Table of Contents
Overview & Problem #
Assembled Financial needed a highly automated lending platform to help customers navigate loan forgiveness through the CARES Act during the pandemic.
The challenge:
- A massively complex and evolving 55-page federal form
- Customers under intense stress, needing clarity and support
- Lenders requiring tools to review and approve applications efficiently
The task was to simplify and humanize the process while ensuring compliance, accessibility, and adaptability as regulations shifted.
Role #
I was the founding designer on this project, working over 6 months alongside:
- 2 project managers
- 6 engineers
- Industry experts, including direct counsel from the U.S. Treasury
Contributions included:
- Leading design for both borrower- and lender-facing experiences
- Establishing a scalable design system and component library
- Hiring and onboarding Assembled Financial’s first designer
- Acting as part of a long-term product team through multiple releases and pivots
Approach #
Decode complexity #
Working closely with subject matter experts, the product manager and I broke down the federal loan forgiveness workflow and rebuilt it for clarity and accessibility.
- Transformed tiny, inaccessible PDF fields into clean, modern, web-based inputs.
- Enabled localization for multiple languages.
- Automated generation of completed, review-ready PDFs.
Help lenders and borrowers both #
The platform needed to serve both sides of the process:
- Borrowers: a guided, user-friendly flow to reduce stress and error
- Lenders: a non-linear interface that supported reviewing, messaging, and approvals
We built a robust lender dashboard with messaging capabilities, enabling advisors to collaborate with customers before final submission.
Behind the scenes, I created a flexible design system in Figma that empowered PMs and engineers to prototype and adapt workflows quickly as requirements evolved.
Pivoting #
Though we moved fast, the product couldn’t launch before CARES Act funds were depleted. We pivoted to a white-label loan forgiveness solution with lender- and customer-facing interfaces, extending the product’s impact beyond the initial program.
Results #
- Adopted by several financial institutions as a white-label forgiveness platform.
- Helped thousands of borrowers successfully apply for loan forgiveness.
- Supported small businesses in staying afloat during one of the most challenging economic periods in recent history.
- Established a scalable foundation for Assembled Financial’s design practice and product growth.