Credit check based on trust - how?!
Wait, what?
Faber est creates an innovative system that makes access to money possible for everyone. The service offers microcredits (0-300€) in a few simple clicks, zero bureaucracy or documents required. The service provides an alternative check based on a relational model that focuses on the Faber est community, and the possibility for the borrower to be part of it.
About the project
Title: Faber est
My role: Project management, Service designer, UX research and market research.
Length: 3 months discovery / validation
Company: Djungle Studio
1,7B users around the world struggle to access credit because of the standards required by banking institutions. The documents and guarantees needed for any type of loan, no matter how small, automatically exclude many of the people who need financial support.
Dedicated to those who are having difficulty accessing credit through traditional systems. It is aimed at end users (B2C), the “underbanked”, people who, given their working and financial position, would otherwise not obtain loans.
The brief
Super agile methodology
Willing to create a detailed user experience and an alternative method to evaluate individuals for credit. As a result, we developed the project using a 'super agile' process.
This approach involved validating the interest from users through quick marketing campaigns. Subsequently, we designed an initial service flow with only the essentials to make it work and began testing it on real users. Based on the feedback from these users, we incrementally added complexity to the service and conducted a second iteration of the blueprint. We continued with this methodology of receiving feedback and quickly iterating for the whole project, crafting and validating step by step in short iterations, each lasting approximately one week
User research
The initial users underwent an onboarding journey, and after a pre-screening, we conducted interviews similar to those used in pre-checks for credit services. These interviews were also used to gain a deeper understanding of the target audience and their habits.
The questions varied, including those directly related to the service:
-
"What amount do you intend to request?"
-
"For what purpose? What do you primarily need it for?"
-
"How do you plan to repay the loan?"
Additionally, there were questions not directly connected to the service but aimed at understanding their motivations and evaluating them as individuals:
-
"Can you provide an example of a situation where your motivation helped you overcome a challenge? What was that motivation?"
Etnographic diary
In order to continuously refine our alternative method of credit evaluation, we developed an ethnographic diary to understand the best practices among user habits and to identify patterns among them. it was printed and delivered physically on the users houses
.png)
Competitors research
Creating a more human and empathetic service flow in financial services is not a new endeavor; many banks are striving to offer easier and quicker service features in response to the demands of the new generations.
For our service's purpose, I conducted a competitor analysis, testing the most famous microcredit services worldwide that have adopted a more humanized approach to credit approval, considering individuals as individuals and not just credit scores. We referred to this process as the 'Customer Safari,' and the results from it have greatly contributed to improving our onboarding process
Findings:
.jpg)
Blueprint iterations
Below, you can find some of the blueprints I designed throughout the evolution of the project, starting with the very first one for our initial iteration and concluding with a more complex blueprint involving multiple stakeholders, including the service and our financial partner)
Blueprint Iteration 1: Blueprint of first 10 users inside of an estimated timeline to complete the entire service flow
.jpg)
Blueprint Iteration 4: Blueprint with significant onboarding modifications after testing and new sections with documentation used in which stage and people in charge of those processes, this was made before the circle of the service was complete
.jpg)
Final blueprint: The blueprint has been refined through the involvement of various stakeholders, resulting in a more finalized service structure
End-to-end
What was particularly interesting about this project was the opportunity to actively participate in both the design process and the hands-on delivery of services from start to finish. This allowed me to experience firsthand where the service required adjustments, comprehend user problems, and identify potential solutions that I could quickly modify, test, and iterate upon live.
Results
The project received a financial partnership proposal from Permicro, an Italian bank that became interested in the idea and offered us support. Additionally, we applied for and gained admission to the Sandbox of Banca d'Italia. Which were important milestones in making feasible the experimentation.
Future developments?
The project is currently on hold due to issues with Italian bureaucratic regulations, which have slowed down the experimentation and algorithm development process.
All about people, places and stories