Paytronage, acquired by Lumni in 2018, was a digital marketplace for income share agreements (ISAs), an alternative to student loans. In an ISA, a student receives tuition funding in return for pledging a percentage of post-graduation income for a set time period.
Early research made it clear that students have terrible experiences applying for and repaying loans. My job was design a more agreeable, student-centered financing experience through ISAs.
Paytronage (Freelance)
Sketch, Invision
Zach Pelka (Project Manager)
Anthony Rodriguez (Data Analyst)
Relibit Labs (Dev Partner)
Paytronage wanted to make income share agreements (ISAs) more accessible by offering a friendly, all-digital application experience. As they entered a competitive market, they needed to communicate the advantages of ISAs over traditional student loans.
Customer Interviews
Data Analysis
Journey Mapping
User Personas
Competitive Analysis
Customer Survey
My initial competitive analysis found that most loan application software still looks something like this:
Some issues were obvious. To understand the others, Paytronage administered a survey, polling almost 200 students who were receiving loans. The survey revealed that students:
I combined the survey data with information from five deep-dive interviews to create representative user personas and corresponding journey maps.
I focused content on Paytronage’s site around the benefits of ISAs over traditional student loans. Leaning on data from the survey and interviews, I focused especially on the facts that:
Paytronage’s approach to college financing and the accompanying platform I designed follow the lead of companies like Warby Parker, TurboTax, and Lemonade that have recentered old-fashioned industries around humans. I broke the application process down into guided steps explained using friendly, simple language.
As Paytronage’s data scientists built a model for predicting salaries, the marketing team realized this could help students visualize the benefits of choosing an ISA. Using this model as a foundation, I designed a single page web app to help students get real insight into their financing decisions.
I was excited to work with Paytronage because I genuinely think income share agreements are a better option for most students than loans. The initial mockups I designed were instrumental in securing the seed money that helped Paytronage put together an outstanding team and prototype.
Our work was answered when Lumni, currently the largest global ISA provider, acquired Paytronage and continued to work with co-founders Zach Pelka and Connor Swofford to increase the availability of ISAs in the United States.