Salary Advance

PayFit – 2021 – 2 months – Web

Challenge

Redesign the existing Salary Advance experience to increase user adoption and satisfaction.

The team

The Payment team handle all things money – salaries, expenses, and features like Salary Advance. They keep the money flowing smoothly for both employees and businesses.

My Role

I worked on this project from end to end in collaboration with a PM, and Engineering Manager, and two engineers.

Impact

+30%

User adoption
25 000 to 32 500 active users

76%

Completion rate
vs. 62%

Discovery

How the Salary Advance feature works?

Employees can conveniently request an advance through the app, specifying the desired amount.

The platform ensures responsible borrowing with pre-set limits based on salary. An administrator may review the request.

Once approved, the advance is securely transferred to the employee’s designated account.

Repayment is automatic, deducted from the next paycheck, simplifying the process.

Former experience and audit

Home page

Problem identified:
→ Huge empty page
→ No reassurance
→ No explanation
→ Not engaging

Also, it is possible to make only one request per month, but it is technically possible to make several. These requests are rejected, and this is frustrating for the user.

Ask for a request

Problem identified:
→ Saying it is a “Beta” is not reassuring at all
→ It is difficult to know how to fill in the comment box, and it could be a blocker

Request done feedback

Problem identified:
→ No information of who received the request
→ No explanation of the next steps
→ You go back to the empty home page instead of your request

Reviewing request

Problem identified:
→ To have the details of your request you should click on the first item in the list
→ The page is quite empty

Assumptions and research

Starting with assumptions

Conclusion of the research

To validate our assumptions and gain user insights, we conducted interviews with seven employees – both those who were new to the feature and those who had already used it. Here are the three main pain points we identified.

Problem 1

They don’t understand how Advance Salary works, so they don’t use it.

Problem 2

Requests are rejected because they are not compliant with the rules

Problem 3

They did not understand if their request had been sent successfully

Ideation and Conceptualization

After iterating with the PM and engineering, and validating prototypes with users, here are the final high fidelity designs

Home page

Improvements:
→ More engaging
→ More emotional
→ More reassuring
→ Rules are clearer

Make a request

Improvements:
→ In the amount field, you are reminded of the maximum amount you can request
→ In the comment field, a default text is proposed
→ There is help around, which brings empathy, and accompanies and encourages the user.

Make a request

Improvements:
→ Once the amount has been filled in, it is possible to make the request with an engaging button “request salary advance”.

Make a request

Improvements:
→ Once validated the user receives a notification with information on who has received the request, and how soon it should be validated.
→ It is no longer technically possible to make several requests per month, which avoids frustration.