Optimizing a factoring system for a financial startup
Product Design, Product Management, Strategy, Product Research
Thomas Dyrks
Faktoria, a subsidiary of the Nest Bank Capital Group, offers financial solutions tailored to improve the liquidity of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Despite its compelling product offering, Faktoria struggled with a critical issue - client dissatisfaction stemming from a poor digital experience. Without swift action, rising churn rates threatened to jeopardize the company's long-term success.
My role
As the product lead, I was responsible for:
Outcome
Design principles introduction:
Inconsistent communication & interface
Disjointed visual design and inconsistent messaging confused users.
Complex technical jargon
Heavy use of industry-specific terms created a barrier for users unfamiliar with financial jargon
Unclear financing terms
Customers struggled to understand financing options, invoice statuses, and key product details
Lack of transparency
Users couldn’t easily find information about their invoices, payment schedules, or account activities, leading to frustration and increased support requests
What started as a strategic consultation quickly evolved into a full-fledged redesign project for Faktoria’s factoring process. Together with Faktoria, we initiated the process by analyzing existing workflows and gathering customer feedback, expecting incremental improvements. However, early workshops revealed hidden inefficiencies that the factoring team hadn’t previously considered.
To ensure meaningful improvements, I immersed myself in factoring operations, mapping both the internal processes and customer interactions. Sessions with bank employees proved invaluable in understanding the decision-making pipeline for invoice approval or rejection. Meanwhile, we requested the client's team to collect data-driven insights, establishing success metrics to measure our impact. Since recruiting participants in the banking sector is notoriously challenging, the bank’s proactive approach in securing interested clients accelerated our research process.To mitigate these risks, I proposed an iterative validation strategy:
Through in-depth research, we uncovered two key problem areas:
At the root of these challenges was the system’s architecture - a fragmented user journey that lacked intuitive guidance and clear information. Expert audit & initial recommendations:
While implementing these quick wins, we continued refining more complex challenges, working closely with the technology team to ensure feasibility.
Given the high responsibility of the banking system, a highly iterative, agile process was not feasible. Instead, we focused on delivering validated, research-backed recommendations that could be confidently implemented. After refining our approach based on business constraints and additional rounds of research, we developed a series of interactive prototypes to test with selected customers. This allowed us to:
The customer response exceeded expectations. While we anticipated a positive reaction, users were overwhelmingly enthusiastic about the improvements. Long-standing frustrations were finally addressed, and interactions that previously caused confusion and delays were now intuitive and streamlined.
Following further refinements based on user feedback, we worked closely with the engineering team to plan a phased implementation of the new system.
This project transformed not just the digital experience but also Faktoria’s approach to product development, embedding user-centered thinking into their organizational culture.
Domain expertise matters
The complexity of the financial industry was initially underestimated. Investing time to deeply understand both the industry and Faktoria’s existing systems was crucial.
Empathy-driven design
Sessions with both clients and employees were invaluable. These dialogues surfaced hidden pain points and fostered mutual understanding between stakeholders and end-users.
Cross-functional collaboration
Close collaboration with internal teams helped align technical feasibility with user needs, ensuring practical and impactful solutions.
Iterative feedback loops
Continuous testing and iteration allowed us to adapt quickly, validating ideas early and reducing the risk of costly post-launch fixes.