Vast Syllabus:
Every topic feels like an ocean; identifying most important points becomes overwhelming.
Reducing KYC Agent time from 45 mins to 5 mins per call, improving efficiency and reducing errors.
MY ROLE:
I collaborated with the team to drive the end-to-end redesign of the KYC portal from analyzing call recordings and identifying friction points to running experiments and refining solutions together.
RESULT:
By redesigning the KYC flow, we aim to cut agent involvement from 50-45 min to 5-7 min per student, saving ₹3.6L/month in manpower and unlocking ₹21+ Cr annual capacity at the same time reducing errors with clearer guidance.
MY TEAM
Product Designer( Me), Growth PM , APM, Senior Designer ( for supervising )
Context
✨
Context
What is Nxtwave? What do they do?
NxtWave is an edtech platform that helps college students, especially from tier-2 and tier-3 cities, build industry-relevant tech skills.
🏦
KYC Portal
But why does an Edtech company have a KYC Portal???
Because the course fee is ₹1.6 lakh, most tier-2/3 students often with parents who are farmers or daily wage workers rely on no-cost EMI loans so making a smooth KYC process essential.
₹1.6 lakh
course fee
90%students
can’t pay upfront
👩🏼💻
Current Process
This is how the current process works.
I thought I was simply designing another form. But what looked like a regular KYC flow was actually eating 45 minutes of an agent’s time per student, costing crores every year and frustrating both students and parents.
✨
The Pain Point
Imagine this:
A KYC agent hops on a Google Meet call for 45 minutes with EACH student and their parents.
On the call, they:
1)Explain KYC terms like CIBIL score, co-applicant, tenure
2)Make them Screen-share and spoon-feed every single field
3)Prepare them for the bank’s follow-up calls
This wasn’t just tiring, it was expensive..
37 KYCs/day × 45 min = 28 hours of agent time daily/₹3.6L in monthly manpower spend
If we could free up even 10 students from this manual handholding, we’d save ~₹16K and 7.5 agent hours in a single day.
✨
The Brief
All I was told was to design a..
Self-serve KYC experience so students can complete forms on their own, reducing Kyc agent time from 45 min → 5 min.
Me to the Pms
Thats it?
✨
Understanding the Users
Who was I designing for?
Designing for co-applicant and students who are often new to digital tools and financial terms.
The Student
Tier-2/3 college students. They often have limited experience with financial terms like tenure or CIBIL score.
The Co-applicant ( on whose name the loan is taken)
Parents/guardians (often farmers or daily-wage earners) with low digital literacy.
✨
The Starting Point
First thing first, understanding the process and user behaviour in detail.
I reviewed KYC call recordings and spoke with KYC agents to understand the full process, what worked, and where users struggled which helped me spot the key loopholes to solve.
recordings of kyc team
interview finds from the kyc team
✨
Audit the experience
Based on research and insights, we mapped the current User Journey.
Went through the existing portal in detailed analysed the insights from the interviews and recordings.
✨
REDESIGN GOALS
To make it simple, but significant.
A self-serve KYC experience so students can complete forms on their own, reducing Kyc agent time from 45 min → 5 min.
THE GOAL WAS CLEAR
Reducing KYC Agent time from 45 mins to 5 mins per user
But wait, how can we achieve this??
by assisting the users where ever required
✨
Ideation
So we brainstormed few ideas.
After identifying key usability issues, we brainstormed multiple solutions focusing on reducing confusion, improving clarity, and helping users complete the process without assistance.
Ideation 1- Ai Chatbot with voice assistance
sticky in the bottom right side
Step 1: Tap on the Avatar for Help.
The avatar explains the page aloud and answers common questions.
Step 2: Need more help? Leave a message
A KYC agent will reach out as soon as possible.
but this was discarded because.......
Unclear Field Reference
Multiple fields on one page made it hard for users to know which field is it referring to.
Delayed support
If users had doubts, they had to wait for a KYC agent to respond.
Too many steps
Users had to click multiple buttons slowing down the process
Ideation 2- A Tooltip with an AI voice assistance
beside the relevant field itself
✨
Redesigning Screens
1) Users kept asking is Tenure for EMI or Course duration?
Users often confuse EMI duration with course duration, so adding a tooltip can clarify it
2) There were errors due to confusion over Co-Applicant fields.
Many users got confused and filled their own details instead of the Co-Applicant’s.
will a tooltip solve this?
yes, but will that be user friendly if kept at every step?
NO
So, we decided to divide in 2 steps and display the co-applicant’s name in the title of every related field once the user enters it.
✅ Reducing misunderstanding
✅ Reducing incorrect inputs
3) Users overlooked CIBIL Score CTA.
Users often skipped or misunderstood this section, thinking it might affect their credit score
4) There were issues during clicking documents from portal.
Users who uploaded their documents directly made fewer errors, whereas those who chose to click a photo from the portal to add the document encountered more errors.
5) In Self declaration page sample video was missing.
At the end instead of submitting directly to the NBFC ( KYC LOAN Partners) it will go to KYC Team for approval and there would be a 2-5 min call with the user to crosscheck all the information.
6) We found some Information Hierarchy issues.
Most chosen options placed at end, leading to poor UX and errors
Most chosen options placed at end
will a tooltip solve this?
maybe not
I used data to reorder options from most selected to least selected.
✅ Reducing errors
✅ No Assistance required - automating the process.
Data Conscious Decision
7) Changing the KYC Agent involvement.
At the end instead of sumitting directly to the NBFC (N KYC LOAN Partners) it will go to KYC Team for approval and there would be a 2-5 min call with the user to crosscheck all the information.
New Flow - after user filled the form
The Last page will be sent to KYC agent for approval
Before
KYC agents spent 45-50 minutes on Google Meet guiding users through every step of the form
After
Users fill the form themselves; KYC agents review for 5-7 minutes per student and submit.
😀
A Sweet Ending
A big Thank You to the most wonderful team I could ever ask for!
Grateful to work with such a talented and dedicated team! Your hard work, creativity, and collaboration made this project truly come to life.
.
👋
Takeaways
The most Important Part- My Learnings from this Journey.
1
Trust the data as it saves you from falling in love with the wrong solution.
2
The best UX often lies in the simplest option, even the smallest changes can make a big difference.
3
If the user knows the problem, they’ll solve it themselves. Our real job? To uncover what they don’t see and design for it. That’s where the magic happens.
4
Every design decision should be backed by solid research and data.
1
1
Back
Vast Syllabus:
Every topic feels like an ocean; identifying most important points becomes overwhelming.
Reducing KYC Agent time from 45 mins to 5 mins per call, improving efficiency and reducing errors.
MY ROLE:
I collaborated with the team to drive the end-to-end redesign of the KYC portal from analyzing call recordings and identifying friction points to running experiments and refining solutions together.
RESULT:
By redesigning the KYC flow, we aim to cut agent involvement from 50-45 min to 5-7 min per student, saving ₹3.6L/month in manpower and unlocking ₹21+ Cr annual capacity at the same time reducing errors with clearer guidance.
✨
Overview
What is Nxtwave? What do they do?
NxtWave is an edtech platform that helps college students, especially from tier-2 and tier-3 cities, build industry-relevant tech skills.
🏦
KYC Portal
But why does A Edtech company has a KYC Portal???
Because the course fee is ₹1.6 lakh, most tier-2/3 students often with parents who are farmers or daily wage workers rely on no-cost EMI loans so making a smooth KYC process essential.
₹1.6 lakh
course fee
90%students
can’t pay upfront
✨
Current Process
This is how the current process works
I thought I was simply designing another form. But what looked like a regular KYC flow was actually eating 45 minutes of an agent’s time per student, costing crores every year and frustrating both students and parents.
✨
The Pain Point
Imagine this:
A KYC agent hops on a Google Meet call for 45 minutes with EACH student and their parents.
On the call, they:
1)Explain KYC terms like CIBIL score, co-applicant, tenure
2)Make them Screen-share and spoon-feed every single field
3)Prepare them for the bank’s follow-up calls
This wasn’t just tiring, it was expensive..
37 KYCs/day × 45 min = 28 hours of agent time daily/₹3.6L in monthly manpower spend
If we could free up even 10 students from this manual handholding, we’d save ~₹16K and 7.5 agent hours in a
single day.
✨
The Brief
All I was told was to Design a..
Self-serve KYC experience so students can complete forms on their own, reducing Kyc agent time from 45 min → 5 min.
Me to the Pms
Thats it?
✨
Understanding the Users
Who was I designing for?
Designing for co-applicant and students who are often new to digital tools and financial terms.
✨
The Starting Point
First thing First, Understanding the process and user behaviour in detail.
I reviewed KYC call recordings and spoke with KYC agents to understand the full process, what worked, and where users struggled which helped me spot the key loopholes to solve.
recordings of kyc team
interview finds from the kyc team
✨
Audit the experience
Based on research and insights, we mapped the current User Journey.
Went through the existing portal in detailed analysed the insights from the interviews and recordings.
✨
Redesign Goals
To make it simple, but significant
A self-serve KYC experience so students can complete forms on their own, reducing Kyc agent time from 45 min → 5 min.
THE GOAL WAS CLEAR
Reducing KYC Agent time from 45 mins to 5 mins per user
But wait, how can we achieve this??
by assisting the users where ever required
✨
Ideation
So we brainstormed few ideas
After identifying key usability issues, we brainstormed multiple solutions focusing on reducing confusion, improving clarity, and helping users complete the process without assistance.
Ideation 1- Ai Chatbot with voice assistance
sticky in the bottom right side
Step 1: Tap the Avatar for Help.
The avatar explains the page aloud and answers common questions.
Step 2: Need More Help? Leave a Message
A KYC agent will reach out as soon as possible.
but this was discarded because.......
Unclear Field Reference
Multiple fields on one page made it hard for users to know which field is it referring to.
Delayed support
If users had doubts, they had to wait for a KYC agent to respond, wasting time and breaking their momentum.
Too many steps
Users had to click multiple buttons slowing down the process and increasing chances of mistakes.
Ideation 2- A Tooltip with a AI voice assistance
beside the relevant field itself
❌ Placing 3 button together on small screens may cause
mis-taps and errors
❌ No option to open the tooltip after closing
Tooltip 1 ❌
Please select a duration you want the loan for NO-COST on EMI for.
✅ Accessible anytime
✅ Regional language audio & text with an Indian avatar for a human touch
✅ Visible easy-to-find exit
Tooltip 2 ✅
మీరు ఎన్ని నెలలకి EMI కట్టాలో ఇక్కడ select చేయండి. మీకు easy గా అనిపించే duration తీసుకోండి. ఇది just మీ choice మాత్రమే.
OK
?
✨
Redesigning Screens
1) Users kept asking is Tenure for EMI or Course duration?
Users often confuse EMI duration with course duration, so adding a tooltip can clarify it
2)There were errors due to confusion over Co-Applicant fields
Many users got confused and filled their own details instead of the Co-Applicant’s.
will a tooltip solve this?
yes, but will that be user friendly if kept at every step?
NO
So, we decided to divide in 2 steps
Displayed the co-applicant’s name in the title of every related field once the user enters it.
✅ Reducing misunderstanding
✅ Reducing incorrect inputs
3)Users overlooked CIBIL Score CTA
Users often skipped or misunderstood this section, thinking it might affect their credit score
4)There were issues during clicking documents from portal
Users who uploaded their documents directly made fewer errors, whereas those who chose to click a photo from the portal encountered more errors.
5) In Self declaration page sample video was missing
At the end instead of sumitting directly to the NBFC (N KYC LOAN Partners) it will go to KYC Team for approval and there would be a 2-5 min call with the user to crosscheck all the information.
6)We found some Information Hierarchy issues
Most chosen options placed at end, leading to poor UX and errors
Most chosen options placed at end
will a tooltip solve this?
maybe not
So,I used data to reorder options from most selected to least selected
✅ Reducing errors
✅ No Assistance required - automating the process.
7)Changing the KYC Agent involvement
New Flow - after user filled the form
The Last page will be sent to KYC agent for approval
Before
KYC agents spent 45 minutes on Google Meet guiding users through every step of the form
After
Users fill the form themselves; KYC agents review for 5 minutes and submit.
😀
A Sweet Ending
A big Thank You to the most wonderful team I could ever ask for!
Grateful to work with such a talented and dedicated team! Your hard work, creativity, and collaboration made this project truly come to life.
👋
Takeaways
The most Important Part- My Learnings from this Journey.
1
Trust the data as it saves you from falling in love with the wrong solution.
2
The best UX often lies in the simplest option, even the smallest changes can make a big difference.
3
If the user knows the problem, they’ll solve it themselves. Our real job is to uncover what they don’t see and design for it.
4
Every design decision should be backed by solid research and data.
Prarthana Jain