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Cash loans for Retention
Client
M-KOPA
Industry
Fintech
Role
Lead Product Designer,
Customer Experience & Retention
Stakeholders
Engineering
Commercial
Data Science
Research and Insights
Legal teams
Market expansion teams
Customer care teams
About M-KOPA
Over 500 million financially excluded African adults lack access to traditional banking services. With more than 6M customers, M-KOPA provides fair and flexible financial solutions tailored to customer needs, backed by a decade of experience and successful customer repayment.
Overview of the product
M-KOPA introduced in-app cash loans as a strategic retention product to increase customer lifetime value. Previously reliant on a slower USSD-based application process, the company sought to create a faster, more engaging, and trustworthy experience for eligible customers, with the ultimate goal of driving retention and repayment.
Objective
The key objective was to design and launch an intuitive in-app cash loan application flow that would:
- Speed up disbursement from days to minutes.
- Improve user experience and app stickiness.
- Increase retention sales.
Key metrics to track
Building out the feature, these were the high level metrics we wanted to achieve
20%
Improved customer retention rate
45%
Improved cash loan conversion rate
2X
Improved daily cash loans sales
25%
Improved disbursement rate
Impact
Impact of launching in-app cash loans was mind-blowing and the impact was evident immediately.
4X
Increase in daily cash loan sales.
2min
Average disbursement time.
63%
Conversion rate for cash loans.
23%
Improved repayment rate (to qualify for cash loans
1st
Higher retention sales than acquisition sales in a quarter
44%
Improved customer retention based on cash loan offer.
Research and insights
Research spanning several months involved several teams; customer insights, data analytics, data science, legal, design, commercial and several other teams.
At a high level, these were the most important insights
85%
Trust is king with financial offers.
Inconsistencies in eligibility, loan terms and slow disbursement led to high drop-off rates. Over 80% of customers expressed distrust.
95%
Nobody reads Terms & Conditions.
With phone locking tied to the cash loan, reading terms and conditions was crucial. However, over 90% skipped them.
80%
USSD experience is painful compared to competition.
80% of customers were dissatisfied with the USSD experience. Cash loans via USSD were not competitive.
Ideation, iterations and prioritisation
With all the insights, we set out to design potential solutions with several iterations. At a high level, we prioritised; Immediate Discovery, Seamless Navigation, Sufficient details for decision making and clear communication on eligibility status.
23
More than 23 rounds of validations across Kenya, Uganda & Ghana
28
An average of 28 customers per round of validations.
5K
More than 5,000 customers reached through surveys and interviews
6
At least 6 design review sessions to refine designs and the flow.
High level user flow of the cash loans product
Evolution of the M-KOPA customer app
Some of the screens in the cash loans flow
Learnings and reflections
After the launch, I realized several key lessons. Reflecting on the process from planning to execution revealed insights about the importance of adaptability and open-mindedness. These reflections deepened my understanding and offered valuable lessons for future launches and products.
Financial products are delicate
The data was overwhelming with how much attention to detail customers had. Despite low education levels, customers understood the numbers that mattered and these were the deal breakers.
Experimentation is progress
With all the learnings, we had opportunities to run A/B test experiments in production with tools like Statsig and targeted campaigns with Clevertap when launching different markets.
Segmentation is the next step
Segmentation of customers into specific clusters based on time with the product, repayment rate, payment status among others would enable customised messaging for each segment.
Cash loans for Retention
Client
Industry
Fintech
Role
Lead Product Designer,
Customer Experience & Retention
Stakeholders
Engineering
Commercial
Data Science
Research and Insights
Legal teams
Market expansion teams
Customer care teams
About M-KOPA
Over 500 million financially excluded African adults lack access to traditional banking services. With more than 6M customers, M-KOPA provides fair and flexible financial solutions tailored to customer needs, backed by a decade of experience and successful customer repayment.
Overview of the product
M-KOPA introduced in-app cash loans as a strategic retention product to increase customer lifetime value. Previously reliant on a slower USSD-based application process, the company sought to create a faster, more engaging, and trustworthy experience for eligible customers, with the ultimate goal of driving retention and repayment.
Objective
The key objective was to design and launch an intuitive in-app cash loan application flow that would:
- Speed up disbursement from days to minutes.
- Improve user experience and app stickiness.
- Increase retention sales.
Key metrics to track
Building out the feature, these were the high level metrics we wanted to achieve
20%
Improved customer retention rate
45%
Improved cash loan conversion rate
2X
Improved daily cash loans sales
25%
Improved disbursement rate
Impact
Impact of launching in-app cash loans was mind-blowing and the impact was evident immediately.
4X
Increase in daily cash loan sales.
2min
Average disbursement time.
63%
Conversion rate for cash loans.
1st
Higher retention sales than acquisition sales in a quarter
23%
Improved repayment rate (to qualify for cash loans
44%
Improved customer retention based on cash loan offer.
Research and insights
Research spanning several months involved several teams; customer insights, data analytics, data science, legal, design, commercial and several other teams.
At a high level, these were the most important insights
85%
Trust is king with financial offers.
Inconsistencies in eligibility, loan terms and slow disbursement led to high drop-off rates. Over 80% of customers expressed distrust.
95%
Nobody reads Terms & Conditions.
With phone locking tied to the cash loan, reading terms and conditions was crucial. However, over 90% skipped them.
80%
USSD experience is painful compared to competition.
80% of customers were dissatisfied with the USSD experience. Cash loans via USSD were not competitive.
Ideation, iterations and prioritisation
With all the insights, we set out to design potential solutions with several iterations. At a high level, we prioritised; Immediate Discovery, Seamless Navigation, Sufficient details for decision making and clear communication on eligibility status.
23
More than 23 rounds of validations across Kenya, Uganda & Ghana
28
An average of 28 customers per round of validations.
5K
More than 5,000 customers reached through surveys and interviews
6
At least 6 design review sessions to refine designs and the flow.
High level user flow of the cash loans product
Evolution of the M-KOPA customer app
Some of the screens in the cash loans flow
Learnings and reflections
After the launch, I realized several key lessons. Reflecting on the process from planning to execution revealed insights about the importance of adaptability and open-mindedness. These reflections deepened my understanding and offered valuable lessons for future launches and products.
Financial products are delicate
The data was overwhelming with how much attention to detail customers had. Despite low education levels, customers understood the numbers that mattered and these were the deal breakers.
Experimentation is progress
With all the learnings, we had opportunities to run A/B test experiments in production with tools like Statsig and targeted campaigns with Clevertap when launching different markets.
Segmentation is the next step
Segmentation of customers into specific clusters based on time with the product, repayment rate, payment status among others would enable customised messaging for each segment.
Cash loans for Retention
Client
Industry
Fintech
Role
Lead Product Designer,
Customer Experience & Retention
Stakeholders
Engineering
Commercial
Data Science
Research and Insights
Legal teams
Market expansion teams
Customer care teams
About M-KOPA
Over 500 million financially excluded African adults lack access to traditional banking services. With more than 6M customers, M-KOPA provides fair and flexible financial solutions tailored to customer needs, backed by a decade of experience and successful customer repayment.
Overview of the product
M-KOPA introduced in-app cash loans as a strategic retention product to increase customer lifetime value. Previously reliant on a slower USSD-based application process, the company sought to create a faster, more engaging, and trustworthy experience for eligible customers, with the ultimate goal of driving retention and repayment.
Objective
The key objective was to design and launch an intuitive in-app cash loan application flow that would:
- Speed up disbursement from days to minutes.
- Improve user experience and app stickiness.
- Increase retention sales.
Key metrics to track
Building out the feature, these were the high level metrics we wanted to achieve
20%
Improved customer retention rate
45%
Improved cash loan conversion rate
2X
Improved daily cash loans sales
25%
Improved disbursement rate
Impact
Impact of launching in-app cash loans was mind-blowing and the impact was evident immediately.
4X
Increase in daily cash loan sales.
2min
Average disbursement time.
63%
Conversion rate for cash loans.
1st
Higher retention sales than acquisition sales in a quarter
23%
Improved repayment rate (to qualify for cash loans
44%
Improved customer retention based on cash loan offer.
Research and insights
Research spanning several months involved several teams; customer insights, data analytics, data science, legal, design, commercial and several other teams.
At a high level, these were the most important insights
85%
Trust is king with financial offers.
Inconsistencies in eligibility, loan terms and slow disbursement led to high drop-off rates. Over 80% of customers expressed distrust.
95%
Nobody reads Terms & Conditions.
With phone locking tied to the cash loan, reading terms and conditions was crucial. However, over 90% skipped them.
80%
USSD experience is painful compared to competition.
80% of customers were dissatisfied with the USSD experience. Cash loans via USSD were not competitive.
Ideation, iterations and prioritisation
With all the insights, we set out to design potential solutions with several iterations. At a high level, we prioritised; Immediate Discovery, Seamless Navigation, Sufficient details for decision making and clear communication on eligibility status.
23
More than 23 rounds of validations across Kenya, Uganda & Ghana
28
An average of 28 customers per round of validations.
5K
More than 5,000 customers reached through surveys and interviews
6
At least 6 design review sessions to refine designs and the flow.
High level user flow of the cash loans product
Evolution of the M-KOPA customer app
Some of the screens in the cash loans flow
Learnings and reflections
After the launch, I realized several key lessons. Reflecting on the process from planning to execution revealed insights about the importance of adaptability and open-mindedness. These reflections deepened my understanding and offered valuable lessons for future launches and products.
Financial products are delicate
The data was overwhelming with how much attention to detail customers had. Despite low education levels, customers understood the numbers that mattered and these were the deal breakers.
Experimentation is progress
With all the learnings, we had opportunities to run A/B test experiments in production with tools like Statsig and targeted campaigns with Clevertap when launching different markets.
Segmentation is the next step
Segmentation of customers into specific clusters based on time with the product, repayment rate, payment status among others would enable customised messaging for each segment.