Transforming the credit card application experience
My team created a more seamless credit card application flow that creates transparency with customers, reduces data entry and provides guaranteed offers before credit check.
Company
Capital One
My role
Design leadership and experience strategy
Team
Senior design manager
3 UX/UI designers
Content designer
10+ tech teams
5+ product managers
Challenge
Enable more confident consumer decision-making with an improved card application experience. The previous flow required a credit check before showing offers, creating uncertainty and friction in the application process.
Original application flow requiring the customer to fill out two forms
Approach
Design lacked influence at the start of this project. I built and strengthened cross-functional relationships by helping others understand design's role, which enabled design to contribute to business strategy and establish equal partnership by increasing our representation in several meetings where we previously were not included.
I created a new cross-team forum to bring all partners together so everyone could be informed of my team's progress and roadmap and so we were aligned on the highest priorities.
Example artifact used to discuss design work and priorities
Outcome
I ensured that my team cared for design craft by auditing and updating components and testing content. We also considered feasibility by running customer-journey-led workshops to identify capability gaps. As a result, we shifted the definition of project requirements from being technical only to being customer experience-focused.
New accounts booked increased by ~5%, demonstrating the impact of a more user-centered approach to the credit card application experience.
Retrospective
These are a couple of learnings from reflecting on this project.
Navigating ambiguity
There were many changes in partners and a lack of clarity around roles and responsibilities among designers. I listened to my team, heard their need for more definition, and acted on that. By doing so, I improved team morale and collaboration. At the same time, I strive to support my team in managing through ambiguity on their own as much as possible.
Improved documentation
Given that we worked in a highly regulated environment, the team had to work through many legal and compliance issues and in some cases questions came up that caused previously made decisions to be revisited. To avoid further back and forth, I had my team lead efforts to improve our documentation process for customer experience decisions. Even when trying to move quickly, I think creating documentation ultimately helps get everyone to desired outcomes faster.
