A One-Stop-Shop for All Things Trading
Fannie Mae has bounced back since the housing crisis over a decade ago and has earned its position as the leading company in the world of mortgage-backed securities (MBS). However, the company's competitive advantage over its direct competitor, Freddie Mac, is diminishing. The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) is changing the way that MBS are created, so that Fannie and Freddie-issued securities are fungible, meaning that they can be used interchangeably. As a result, Fannie Mae securities will no longer trade with the pricing and liquidity advantage they currently have compared to Freddie securities.
To differentiate our securities and win back our position, the business has decided to focus on digital transformation and improving the customer experience. As the lead designer, I was tasked with designing an innovative solution that simplifies trading, making it more efficient, effective, and accessible to traders. The idea is to bring together data and services from multiple product lines into a holistic platform, creating a seamless and unified user experience. However, getting buy-in for UX research was a challenge, and we had to work hard to convince our business partners of its value. After many months of user research and several pivots, we had several "a-ha" moments that led us to two target personas for our MVP. Our goal is to create a solution that benefits both Fannie Mae and its customers by providing a more efficient and effective way for traders to access data and services.
My Role
I was the lead designer for this project from discovery to development. I worked closely with the product managers, engineering managers and internal stakeholders.
Tools
Sketch, Balsamiq, Axure, inVision, Pen + Paper
Say goodbye to inefficiency.
Say hello to seamless trading
The user experience for customers transacting with Fannie Mae can be summed up in two words: manual and disjointed. Customers have to interface with multiple digital products in the same workflow, all of which behave and look very differently from one another. This results in manual workarounds, wasted time, and increased operational costs.
To improve this experience, we want to automate the workflow and providing transparency by creating a persona-based ecosystem that offers services and data that cut across multiple product lines into a holistic, one-stop shop, called Marketplace. The experience of Marketplace is tailored to the user’s role, such that only relevant products and services are shown. Everything that the user needs to perform their tasks will be at their fingertips. By offering a seamless, integrated experience to customers, Marketplace can bring value to the company in several ways, including:
Increasing brand appeal and customer loyalty
Gaining market share
Reducing operational costs by eliminating the need for manual workarounds
Providing a more efficient and effective way for customers to access services and data
The Challenge
During our internal discovery with subject matter experts, we identified 42 persona profiles (both internal and external) that could benefit from our concept. The challenge was deciding which persona to tailor to for MVP. We ultimately decided to prioritize the Passthrough Trader persona for the first release, as suggested by our business partners, since we had already built out the necessary technology for them through another project. This would allow us to bring our product to market more quickly. The stakeholders were confident in their choice of persona and did not feel that it was necessary to validate the design concept further. They also believed that customers were not interested in speaking with us, which later turned out to be a misperception.
Validating with Passthrough Traders
Before we began investing resources to build out the solution, I knew we needed to validate our concept with the chosen persona to make sure that our solution was right for them. It took us collaborating with stakeholders to gain the trust and partnership needed to convince them to let us talk to customers one-on-one. The stakeholders didn’t want us coming to customers with a blank slate. Instead, they wanted us to show the customers something tangible to get a reaction. Initially, we thought this wouldn't be helpful and that customers would prefer to tell us what they wanted instead of us showing them what we thought they wanted. However, we realized that this customer type is unique in that they are traders working in an ultra-fast-paced, high-pressure environment where every minute away from their desk could potentially cost them millions of dollars. Having a visual aid to stimulate their thinking made it easier for them to engage with us. I worked with our internal business partners and UX researcher to generate initial persona maps that we could validate with customers.
Then I created mockups that we later showed customers on an iPad for their feedback. We gave them an Apple pencil to note down their ideas and encouraged them to think beyond what was in front of them. As they interacted with the iPad, we asked follow-up questions to gain a deeper understanding of their needs and preferences
Early iterations of dashboard curated for passthrough traders
Annotated mock from a customer
Whoops! Wrong Persona
Passthrough Trader
Our research revealed that the Marketplace concept did not provide as much value to Passthrough Traders as we initially thought. When we visited five customers, they said that the Marketplace would not be a game changer for them because they already have access to similar offerings through their internal systems, and the Marketplace would not significantly streamline their process. Furthermore, smaller customers perceived the Marketplace as a potential threat to their competitiveness in the market, as it could potentially cut into their profit margins.
Pivot to New Personas
Our research with the pass-through trader revealed that the Marketplace concept might solve more pain points and use cases for secondary market managers and MBS end investors. For that reason, we decided to validate with the secondary market managers first before the MBS end investors, given their manual workflow and the use of multiple Fannie Mae digital applications.
Design for Secondary Market Manager
Secondary market managers have a critical role in the loan origination life cycle. They have a heavy influence on the rates that borrowers see, the profitability of their firms, and the end investors for the loans that they originate.
The one-stop-shop concept resonated with this group of customers because they rely on manual or third-party processes to compile prices, determine hedging strategy, perform best execution strategy, and track loan fulfillment. The Marketplace would help automate and provide greater transparency into many of these processes, which reduces market risk, create new hedging capabilities, and saves overhead costs. Customers said they saw the operational and monetary benefits of the Marketplace which would incentivize them to ledge and deliver loans to Fannie Mae. We received a lot of great feedback from this group which helped me iterate on the design afterward.
Journey map of secondary market manager persona
The portal is designed with specific "widgets" that solve different use cases and consolidate data from multiple sources into one location for easy access. Some of the data is not available publicly and can only be accessed on Marketplace. Users can take actions on the data directly on some widgets without having to open another application. They also have the ability to export data at the widget level for further analysis, which is supported in the MVP.
All widgets are displayed in a tile view on the dashboard, as well as an expanded view, which takes advantage of the screen real estate to present more data and relevant actions to the user. The widgets are automatically refreshed and the data presented is in real-time, ensuring customers receive the latest prices and market information.
Example of widget spec
Widget - Loan Pipeline
The secondary market manager's workflow entails creating a whole loan commitment to sell loans to Fannie Mae. Having a comprehensive overview of the loans in their pipeline is important to this process. However, this information is currently scattered across multiple systems, and the system used to create commitments is outdated and difficult to use. Going forward, Fannie Mae can provide users with visibility into all secured loans in the "Loan Pipeline" widget and allow them to take actions on those loans within the Marketplace.
I leveraged the expanded view to show all loans under a specific loan type. The user then selects the desired loans for commitment. Once the selection is made, the user needs to confirm the transaction with their password before lifting the hedge to complete the process.
Due to the dynamic nature of market prices, we implemented a time limit for completing the transaction. If the user fails to complete the transaction within a certain time frame, they will need to start the process over to ensure that the prices are accurate.
Widget - Commitment Pipeline
Once the loans are committed, relevant transaction information is automatically pulled into another widget on the dashboard - Commitment Pipeline. The user can then take actions on the stage of the commitment process. This streamlined process reduces the risk of errors and delays.
Design for MBS End Investor
The second persona we wanted to target was the MBS end investor because they are more data-driven. Similar to the first persona, we needed to understand their needs and what it would take to make this platform an indispensable tool for them. We hypothesized that this customer type could benefit from the platform because they manually compile mortgage data and information through multiple data sources or proprietary systems that result in incomplete or inaccurate views of the market. Moving forward, the Marketplace could offer a more transparent and holistic view of the market by providing data currently unavailable to MBS end investors, thus helping them make informed investment decisions.
I collaborated with subject matter experts and internal proxies for this customer group to come up with widgets that would solve their pain points. I designed a dashboard that would tailor to the specific needs of this user group and refined the design with their feedback. We have validated the design concept with three customers so far, and they were excited about the tool. They said it would draw them to Fannie Mae securities.
The Outcome
We've found a strategy to increase Fannie Mae's competitive advantage by balancing business needs with user needs. The Marketplace could prove to be a key differentiator for Fannie Mae in the future. It was a rewarding experience to work on a game-changing platform that is the first of its kind in the industry.
During the early phase of the project, getting buy-in for research was a challenging task, but it proved to be a much-needed exercise. Research helped me understand the domain, win stakeholders' trust, and gain the confidence of our customers. In retrospect, failing to validate value on the first persona turned out to be a blessing in disguise because it saved us from wasting time and money on a product that the customers wouldn't use. Although it was a rocky start, this project allowed me to gain a deeper understanding of the business and our users.