Online Loan Checkout

Overview

Introduction

Mulligan Funding serves as a provider of business loans and working capital loans to small and medium-sized businesses across the United States, reaching the milestone of 1 billion dollars funded at the end of 2022. Mulligan Funding prides itself in taking the time to understand each client’s situation and business goals to determine the optimum amount of capital they need.

The focus of this project was to create a self-serving online platform for merchants, reducing the dependency on verification calls and accelerating loan closings. This loan online checkout platform also became the first merchant-facing platform built by the internal development team.

Note:
A more detailed version of this case study is available here.

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My Role

As the lead UX Designer, my responsibilities included product thinking, UX analysis, wireframing, visual design, prototyping, and quality assurance. I collaborated closely with the Chief Operating Officer, Chief Credit Officer, documentation specialists, and developers throughout this initiative.
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The Problem

How might we facilitate the loan closing experience for merchants and documentation specialists to fund deals more efficiently?

The existing loan closing process relied heavily on documentation specialists scheduling calls, which caused significant delays and interruptions in their day to day tasks. Merchants often found it inconvenient to engage in lengthy verification conversations, leading to frustrations and potential drop-offs in the funding process. Lastly, partners that submit applications were sometimes deterred of doing so as waiting for these calls affected the tight turnaround times they had for funding. This was of great concern as this sometimes pushed partners to negotiating offers with lending competitors.

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The Solution

The solution entailed the creation of an online platform. Merchants were provided with a user-friendly interface to verify their business information and individual identity securely. The platform facilitated reviews of loan details, including transparent breakdowns of loan amounts, payment schedules, and terms and conditions. Lastly, a seamless integration with Docusign enabled merchants to electronically sign loan agreements accelerating the funding process significantly.
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Results & Impact

Operational Efficiency

Documentation specialists scheduled about 85% less closing calls. Calls are now only scheduled as a fraud prevention measure for riskier deals that need in-depth verification. 

Merchant Empowerment

On average, merchants have completed loan checkout in about 6 minutes. Based on client success team's feedback, merchants also have found the experience to be convenient and mobile-friendly.

Strategic Market Positioning

The company's market position was elevated by offering a digital experience that provides a competitive advantage, attracting new partners and merchants and increasing revenue opportunities.

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Design

Features

Verifying Business Information & Individual Identity

Added a business verification section as a security step for owners to create an online account. Once an account is created, owners are asked knowledge-based authentication questions.
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Reviewing Loan Details

Presented loan details clearly, including amounts, interest rates, repayment schedules, and associated fees. Interactive tooltips provided explanations, empowering merchants to learn more about a section, respectively.
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Signing Loan Documents

Integrated Docusign, allowing merchants to sign documents electronically without the need of waiting for a loan agreement email.

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Design Principles

For this initiative, design focused on the following principles:

Be Mobile Friendly

Ensured all features were accessible and visually appealing on various devices, especially mobile devices.

Be Easy To Use

Created a seamless, step-by-step flow, guiding merchants through the loan closing process.

Be Secure

Implemented identity verification methods to reduced fraud opportunities for bad actors.
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Design Process Highlights

Strategic Vision

Extensive discussions with COO, CCO, and other stakeholders occurred to unveiled business and user goals, shaping the project's direction. These discussions also led to conversations about the long term vision of Mulligan Funding as company, highlighting future design opportunities.

Defining User Flows

Detailed user flow diagrams were created, aligning stakeholder visions with developer capabilities and user needs.

Development Collaboration

Regular meetings with developers facilitated the review of integration challenges. As I was fairly new to the development team, I made an extra effort to make myself available with any questions they had.

Quality Assurance Involvement

I had active involvement in the QA process, including identifying UI issues and conducting mobile responsiveness testing. A document was created with the issues found, organized with a design priority and overall importance.

Design System Leadership

Initiated and conceptualized a new design system,  documenting design patterns, components, and interactions, ensuring consistency and scalability for future projects.

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