KYC Review Manager
Senior Product Designer
2022
Context
What is KYC?
KYC is a mandatory process for verifying an individual’s identity before issuing a payment card to them. While most decisions happen within seconds, about 10-20% of declined applications require manual reviews where applicants must submit proof of identity documents to be evaluated by compliance teams.
At the time, manual reviews were conducted by either Marqeta's internal compliance team or compliance teams of Marqeta’s customers depending on contractual agreements. The process was challenging for users, as they lacked the necessary tools to review documents and make decisions on accounts leading to inefficiencies and an unsatisfactory experience.
As the sole designer on this project, I helped create a solution that streamlined the manual review process for compliance users and improved their overall satisfaction. I worked closely with one PM and a team of backend and front-end engineers, leading all design efforts from user research to launch.
Problem
Manual KYC reviews were time-consuming, prone to errors, and led to a frustrating experience
Compliance teams had to navigate multiple interfaces and perform numerous steps to complete their tasks. They used a combination of their own internal review systems, the Marqeta App, and Box to receive documents, reinstate accounts, and maintain records.
During discussions with both internal and external users, we asked them to describe the current process in a few words to gain a better understanding of their feelings about it:
Hypothesis
Our goal was to increase efficiency and improve the UX
We believed that by providing a tool that consolidated assets in one place, KYC operations could be optimized, increasing efficiency and improving the overall experience for users.
Our goals and success metrics were to:
Approach
Leveraging existing patterns and frameworks
Since this was a v1 product, our strategy focused on delivering a solution quickly with plans to iterate and improve based on feedback.
I looked to leverage existing patterns and components in Volt, our design system, as it would accelerate the design and development process and allow us to gather feedback quickly from users.
I established a few principles that guided us through the process:
Usability Testing
Seeking to understand through testing
Over the course of three weeks, we conducted tests with 10 participants, which included 4 internal users and 6 external users.
While we recognized that the prototype was far from a perfect solution, these tests would be invaluable in helping us identify what was working in the initial design vs. what wasn't.
The initial version of this design had a fair amount of usability issues and fell short of our metric goals. Although a majority of users were able to complete core tasks, they struggled with the lack of detail in certain areas and how information was presented to them.
I invited my PM and a few engineers to join these sessions, which allowed them to directly observe and understand these issues. By sitting in on these sessions, they developed a deeper understanding of why the current design couldn’t be rolled out as is, leading to stronger alignment on the changes we collectively needed to make.
Final Designs
Creating a place where all information and assets could be viewed and accessed
After making updates, we received a lot more positive feedback in follow-up sessions with users.
The final design accomplished centralizing all information and assets in one location streamlining the manual KYC review process and reducing the need for users to switch back-and-forth between different tools.
Positioning the document viewport next to the submitted identity details made cross-referencing more intuitive and a lot easier for users to compare identity details.
Impact
The KYC Review Manager was met with positive feedback post-launch
It was a part of the RiskControl product suite launched in April 2022.
We exceeded our initial success metrics by significantly reducing TCT and improving CSAT, achieving the goals we established in the beginning of this project.
Takeaways
Bringing along team members
Communicating the value of design to cross-functional team members can sometimes be challenging. By extending an open invitation for engineers to attend usability testing sessions, I provided them with a more holistic perspective on the importance of design and UX.
Seeing users struggle with certain tasks helped them gain a deeper understanding of the problems we're looking to solve and why it's important for us to address.
I feel that it's important to involve cross-functional team members in the design process by providing opportunities for them to engage and understand its impact. This approach can build stronger team alignment and improve shared context across the board.
Advocating for CSAT metrics
In the beginning of this project, I was a strong advocate for including CSAT as a success metric. While there was significant emphasis from the product side on improving efficiency and reducing task completion time, there were aspects of TTC that didn’t capture how users felt while navigating the manual process.
As a result, I brought a more user-centered perspective to the table with my PM, making sure we balanced efficiency with user satisfaction.