Pay in 4 Prequalification
Introducing prequalified spend amount to PayPal customers based on their history with PayPal, payments and outstanding balance.
Lead UX Designer
Role
Figma, Miro
Tools
6 months
Timeline
Design Thinking
Methodology
Design Thinking
I employed the Double Diamond framework to guide the design process.
Team
PRODUCT MANAGERS
UX DESIGNERS
CONTENT DESIGNER
SOFTWARE ENGINEERS
LEGAL COMPLIANCE
RISK MANAGEMENT
CROSS-FUNCTIONAL
Overview
Develop a feature to display personalized pre-qualified spending limits for PayPal’s “Pay in 4” product, leveraging user history to enhance transparency and trust.
Objective
Increase user engagement and conversion rates by providing upfront spending eligibility, thereby streamlining the checkout process.
What’s Prequalified Amount?
Business Goals
Test & collect data to see if the feature will trigger more Pay Later usage.
Create a holistic driver to checkout and merchant upstream.
Pilot to a smaller group of approved customers to gather data.
Fine-tune the experience for launch, provide competitive edge.
Understanding Customers
Constraints & Challenges
Different spending amounts. Upstream vs. application vs. other touch points.
Spending amount for Pay in 4 vs Pay LaterShort-term comprehension issues.
Pre-qual application vs pre-determined. Confusion about when to go through an application.
No engineering scope for Upstream in Pilot test. Post-pilot enhancement are expected.
UX Research 🔬
What We Know About Competitors.
Affirm
Afterpay
Klarna
Measuring Success
Survey Responses
CEP, PPXM
Social Media
Customer Reviews.
Positive Impact FTUs
Transactions/ Account
Increase in TPV
Info Icon CTR.
Reuse
Loyalty
Customers Number Visiting Pay Later Hub.
Experience Tenets
Design Explorations
Team brainstorming various design directions of presenting Pre-Qualified amount in the hub.
Strategy For Launch
After discussions between Design, Engineering & Product a decision was made to launch a pilot version first, fast-followed by next the release.
Pilot
Initial pilot release will allow customers show masked pre-qual amount on a click, without any heavy-lift animations.
Next Release
Next release showcasing a more comprehensive design is intended to be a fast-follow after the first data & KPIs are gathered and analyzed.
Pilot Version 🚀
Next Release
Key Takeaways
1. User trust is a product feature
Displaying personalized spending amounts upfront helps build transparency and confidence in financial decisions.
2. Pilot testing is invaluable
Releasing a scoped version of the experience allowed us to validate assumptions, uncover pain points, and iterate based on real-world behavior.
3. Collaboration is critical
Navigating legal, risk, and data constraints required tight partnership with cross-functional teams to ensure compliance without compromising usability.
4. Consistency across touchpoints matters
Aligning messaging and visuals across the Pay Later ecosystem helped reduce cognitive friction and improved comprehension.
💬 Final Thoughts
Designing the Prequalification experience for PayPal’s Pay Later products was both strategically impactful and deeply user-focused. The challenge lay in balancing transparency with simplicity, ensuring users felt empowered by the information—not overwhelmed by it. Collaborating across product, risk, legal, and engineering teams helped craft a solution that met business goals while maintaining user trust.
This project reaffirmed the importance of designing with clarity, especially in fintech, where even small UX decisions can affect user confidence and financial outcomes. It also highlighted how pilot experiments can reveal valuable insights that shape scalable solutions.