Leading UX for Knock’s Scalable Borrower Platform

Background

Knock’s mortgage experience could take up to 18 months, with multiple loans, siloed teams, and no clear ownership of the end-to-end journey. Users felt confused and unsure what to expect. This phase focused on mapping the full process, identifying breakdowns, and aligning the org around shared priorities.

My role during phase

• Led strategic discovery within the Lending CX org
• Mapped the full onboarding experience across sales, support, ops, and leadership
• Synthesized user feedback, internal workflows, and cross-team insights
• Facilitated alignment workshops and presented findings to VP and C-level leaders

Challenges during this phase

• Two parallel mortgage flows with complex legal and financial requirements
• Highly regulated space with strict compliance needs
• Limited timeline and no shared understanding of the full customer journey

Strategy & discovery during this phase

• Audited team workflows and user touchpoints across the onboarding journey
• Used JTBD and journey mapping to surface service gaps and misaligned expectations
• Built the first full journey map to expose how disconnected the flow had become
• Shared a framework to guide org-wide prioritization and investment

Outcome from this phase

• Created a unified view of the onboarding experience across all teams
• Uncovered gaps in team coordination, process clarity, and information sharing
• Delivered the company’s first end-to-end service map
• Work directly led to the creation and scope of Phase 2

Background

One of the biggest insights from Phase 1 was that users didn’t know where they were in the process, who would contact them next, or what to expect. To address this, we proposed a phased onboarding model to break the journey into clear sections, making it easier for both customers and internal teams to understand what was happening and why.

My role during this phase

• Led UX strategy and co-ran a working session with the VP of Design and Sr. Product Designer
• Helped shape the phased onboarding concept and connect it to both user needs and internal workflows
• Framed the high-level story and vision, ensuring it aligned with findings from Phase 1
• Mentored the Sr. Designer as they took the lead on mobile execution, helping keep the work aligned with the bigger picture

Challenges during this phase

• Gained VP-level alignment in under three weeks
• Creating standardized phases and aligning them to the overall process.
• Simplified a complex experience into something clear, repeatable, and measurable

Strategy & execution during this phase

• Broke the full journey into six phases, each with context screens and structured entry points
• Added simple “what to expect” content to reduce user confusion at each step
• Framed the model to support both external clarity and internal consistency
• Focused initial rollout in mobile, but set the groundwork for broader application across the org

Outcome from this phase

• Approved by the VP of Product and VP of Lending Ops as the path forward
• Became the foundation for Knock’s full onboarding experience in Phase 3
• Improved communication clarity in follow-up surveys and interviews
• Helped establish shared language around onboarding phases inside the company

Background

Following a shift to a responsive web app and a company-wide reorg, we revisited the borrower experience using insights from earlier phases. The goal was to reduce friction, improve transparency, and create a foundation that could support future growth. We focused on building a clear and trustworthy experience, starting with the most critical needs while planning for scale.

My role during this phase

• Led UX strategy, design, and user research
• Mapped the North Star flow and scoped MLP priorities
• Worked closely with product, engineering, and ops to align experience goals with platform and data realities
• Identified major data gaps early on, which helped reset expectations and shape what the first version could include
• Facilitated cross-functional reviews to evaluate tradeoffs and build alignment around the user journey

Challenges during this phase

• Unreliable data made it risky to surface certain user-facing information
• Tight timeline and limited design and engineering resources
• Needed to align multiple teams around a single user experience
• Delivered within a brand-new tech stack and system constraints

Quotes from our users

• “All the information was located in one location and it was very easy to navigate”
• “More up to date info could be provided through the process online so I didn't have to call the loan process constantly.”
• “Ease of use, amount of information found on website to aid in decision making”
• “Seriously, everything was made so easy for us.The site was very user friendly and made the following along with the process and knowing what documents you needed very easy.”

Strategy & execution during this phase

• Audited the legacy experience and mapped key breakdowns in clarity, ownership, and next steps
• Defined a North Star journey focused on transparency, trust, and shared context
• Built a just-enough MLP experience that communicated progress without overpromising
• Created mirrored experiences for agents and borrowers to reduce misalignment and questions
• Partnered with engineering to scope around platform limits and prioritize safely accessible data

Outcome from this phase

• Delivered Knock’s foundation for all future borrower-facing products
• Helped reduce stress and confusion by making status and expectations clearer
• Increased CSAT to 78, with an 85% completion rate
• Experience model was later extended into agent and lender tools
• Influenced how the org approached iteration, reliability, and alignment across product lines

This launch wasn’t just a release, it was the realization of a new product strategy.

The borrower experience laid the foundation for the agent and lender portals that followed. More importantly, the process gave teams a clearer way to move forward grounded in shared context, aligned priorities, and scalable decision-making.