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:
Page 1 of Sallie Mae’s student loan application
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:
- Rarely considered student loan alternatives
- Felt pressure to prioritize salary to repay loans quickly
- Disliked the idea of paying back loans for an uncertain period
- Didn’t understand the language used by most loan companies
- Absolutely hated paper forms
- And generally felt dehumanized during the process
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:
- Students wouldn’t have to begin payments before landing a job
- The ISA would be paid off in a known time period
- Students didn’t have to pay any interest
Content carefully worded to speak students’ reservations about loans
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.
ISA funders’ interests align with those of students—both parties are invested in a positive career outcome for the students. I used language to humanize funders and emphasize that they want to support each student as an individual.
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.
The campaign was one of Paytronage’s most successful, generating over 50 signups for an ISA waitlist.
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.