes had a significant impact on the business, as the form was the primary source of opportunities. Every adjustment required revisiting business needs, legal constraints, and multiple systems.

Internal Dashboards

The sales team used a central dashboard to generate customer estimates, proposals, and contracts. The challenge was simplifying the complexity of the deal structures, ensuring the dashboard met the sales team's needs while also adhering to business viability constraints.

Key Contributions

Product Design & Strategy

I played a key role in shaping the product’s user experience, transforming insights into strategies, architectures that align with user needs and business goals. I contributed to the product roadmap to ensure seamless execution.

Cross-Functional Collaboration

I collaborated with developers, business, branding, marketing, legal stakeholders, and the sales teams to integrate design with broader business objectives.

Collab session with sales, marketing, legal, and product stakeholders.
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Citi UX Leadership

I led a team of talented creatives, including UX architects, visual designers, and a copywriter, and collaborated with cross-functional colleagues such as product owners, researchers, strategists, subject matter experts, and engineers. Our objective was to deliver engaging designs that simplify the complex world of finance and humanize the banking experience.