role
Reframed the first loan officer conversation and led a participatory design effort to build a lightweight affordability experience grounded in trust, clarity, and real-time decision support.
timeline
4 weeks
focus
Experience strategy Insight framing Participatory design
system
Loan origination system
Scenario configuration
tool
Figma
C
ontext
Affordability Insights was a research-driven product initiative focused on improving the first conversation between loan officers and prospective homebuyers. The tool lives within the loan origination system and supports loan officers as they assess affordability and lead viability during live conversations.
This moment sits at the very top of the funnel, where loan officers are balancing high lead volume, limited time, and incomplete information. Decisions made during this first conversation shape not only conversion outcomes, but whether buyers walk away feeling informed, supported, or dismissed.
Loan officers are expected to assess affordability and determine whether there is a “handshake” early, often within the first 10–15 minutes of a call. At this stage, information is frequently stated rather than verified, and identifying the right next step depends heavily on the loan officer’s experience, the complexity of the borrower’s financial profile, and their ability to reason through trade-offs in real time.
At the same time, many buyers leave these calls without anything tangible to take away. Especially when they are not ready for pre-
approval, conversations can feel rushed, one-sided, or overly transactional, leaving buyers feeling judged or pressured rather than supported.
For me, the core question became broader than viability alone. How might we design Affordability Insights to help loan officers understand where a buyer is in their home-buying journey, assess readiness, and determine next steps, while also making the conversation genuinely valuable for the buyer? How do we meet the buyer’s needs before advancing our own?
Problem
Rather than treating affordability as a single calculation or outcome, I framed this work around the entire arc of the first conversation. Using a mapping exercise, I looked at both the loan officer’s and the buyer’s questions, concerns, and goals before, during, and at the end of the call. This reframed the problem from “Can this person qualify?” to “What does a successful first conversation look like for both sides?”
Before the call, buyers often arrive uncertain about whether homeownership is realistic and whether they can trust the person they’re speaking with. Loan officers, meanwhile, are trying to quickly assess readiness and decide how much to invest in the lead. This highlighted the need to support preparation and expectation-setting at the start of the conversation.
During the call, buyers are listening for reassurance and clarity, while loan officers are gathering information, assessing viability, and responding to new details in real time. Mapping this moment made it clear the experience needed to support real-time sense-making, helping loan officers understand impact and explain trade-offs as the conversation unfolds without pulling focus away from the borrower.
The end of the call proved just as important. Buyers want to leave knowing where they stand and what their next steps are, even if the answer isn’t “yes” today. Loan officers want clarity on how to follow up without pushing prematurely. This reinforced that affordability had to support an ongoing relationship, not a pass-or-fail moment.
Framing the 1st call
The conversation mapping led to three principles that guided the experience: clarity, transparency, and trust, with a strong emphasis on keeping the experience lightweight.
Design
intent
Clarity
Clarity meant helping loan officers quickly understand a buyer’s transaction readiness and reason about affordability without pulling the conversation into full pricing or loan product selection. This required asking only the minimum information needed to estimate affordability and assess whether there was a potential handshake.
Transparency
Transparency focused on making it clear what information was being used, what was still missing, and how affordability was being assessed. The UI needed to support plain-language explanations so buyers could follow along without feeling rushed or judged.
Trust
Trust was the foundation across the experience. By separating affordability and discovery from pricing and product selection, the UI clarified that the first call was about understanding where the buyer is in their journey and determining the right next steps, rather than acting as a shortcut to pre-approval.
Given the history of new features being introduced without meaningfully addressing loan officers’ concerns, this work needed to be built with them, not delivered to them. I proposed a focused, two-week participatory design sprint with a small pod of loan officers pulled from the floor.
In the initial sessions, feedback was polite but restrained, reflecting what loan officers thought we wanted to hear. Recognizing that dynamic, I shared early explorations to show the work wasn’t precious and that their expertise mattered most. That transparency shifted the tone. Loan officers became candid collaborators, marking up designs between sessions and offering direct input on what would and would not work in real conversations.
Design and engineering worked in parallel, turning refinements into a working proof of concept in real time. Loan officers tested those iterations on live calls, and we adjusted quickly based on what held up under real borrower conversations. The result was not just a better interface, but shared ownership, rebuilt trust, and a faster, more aligned way of working across teams.
Participatory design with loan officers
Discovery Before Decisions
Because loan officers were already using the pricing table to assess affordability, this experience had to feel meaningfully lighter. If it required the same level of detail or data entry, there would be little reason to change existing behavior. Affordability Insights was intentionally designed to support discovery and readiness assessment with minimal inputs, keeping pricing and product selection as a secondary step rather than the starting point.
The experience brings together borrower-stated inputs, price and payment preferences, and existing discovery information to support assessment during the call. Rather than producing a single answer,
it presents affordability as clear ranges, showing what is realistic, what may be possible, and where trade-offs exist. Loan officers can switch between payment-based and price-based views to match the buyer’s mental model and explain options without overwhelming them.
Affordability Insights also supports multiple outcomes. Strong leads can transition smoothly into next steps, while others can be guided toward education or nurturing without friction. By delivering value regardless of outcome, the experience helps preserve trust and keeps buyers engaged even when the answer isn’t “yes” today.
Solution
Strategically, Affordability Insights clarified where early-stage affordability fits within the broader loan journey, shaping how the team approached lead prioritization, automation opportunities, and borrower guidance. It reinforced that early conversations should support decision-making, not just qualification, and created a foundation for future efforts focused on intelligent orchestration and next-best-action support.
Beyond individual interactions, this work strengthened the relationship between design and engineering by demonstrating how tightly coupled collaboration can accelerate meaningful progress. Working in parallel, refining a live proof of concept, and shortening feedback loops showed that cross-functional alignment does not require heavy process. It set a precedent for a more connected way of working that teams sought to replicate in future initiatives.
“This helps me ground the conversation much earlier, especially when things aren't straightforward.”
“It's most useful for borderline cases — self-employed buyers, mixed income, or when the situation isn't cut and dry.”
What this work shaped
Impact
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