KYC Review Manager
Senior Product Designer
2022
Background
What is KYC?
KYC (Know Your Customer) is the 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 risk operations teams.
At the time, manual reviews were conducted by either Marqeta's internal risk team or risk teams of Marqeta's customers, depending on contractual agreements. The process was challenging for users since they lacked suitable tools to review documents and make decisions on accounts leading to an inefficient and unsatisfactory experience.
As the sole designer on this project, I helped create a solution that streamlined this review process and increase users' satisfaction in the experience. I worked closely with one PM and a team of backend and front-end engineers, leading all design efforts from discovery to launch.
👥 Team
I worked cross-functionally in the Risk Management squad, with 1 PM, 2 front-end engineers, and 3 backend engineers.
💼 Role
I was the sole designer on this project and was responsible for end-to-end design from user research, product strategy, to handoff.
Problem
Manual KYC reviews were time-consuming, prone to errors, and led to a frustrating experience
Users had to navigate multiple interfaces and follow a complex series of steps to complete their tasks. They relied on a combination of legacy systems, the Marqeta Dashboard, and Box to receive documents, reinstate accounts, and maintain records. Information and actions were all spread across various applications and tools.
During discussions with both internal and external users, we asked them to describe their current process in a few words:
The process wasn’t just inefficient, but the manual nature of the process was also error-prone and sometimes extended the account approval timeline to several weeks, leading to a poor experience even for the end card applicant.
Hypothesis
Our goal was to increase efficiency and improve the UX
We believed that consolidating all information and actions into a single case management tool within the Marqeta Dashboard would streamline the manual KYC process, increase efficiency, and improve the overall UX.
I collaborated with my PM to define goals and success metrics. While our primary objective was to improve workflow efficiency, we also wanted to consider users' overall satisfaction through their process.
Approach
Gathering feedback from different perspectives and refining
Based on our early findings, I established a few principles that guided us through the process as we progressed through different stages of the work:
Since this was a 0 to 1 product, our strategy focused on delivering an MVP quickly with plans to iterate and improve the design based on feedback.
I mapped out flows to define the structure of the new review system, which clarified the necessary screens and actions required at each stage of the workflow. These flows also helped communicate the vision for this tool, which helped backend engineers shape the development of the corresponding API.
I regularly presented my work in design crits, biweekly squad meetings, customer calls, and 1:1s with key stakeholders from risk operations, product, engineering, and legal. Each group's unique perspectives played an important role in helping shape the designs.
Explorations
Narrowing in on different design options
My main focus for the review details page was to include all relevant information and actions so users could complete their tasks within one area. Ultimately, I developed two options for this page, each with its own set of advantages and trade-offs.
Option B was favored more since users found it easier to cross-reference details, while Option A made better use of design system components. The primary issue with Option A was that displaying documents in a modal obscured critical information, causing potential friction in the workflow.
We chose to move forward with Option B since it was unanimously preferred in feedback sessions. There was also a strong case for creating a page level variant of the image viewer component after I identified other designers required a similar pattern for their use cases. This discovery further justified the investment of engineering time, as the new variant would benefit not just this project, but multiple teams.
Usability Testing
Testing to identify insights and make improvements
Over the course of three weeks, we conducted moderated testing with 10 participants, which included 4 internal users and 6 external users.
While we acknowledged the designs weren't perfect and still had room for improvement, my priority was to get them in front of users to better understand what was working vs. what wasn't.
While most users were able to complete their core tasks, many usability issues revealed themselves as the design felt slightly short of our metric goals. We planned to address these issues as follow-up items.
Final Designs
Providing a centralized tool for accessing all KYC assets, information, and actions
After making updates to higher priority issues, we received significantly more positive feedback in follow-up sessions.
The final design successfully centralized all information and assets in one place, streamlining the manual KYC review process and minimizing the need for users to switch between multiple tools to complete their tasks.
Handoff
Collaborating with engineers to make sure designs were built to spec
I formally handed off the designs to engineers, walking them through the final details. However, there were no major surprises, as I had kept them involved and updated throughout the entire process.
After handoff, I conducted two rounds of Visual QA to make sure the designs were built to spec.
Impact
The KYC Review Manager was met with positive feedback post-launch
We exceeded our initial success metrics by significantly reducing task completion time, saving numerous operational hours for risk analysts.
Additionally, we also improved CSAT scores, as users expressed satisfaction with the overall experience.
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 specific tasks gave them valuable insights into usability issues and highlighted the importance of addressing them. The collaborative approach helped build stronger team alignment and improved shared context across the board.