Redesigning Lendsqr’s Back Office to Improve User Experience and Operational Efficiency

Throughout its years of operation, Lendsqr has consistently enhanced its capabilities and broadened its offerings to meet the evolving needs of its customers. However, this expansion had not come without its challenges. As the company introduced more features and functionalities, the processes and user flows inevitably became more complex. Unfortunately, this increase in complexity, while reflective of the company's growth and innovation, led to a less optimal user experience as navigation and usage of the platform had become more difficult for users.

I initially started working on this project as a contractor but was eventually hired full-time as the company's lead designer. In this role, I played a key role in redefining the user experience, interaction design and maintaining the design system for the back office and other related products.

I worked closely with front-end developers, product owners, the CEO and an external QA team, Assurdly.

My responsibilities included:

• Conducting user and product-related research
• Defining problems and success criteria
• Documenting the design system
• Product design
• Creating UI designs and mockups
• Developing prototypes
• Performing testing and QA

Before I joined the project, an external team, Assurdly, was brought in to audit the existing user experience and provide feedback. Their initial observations included:

My primary task was redesigning the UI for the platform because the current design was outdated and no longer met the needs of their user base but building on Assurdly's findings, my personal audit uncovered additional concerns:

• Misaligned Sign-Ups: About 80% of sign up traffic were from borrowers, rather than lenders (the intended target audience), who were mistakenly signing up on the back-office platform. Existing measures, such as a red-text disclaimer stating “We do not give out loans,” were not effective and created a negative impression. Borrowers were supposed to be redirected to the lender directory, but the sign-up flow did not clearly guide them there.

• Complex User Experience: The app's complexity caused users to get lost among the many features, resulting in a high churn rate after sign-up as users struggled to fully set up their accounts.
• Inconsistent Design Around Features: New features lacked adherence to design guidelines, leading to a disjointed experience across the platform.

The redesign was guided by the following objectives to address the pain points identified during the audit and improve the overall user experience:

One of the critical issues identified was the high rate of borrower sign-ups on the back office, which was designed specifically for lenders. Borrowers, who are not the primary target audience, often completed the sign-up process, creating noise and misaligned traffic. Efforts were made to redirect this traffic to a lenders directory like adding a disclaimer at sign up stating, “We do not give out loans”, but data showed that the approach had been mostly ineffective.

To resolve this, I redesigned the onboarding flow to capture user intent early in the process. A new preliminary screen that forked users journey was introduced, asking users whether they were lenders or borrowers. Based on their selection:

• Lenders were directed to the main sign-up flow for the back office.
• Borrowers were redirected to the lender directory, which listed loan offers from various lenders that leverage Lendqr’s infrastructure for lending.

This change reduced borrower sign-ups, allowing the platform to focus its resources on its intended users. Borrower sign-ups still come in but it is not as bad as it used to be.

I was able to optimize the onboarding process for lenders by identifying key actions required to set up their accounts. Non-critical steps were made optional, enabling users to skip them and access the platform sooner. This flexibility reduced onboarding time to 3-5 mins from ~10mins, allowing users to complete additional steps later at their convenience.

Navigating the admin console as a first-time user was overwhelming due to the poorly structured "Getting Started" page. It provided users with a high-level list of links to guides, leaving them to figure out the next steps themselves. This approach failed to give users clear direction and only added to their confusion.

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To address this, I redesigned the "Getting Started" page to present information in a more meaningful, actionable, and motivating way. Drawing inspiration from proven designs, I implemented the following solutions:

• Step-by-Step Guidance: I replaced text-heavy content with simple, actionable steps, each accompanied by a call-to-action (CTA) button that took users directly to the relevant action. For instance, if a user needed to set up their first loan product, the CTA would lead them straight to the loan creation page.
• Integrated Guides: While prioritizing action, I ensured that users who needed additional help could access guides as an optional resource, rather than overwhelming them from the start.

Beyond redesigning the pages, I addressed a deeper challenge: how to enable users to quickly get up and running with minimal effort. At the time, it took new users so much time to set up their loan products and test them out to understand the value of the solution. My research into SaaS onboarding strategies revealed the importance of creating defaults which are pre-configured settings or features that allow users to see immediate value without extensive setup.

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Taking this new knowledge in, I worked closely with the stakeholders and we are able to implement two default loan products for new users:

• These loan products were pre-configured to reflect the most common use cases, ensuring that users could start lending immediately or at least test the experience without needing to build products from scratch.
• By offering pre-created defaults, users could explore the platform's functionality, understand its value, and gain confidence in their ability to operate as digital lenders.

Defaults like these not only make onboarding faster but also ensure that users experience value early.

One of the critical challenges faced by the team was the lack of defined set of patterns and reusable components especially when new features were added, which resulted in several issues impacting user experience, consistency, and efficiency.

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To address this, I conducted a thorough audit of the platform, identifying all existing elements and patterns to uncover redundancies and gaps.

Addressing these challenges resulted in the creation of the Pecunia Design System where I was able to standardize all the components components, typography, color, and UI patterns, ensuring a cohesive look and feel across the platform, and establishing a brand for consistency going forward.

The redesign of Lendsqr’s admin console brought significant improvements to both user experience and business outcomes. By addressing the core pain points through targeted solutions, the project delivered measurable impact:

This project was a powerful learning experience for me and here are some of the things I learnt working on the project:

• Design for outcomes, not just looks: The real success of this project came from understanding and prioritizing the outcomes we wanted to achieve; whether it was guiding users through the right channels, reducing time-to-activation, or cutting down on support enquiries. It reminded me that great design isn’t just about aesthetics; it’s about creating solutions that drive measurable results.
• The value of defaults: Introducing defaults like the pre-configured loan products taught me how powerful it is to remove friction for users. By giving them something to start with, we empower them to see value right away. This experience reinforced the importance of designing thoughtful defaults in future projects to help users succeed with minimal effort.
• The power of collaboration: Working closely with the stakeholders on the project helped align the solutions with both user needs and business goals. The defaults created were as a result of close collaboration and testing with the CEO and product owners.
• Iterative design is king: This project reinforced the value of iterating on feedback. By auditing the platform, testing ideas, and refining solutions, we built something that truly addressed issues that mattered.