Digital Credit Account

Embedding finance into the shopping experience through a credit-first model

Overview

The Digital Credit Account was designed as an evolution of the pre-qualification and affordability tools, shifting finance from a checkout step to an integral part of the shopping experience.

The product enabled customers to understand their available credit upfront and use it seamlessly during their purchase journey. Positioned directly on merchant websites—such as homepage or product pages—it allowed users to make more confident purchasing decisions before reaching checkout.

Developed in collaboration with a lending partner, the solution combined pre-qualification, credit access, and account management into a single, cohesive experience.

My Role

Product Designer

I contributed across the full product lifecycle, including:

• facilitating and participating in a 5-day design sprint

• shaping product direction through workshops and discovery

• designing high-fidelity prototypes and final UI

• iterating based on user testing and stakeholder feedback

• collaborating with product, engineering, and external partners

Team Structure

The product was developed within a cross-functional team, including:

• Product Designer (my role)

• Product Managers

• Frontend and Backend Engineers

• QA (in later stages)

The initial concept was developed during an intensive design sprint, bringing together design, product, and engineering from the outset.

The Challenge

The core challenge was to design a product that would deliver value across three interconnected stakeholders:

• Customers, who needed clarity and confidence around affordability

• Merchants, who aimed to increase conversion and basket size

• Lenders, who required scalable and responsible lending mechanisms

We wanted to reduce friction in the application process while increasing customer confidence and engagement, ultimately improving conversion and retention.

However, the problem space introduced several complexities:

• unclear user expectations around credit usage and flexibility

• varying merchant needs depending on industry

• shared responsibility for customer communication between platform and lender

• balancing simplicity of experience with financial and regulatory requirements

To explore these uncertainties, we initiated a design sprint to rapidly define and test the product concept.

Design Sprint & Discovery

The product concept was developed and validated through a 5-day design sprint, bringing together product, design, and engineering.

Throughout the sprint, we:

• mapped the problem space and gathered expert insights

• explored multiple solution directions through sketching and ideation

• aligned on a single concept and created a detailed storyboard

• built a high-fidelity prototype

• tested the concept with users to validate assumptions

The sprint allowed us to move quickly from idea to validated concept, reducing risk before committing to development.

Key Insights

User testing revealed several critical insights that shaped the product direction:

• Users valued flexibility in how and where they could spend credit, rather than being restricted to a specific merchant ecosystem

• Presenting a fixed credit limit upfront was less effective than enabling context-specific financing decisions

• Simplicity and clarity in the application process were key to maintaining engagement

These learnings led to a refinement of the original concept, ensuring the product aligned more closely with real user expectations.

Product Definition & Iteration

Following the sprint, we continued discovery through workshops focused on viability, feasibility, and value proposition.

We worked to:

• define clear ownership across stakeholders (platform, lender, merchant)

• refine the end-to-end journey to ensure a seamless experience

• validate the product’s value through Value Proposition Canvas exercises, mapping user needs against product features

This phase helped translate the initial concept into a viable and scalable MVP.

Design & Delivery

Building on the validated concept, I developed high-fidelity designs, refining the experience based on insights from the sprint and subsequent workshops.

The product combined several key elements:

• a lightweight pre-qualification flow

• upfront visibility of credit availability

• a customer account area for managing credit and repayments

• seamless integration into the merchant journey

The focus remained on creating a low-friction, high-confidence experience that supported both decision-making and ongoing account management.

Impact

The Digital Credit Account delivered strong results across the ecosystem:

• Increased customer confidence in financing decisions

• Improved engagement and stickiness on merchant platforms

• Higher volume of finance applications driven by reduced uncertainty

• Successful adoption among small and medium-sized merchants

The product continues to evolve through ongoing iterations and remains an active part of the platform offering.