Bank PSB, Digital Mortgage
March 2020 – February 2025
In 2020, I joined PSB — one of Russia’s largest banks with over 6 million retail customers — to build a digital mortgage platform from scratch.
I designed the end-to-end mortgage journey across iOS, Android and Web — from program selection and calculations to application submission and post-loan management. Together with researchers and product managers, I validated hypotheses and translated business goals into customer-centered solutions.
Business Goal
Increase digital mortgage adoption by launching a complete end-to-end digital journey.
Role & Team
Role: Senior Product Designer → Lead Product Designer (Credit Products & Banking Design System).
Cross-functional product team: 2 iOS Developers, 2 Android Developers, 3 Web Developers, 3 Backend Developers, 3 System Analysts, 1 Business Analyst, Product Manager, Scrum Master, and 4 QA Engineers.
Challenges
Complex mortgage products requiring clear explanations and simple decision-making.
Building a digital mortgage platform from scratch, including specialized journeys for military mortgage programs.
Tight deadlines and a broad product scope, requiring careful MVP prioritization.
Balancing user needs with business, legal, and regulatory requirements.
Impact
100–124%
Financial Plan Achieveds
57 %
Digital mortgage issuance
Best Military Mortgage
Business Awards
2 place
Markswebb Retail Banking
Mortgage Marketplace & Calculator
Challenge: Users come to the mortgage journey with different goals and financial situations. At the first stage, it’s important to help them quickly identify the most suitable mortgage program, understand its terms, and estimate their financial commitment before submitting an application.
To achieve this, I designed an experience that enables users to:
compare all available mortgage programs in one place;
explore the terms, eligibility requirements, and benefits of each program;
instantly calculate monthly payments and loan parameters based on their personal financial situation.
Benchmarking
Goal: Analyze competitors’ mortgage marketplaces and calculators to identify industry best practices.
Key findings: Most competitors followed a similar marketplace structure, with the primary differences found in the mortgage calculator experience. The most compelling solution came from Domclick, where the calculation summary remained persistently visible, allowing users to review their estimated loan terms without interrupting the rest of the form.
User Interviews
Goal: Understand the challenges users face when choosing and calculating a mortgage across different banks, and identify what matters most to them.
Key insights: Interviews revealed four primary user needs:
Estimate a realistic monthly payment by providing only the essential information.
Understand mortgage terms without complex banking jargon.
Easily find the mortgage program that best fits their needs.
Submit an application immediately after the calculation without re-entering the same information.
Jobs To Be Done (JTBD)
Based on user research insights, we mapped the key user jobs across the mortgage journey to understand their goals, motivations, and expectations at each step.
User Flow, Prototyping & Usability Testing
Based on JTBD insights and user interviews, I designed the core user flow and created an interactive prototype to validate the experience.
Key findings from usability testing:
Most participants positively evaluated the overall flow and mortgage calculation experience, highlighting the simplicity of choosing a program on the marketplace and the clarity of the calculator, including rate reduction scenarios and payment schedules.
Based on user feedback, several interface copy elements were refined together with a UX writer.
Participants suggested adding a short step-by-step guide to set clear expectations about what happens next in the mortgage journey.
Users noted that some detailed information could be moved from the landing page into dedicated pages, making content easier to find and navigate.
Final Design
Application Flow
After calculating the loan terms, users complete the application. The original flow included a long questionnaire that created unnecessary friction.
I analyzed competitors and identified only the fields required for the bank’s scoring model, reducing the application by around 50% while preserving all essential data. This made the process faster, simpler, and reduced cognitive load at a critical stage of the mortgage journey.
Document Upload
After receiving preliminary mortgage approval, users need to upload documents for the final review. I designed the document upload flow from scratch, including upload progress indicators for each document category, helping users track completion and avoid missing required files.
Mortgage Management
After the mortgage is issued, users need a convenient way to manage it throughout its lifecycle. I designed a post-loan experience that allows customers to view payment schedules, make monthly and early repayments, track loan details, and purchase or renew insurance. To define the best experience, I analyzed competitors and validated early prototypes through usability testing before moving to the final design
The goal was to keep users inside the digital channel after mortgage issuance, reducing the need to contact the bank or visit a branch.
Mortgage Overview
Payment Schedule
Insurance
Loan Details
Web Platform
The entire mortgage journey was also available on the web—from choosing a mortgage program and calculating loan terms to submitting an application, receiving the loan, and managing the mortgage afterward.
