Role: Sr. Manager, Design Strategy — Design Leadership, Management, Product Design, UX Research
Project: Development and optimization of Oportun’s unified fintech mobile app post Digit acquisition
Duration: Multi-quarter project (1+ year)
Team: Product managers, product designers, engineers, data scientists, senior leadership

Overview

In Q4 2021, Oportun acquired Digit, an accomplished startup with an AI-driven automated savings product, signaling a transformative phase for Oportun and over 600,000 Digit users. Oportun, known for its small personal loans helping over 1 million unbanked and underbanked people gain credit scores and access funds, was navigating a significant rebrand to integrate Digit’s technology and broaden its audience.

The work I led informed several quarters and beyond of product optimizations. This brief overview will show how I impacted the launch and continued optimization of the Oportun mobile app through design strategy to anchor it firmly in user needs, enhancing user satisfaction, comprehension, guiding users, and internal teams smoothly through a critical transition. A full case study presentation is available on request.

The goal

To create an all-in-one fintech app, merging savings, borrowing, spending, and investing products, supporting customers at every point of their financial journey.

Challenges

• Integrate two distinct user segments into one cohesive experience.

• Maintain the simplicity and efficiency of the savings product within an expanded app.

• Drive multi-product activations in an environment where most users typically engage with a single product.

• Compete with established successful competitors.

Discovery

Empathy

To understand and navigate the users' transition, I used methods of JTBD, customer journey mapping, and service blueprinting. These design thinking frameworks allowed me to focus on the unique needs of transitioning Digit users, existing Oportun members, and prospective new members.

Research

• To generate a baseline understanding of users experiencing the new app, a cohort of 100 users was identified to roll out the app to.

• I conducted discovery research with 10 users in 1 hour moderated interviews to dive deep into attitudes and goals.

Learning goals

• Understand users' impressions of the new experience.

• Assess whether the new app meets their expectations.

• Evaluate users' trust in the new experience.

• Determine the value of new features and information architecture.

Stakeholder Engagement

• I involved stakeholders from design, product, engineering, and marketing, including senior leadership, in interviews for observation and note-taking.

• Trained note-takers and established consistent session protocols.

• Coordinated with engineers for live user upgrades to observe the critical transition.

Interactive Sessions

• Hosted webinar-style virtual interviews to enable hidden observers, maintaining interview integrity.

• Created a dedicated Slack project channel and Coda page for high engagement from cross-functional partners.

• I invited stakeholders across design, product, engineering, and marketing, including senior leadership to observe and note take in the interviews

Data Analysis

• Defined findings in great detail with recommendations and criticality levels.

• Hosted debrief sessions with the larger product team to extract standout observations.

• Used Dovetail, a research repository solution, for tagging, affinity mapping, and creating searchable insights and detailed reports.

Prioritization and solutions

I partnered with PMs, Engineering, and Product Designers to address actionable improvements, both short and long term. Many insights were turned into individual design sprints for the team to solve against and then incorporate into product roadmap optimizations.

Methodology

• I sorted insights into a kanban board with a criticality view and shared this interactively with partners.

• Used ICE scoring (Impact, Confidence, Effort) for prioritization, focusing first on savings users, followed by loan-only users.

• Met with leaders from each product pillar to coordinate priorities and distribute coverage areas.

Design Sprints

• Conducted Design Sprints adapted from GV’s Design Sprint methodology including problem defining, HMW (How Might We) sessions, lightning rounds, and sketching before developing high-resolution designs.

• I then validated improvements through user testing, showing unanimous preference and improved comprehension.

Shipped improvement example

• Before (pictured left): Home screen with minimal information relevant to the user's account.

• After (pictured right): Integrated more details of users' savings accounts, quick actions, and prominent savings information on the home screen. This provided immediate value and clarity, reducing the need for navigation to find essential information.

Impact