Westpac
Westpac Wonder — the emotional journey of buying a house.
The Brief
Buying a house and getting a loan is a highly emotional journey, more so online. Many decisions are made and Westpac wanted to ensure their customers made informed decisions about the myriad of options available to them throughout the buying journey, from dreaming to finally getting the keys. I (and a very large, supportive and greatly talented team of product team) was tasked in creating this digitally for the first time, and beating the other banks to it.
Requirements
We conducted extensive customer research surrounding buying and owning property, to gather insights into what aspects of the lending process could be digitised for a better customer experience.
We validated that:
- Customers want certainty early in the borrowing process
- Customers want to be supported throughout the entire home ownership journey, from buying from buying their first home, to funding renovations and purchasing investment properties.
- Customers want clarity in processes, and to feel in control.
The solution
Wonder is an up to date customer profile attached to a real time risk decision engine that uses regulator approved responsible lending practices to give customers a clear understanding of their borrowing options.
As customers update their profile with information such as a salary increase, or a credit card with another bank, or the value of the property they already own changes that lending figure is updated in real time.
New Loans
As the lead CX designer on a portion of Wonder called “New Loans”, I worked closely with 2–3 other CX designers to initially just work to the simplest segment of the market / customers (Investor Loan) as an MVP approach.
Eventually I got to work through a variety of loan types / configurations, creating flows, wireframes and interactive prototypes that were tested on an almost fortnightly basis with a drive to raise a NPS score.
Top Ups
In addition to working on New Loans I also worked on Top Ups a way to use your existing property and loan to get extra cash. This was an existing product that using a printed form and multiple visits to branches could take up to 21 days before being approved and having the funds. Once we had “Wonderfied” it, the digital application took just 3–5 minutes before you were approved and 3 days to getting the cash. During testing this product receive glowing feedback and upon launch quickly gained traction with existing customers.
Seeing the wonder family of products from Westpac come to life month by month was one of the most grueling but ultimately satisfying projects I’ve had the pleasure of working on.
