Kavak Financing
Buy a car 100% online, with a financing plan
Role
Senior UX Designer
Sectors
Technology, Automotive, Financing
Disciplines
UX Design, UX Research, UI Design
Product, IT, Business, Legal, UX (content, research and UX design)
2020-2022
Context
Kavak is a Mexican company that operates an online marketplace for used cars. With a valuation of $8.7 billion (2021), it operates in 10 countries.
In 2019, it began offering financing services, allowing people to obtain a car loan with external financial entities.
The following year, the company expanded rapidly and saw a growing demand for credit from users. This led to developing its own financing plans, to help people acquire cars. The CEO's goal was public; to lend to 7 out of 10 people in Latin America to obtain a car in the next 10 years.
Until 2020, all new customer journeys were hybrid (online/offline), with users doing part of the process at current sales centers with sellers, continuing the formalization by phone and sending their legal documents by email or instant messaging. A process that could take days to complete.
Adding to the challenge of Covid-19, it was necessary to think and create 100% digital and scalable solutions for Mexico, Brazil, Argentina and more Latin American countries in the coming years.
[Image: A Kavak Hub in Mexico. Credit: Kavak]
Challenges
Understanding market standards for used cars worldwide through web platforms
Investigate user behaviors and explore new mental models for the services and requirements we had.
Create a frictionless user experience with a new design system and new designed components
Users
They live in big cities and frequently use digital financial services.
Latin Americans living in capital cities, with more than 1 million inhabitants, aged 20 to 55 with internet access, with purchasing power and willing to buy a used car for their specific needs with a flexible payment scheme.
Digital behavior
They spend between 6-8 hours a day on the Internet
They use computers, tablets and cell phones.
Their favorite apps are Whatsapp, Instagram, YouTube, Spotify, Airbnb and banking apps.
Digital financial behavior
They use the apps of the 5 main banks.
They mostly access them from their cell phones.
They prioritize that they are intuitive, easy to use and that they can make transfers quickly.
Approaching Kavak
They found out about Kavak through recommendations from family or friends
They saw advertisements and were interested in knowing that they had financing options
Some of the people had already previously purchased from Kavak
Design
Activities that I carried out in different instances, within the Design Thinking model.
These activities may not be strictly linked to each other, I show them as an example. Remember that the design process is not linear, it has a parallel and iterative character. Designers can immerse themselves in different phases depending on the situation.
Empathize
Discovery: Documenting what the industry is doing
For benchmarking research, we identified direct domestic and international competitors in the segment, as well as banks, financing services, and fintech startups.
We systematized screenshots of websites and apps, financing and credit journeys, as well as customer reviews in app stores.
[Img.1] Benchmark analysis board, including international competitors.
Analysis: Mapping a user's full journey and experiences at each stage
We organized interview sessions with people at Kavak centers, to map the general journey of a person buying a car with the financing process at that time, mostly carried out at physical locations.
We also analyzed a database provided by the CX team with the general pains and gains of people who called the contact center.
[Img.2] Analysis of the original user journey, including in-person processes.
[Img.3] Pain points and gain points, including some key findings from our analysis.
Key findings
Global Pains
Undisclosed additional costs, confusing terms and conditions, changing interest rates and fees, online payments that don't work, requests for documentation, on-site procedures to complete the purchase.
Global Gains
Home car delivery, affordable prices, approved financing with low score, clear payment plan, (semi) digital purchase.
Opportunities
Buy a car 100% online, improve the procedure for submitting documents and personal data, help the user understand and visualize each stage of the financing process, simulate and select the best plan according to their profile and automate their monthly payments online.
How Might We
How might we design a solution that allows users to purchase a car with a digital financing process on their own?
Define
A multi-channel experience focused on the digital experience.
We co-created a standard journey through collaboration with other design, product, business and engineering teams. In various sessions we created a new user journey from start to finish (happy path), to get a car 100% online.
Each step was validated by the development and operation teams, with the peculiarity of allowing the user to start the journey on any device, whether web or app, with the option to finish it on another device, simply with their unique user access.
This would help create trust and accessibility for people, as well as reduce time in the process of acquiring their car, from weeks to just a few days. People in the operation would also have more certainty, by systematizing each lead from start to finish.
[Imgs. 1, 2, 3] Happy path of the new End to End User Journey for the purchase of a vehicle with a financing plan. In blue, I highlight the steps in which I collaborated as a UX Designer.
Ideate
After aligning with the other verticals, each UX team was responsible for the flows that corresponded to us. In my case, together with the financing team, we carried out the end-to-end flows and use cases, and then landed the experience and interface designs for each feature.
Afterwards, we used "How Might We" questions for each step of the way to ideate and frame the flows. I was in charge of the following steps.
HMW - Step 4: Personal data and formalization
How Might We create a system that helps users upload the legal data and documents necessary to obtain a financing offer with the least possible friction and 100% online?
HMW - Step 5: Financing offer
How Might We create an experience to communicate the final financing offer to users with the necessary details to accept and continue with the purchase?
HMW - Step 6, 7 and 8: Recurring payments every month
How Might We facilitate a system for users to add their bank account with the least possible friction for payment automation?
HMW - Step 6, 7 and 8: Recurring payments every month
How Might We facilitate a system for users to add their bank account with the least possible friction for payment automation?
Wireflows
We devised a solution for the current website and app, understanding the technological capabilities and business model. All possible use cases were covered, based on product definitions.
[Img.1] First version of an end-to-end financing process.
Prototype & Test
Prorotypes and Tests
Creating low fidelity design explorations was an important activity in the project. We created collaborative sessions between UX, Product, Business and IT in order to frame and validate the scope of each feature and journey.
Testing flows with users, using different methodologies, to create a new design system.
We worked closely with the Self-Service UX vertical team, the Design Systems team, and the UX Research team to conduct a series of A/B user tests and usability tests.
We tested flows with the original design system, against flows with sketches of the new system; in the test results, the new system performed better, so it was decided to implement it.
[Img.1] Sample screens from the old Design System.
[Img.2] Summary of Insights and Recommendations from the UX Research Team.
Final Designs
These are the main products, services, and functionalities I worked on while working in the finance vertical.
Profiling
We started by building the experience for Brazil (because it was just being launched in that country). Then we adapted and iterated the experience for Mexico, Argentina, and Chile.
I worked on the first version by applying our new design system, dividing the journey into 4 steps for building profiles and a financing simulation calculator tailored to the user's credit profile.
[Img.1] Final screens for the first version of Profiling for Brazil.
[Img.2] Profiling mobile screens for Mexico.
Personal Data and Formalization
This is a digital self-service experience that allows users to share personal information and documentation to be profiled and approved in less than 24 hours to obtain financing.
Originally, these tasks were carried out in physical hubs by executives.
The main challenge was to create the simplest digital experience to help users send a large amount of information in the shortest time and friction possible in order to receive a prompt response to their financing request.
Financing Automation:
Acceptance of the offer, Initial payment, Adding a bank account and Proof of cents
We made it as simple as possible, including more add-ons such as insurance or warranty as an option; you can also see the full summary of the payment plan.
When people accept the financing offer, they can go directly to making the initial payment; we offer payments by bank transfer or deposit.
When the system detains the payment made, it sends a notification to the user to continue with the process. Add a bank account for automatic payments from the application.
Multichannel UX
I also revamped both the transactional emails and the PDF design with the accepted financial offer. This increased the open rate and pushed people to take the next purchase steps.
Leads dashboard
Interface design of an internal lead tracking dashboard for the sales and operations team.
I helped to design the interface for the first data panel to display customer leads by their journey status, to help the operations team track them in real time (as a backoffice tool).
Impact
65% of financing leads were converted into digital purchases concluded from start to finish from the first month of launch (Q2 2022).
After implementing the new Design System and the components developed by the financing vertical in which I collaborated, they were adapted in other UX verticals, such as in purchases and internal tools.
Leaders approved the investment in APIs to automate the validation of documents, identities and credit profiles with OCR technology, which would reduce financing approval times by up to 50%.
Credits
Ux Leads
Lucas Saeed, German Viavatenne
Ux Design
Financing: Edgar Navarro, Nadia Rios
Design Ops: Marina Kanevsky, Esequiel Arguello
Ux Research
Juan M Ortiz, Wualberto Eliezer
Product
Federico Boero, Nico Garaño, Franco Longhi, Lucas Llopis
Ux content
Fran Amar,
Development
Yeniree Sánchez, Lucas Bianqui,Hernan Moreno