Marqeta Credit Portal

TL;DR: The product team launched Marqeta Dashboard’s Credit Portal to simplify the process of creating complicated credit card programs for users.

Overview

Marqeta partners with banks and fintechs to develop credit card products that adapt to the evolving consumer market. This includes tailored credit cards with rewards and offers, as well as the ability to quickly adjust rates in response to market dynamics. As a result, businesses have the opportunity to experience a boost in conversion rates, a decrease in customer attrition, and an exploration of new revenue streams.

Problem

The process of creating and managing a successful credit card program is highly complex. Legacy issuers (big banks) lack the flexibility, speed, and transparency that credit card programs need to engage and retain cardholders in a competitive market.

Bloated spreadsheets, inefficient communication, and disjointed review workflows cause very long processing times to get these cards out the to market, sometimes taking up to 8 weeks. By then, the consumer needs may have changed and the offering is no longer competitive.

Discovery and research

We needed to learn about what the operational and strategic processes are behind creating a successful credit card product. We also needed to know who the users and decision makers are in the process. Lastly, we needed insight into how the industry is approaching credit card products and offers.

The team did various methods of discovery and research including market research and customer calls, analyzing various credit card products and the different configurations that go into creating one, and having transfer sessions with our PM who has a banking background.

High level takeaways

To launch and manage a credit card program, core policies are configured.

These include strategy, pricing, fees, rewards, offers, and more. These are critical to the business and provide advantages over competitors.

Current workflows are manual, non-collaborative, and inefficient.

Users pass excel sheets back and forth through emails with hard-to-track messages buried in long threads.

Rapid prototyping and iterations

Thanks to a strong partnership with First National Bank of Omaha, we were able to quickly run brainstorm and intake sessions to prioritize features and functionality. We then ran prototype test sessions over multiple sprint cycles for quick feedback and iterations.

In these sessions, we uncovered the deep level of thinking that goes behind creating a credit product. We found that a rigid form was not the best approach as credit card product policies can be created in any order and priorities differ depending on the product strategy.

The new idea

We changed our approach and moved away from a rigid form, and instead adopted a modular and flexible approach. The Credit Portal includes a policy library, reusable components, and templates for customers to create and manage credit programs. Similar to how design components within a system works, credit products include swappable variables, or policies, that are housed in a central library. These policies are flexible and can be adjusted to the market reactions.

For design inspiration, we studied how other platforms are approaching similar problems.

We looked at various types of workflow tools including:

• Business process management (BPM) software that allow users to create process flows and define decision points without being constrained by a specific order.

• Low-code development platforms that allow users to create workflows and define rules in any order they choose without the need for extensive coding or strict form filling. These tools enable the rapid development of enterprise applications with minimal coding knowledge.

• Collaboration and project management tools that allow users to add, modify, and prioritize items in any order, enabling adaptability in the planning and execution of projects. These tools provide flexibility in organizing rules and managing requirements.

We continued to run prototype test sessions over multiple sprint cycles for feedback and iterations.

The result with product highlights

Simplified workflows

Disjoined processes are consilidated into one dashboard. This allows for efficient creation, review, editing, and approval of credit products.

User pain point addressed: “There are too many tools and platforms in my workflows. Email threads get lost and spreadsheets get too big.”

Flexible and modular

Policies can be reused and combined to quickly create new credit products that target new segments of customers. For example, successful fee policies can be repurposed for similar market demographics.

User pain point addressed: “Card products that have similar properties are common. It would save a lot of time to be able to pick and choose from an existing collection.”

Tailored workflows

Designed for multiple user roles, there’s clarity with change tracking and feedback. Users can provide helpful additional context when adjusting configurations or introducing new policies.

User pain point addressed: “It can get hard to keep track of who is reviewing, approving, or submitting drafts. There is an approval process that each credit product must go through.”

Partnership and launch

Greenlight is a fintech that provides early financial literacy tools and a budgeting app for kids and parents. With more than 4 million registered users, the company plans to launch a card to help kids build credit early and with rewards that can be invested back into Greenlight’s DriveWealth account. There will also be additional settings and authorizations for parental controls.

Team shoutouts

So many people helped to push this project through to the finish line thanks to the collaboration that extended all across different teams in Marqeta. A special thanks to these roles I worked closely with as partners:

Engineers (FE/BE)

Responsible for front end build, back end build, API handling, systems updates, and QA.

Docs team

Provided copy writing, error handling, and documentation for developers.

The design team

Received support from wider team through work sessions, reviews, and crits.