A CRM platform for mortgage brokers
Product designer, 2019 - 2021
FinLink is a web-based CRM app for mortgage brokers in Germany that helps them to manage their clients, create mortgage offers and gather mortgage documents.

As the first designer of the company, I was responsible for the whole end-to-end user experience and the design of the CRM and customer-facing platform.
The challenge
The app started as an internal tool built only by developers and shaped to the specific needs of FinLink mortgage brokers.

However, since there was a lack of designers in the initial product development stage, there were quite a few flaws in the information infrastructure, usability and consistency of design patterns and styles within the app.
Improving design consistency and usability
I started with auditing the existing design components and design patterns used in the app. There was quite a lot of inconsistency across the different screens as well as some clear usability issues.

My goal was to unify the components and make improvements where necessary. Since the redesign was going to happen in stages, we had to make sure the new design system was not completely different from the current one so that people would still be able to feel like it was the same product.
Design system
Plarform features
Overview of all mortgage applications
This is the most used screen in the app, where mortgage brokers can see an overview of their clients, filter them and apply bulk actions to multiple clients, such as sending emails, adding tags or re-assigning to a different advisor.

There are two view modes for this page: a list view for easy sorting and a board view that provides a better overview of the progress of each application.
List view and pipeline view of mortgage applications
View summary of activities for one mortgage application
This is one of the most feature-dense screens of the app. It shows the most important information about each mortgage application. The mortgage broker can see a timeline of all activities for the application and record any new activity, such as an email, a note or an event.
Leaving a note, a to-do or an email to an application
Create and share bank offers
This section of the app allows mortgage brokers to import bank offers or create their own offers and share them with their clients.
View list of bank offers and create a new one
View daily to-dos
On this page, mortgage brokers can see an overview of their performance as well as a list of their daily and future tasks to better manage their day.
View to-dos and add a new one
Manage your organisation profile
On the settings page, mortgage brokers can add details about themselves to share with their clients as well as add and manage team members.
Organisation setting overview
Lessons learned
The challenge of having a clean interface for a function-heavy app. I found that a simple and minimalistic interface is not always possible, especially when we wanted to tailor the app to all of the different workflows of the mortgage brokers.

One layout for all experience levels.
During the multiple usability tests we performed, we realised there is a big difference in the digital literacy of mortgage brokers. I learned to compromise the simplicity of the design occasionally in order to make it accessible to the less experienced brokers.