Configurable Lending Platform Built to Scale.

Configurable Lending Platform Built to Scale.

A centralized loan system that shares data smoothly across surfaces, configures to any lender, and unifies applications, underwriting, payments, and reporting in one place.

Client

Business Warrior

Role

Founding Designer

TIMELINE

2021 – Present

TEAM

Sole Designer, Head Of Product, 10 Engineers

Client

Business Warrior

Role

Founding Designer

TIMELINE

2021 – Present

TEAM

Sole Designer, Head Of Product, 10 Engineers

Overview

PayPlan is a lending platform built for business owners, not engineers. A lender's team configures its own underwriting rules, chooses their application flow, brands it, wires up its disclosures, and funds loans. It has funded nearly $15M across 20 lending programs.

Overview

PayPlan is a lending platform built for business owners, not engineers. A lender's team configures its own underwriting rules, chooses their application flow, brands it, wires up its disclosures, and funds loans. It has funded nearly $15M across 20 lending programs.

My CONTRIBUTION

I collaborated with the head of product and the engineering group to shape what the platform does and how it works underneath. I was the only designer on the project, and design was mine end to end: research, user flows, UX and UI across three product surfaces, and the token-based system the platform is themed and configured through.

My CONTRIBUTION

I collaborated with the head of product and the engineering group to shape what the platform does and how it works underneath. I was the only designer on the project, and design was mine end to end: research, user flows, UX and UI across three product surfaces, and the token-based system the platform is themed and configured through.

THE WORK
THE WORK
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0

Product Surfaces

0

Loan Types

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Loan Types

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+

Screens Designed

01 — THE Problem
01 — THE Problem

To lend money, you had to assemble the system yourself.

A small business or private lender that wants to offer financing buys its stack in pieces: one vendor for the application, another for underwriting, payments, reporting, email for anything the borrower needs told. Borrowers see the cracks this creates: inconsistent portals, unclear balances, and no dependable answer to what they owe.

02 — Goals
02 — Goals

What the platform had to do

1.

Unify the lending stack into one configurable system.

2.

Ship as any lender's product, under their brand.

3.

Quickly configure new lenders with their underwriting and servicing rules.

03 — Admin portal (Underwriting)
03 — Admin portal (Underwriting)

Everything an underwriter needs, in one place.

An underwriter opens an application and finds everything the decision requires: submitted data, uploaded documents, verified banking activity, and the signals behind the score. From that same file they approve, deny, or request more information. Each lender configures the rules the hub runs on.

The underwriting dashboard displays all decisioning results and data from any API's integrated into a lenders platform. From here approval, rejection, or asking the applicant for more info can be triggered.

The underwriting dashboard displays all decisioning results and data from any API's integrated into a lenders platform. From here approval, rejection, or asking the applicant for more info can be triggered.

UI was designed so an admin user can configure all of their underwriting rule sets for automated decisioning in the platform settings.

UI was designed so an admin user can configure all of their underwriting rule sets for automated decisioning in the platform settings.

UI was designed so an admin user can configure all of their underwriting rule sets for automated decisioning in the platform settings.

Specific views were designed for the portal so underwriters can deep dive into banking, credit, and identity data to easily make decisions.

Specific views were designed for the portal so underwriters can deep dive into banking, credit, and identity data to easily make decisions.

Specific views were designed for the portal so underwriters can deep dive into banking, credit, and identity data to easily make decisions.

A side by side verification interface was designed to display OCR results for documents uploaded by customers. Allowing underwriters to quickly verify bank statements, tax documents, and more.

A side by side verification interface was designed to display OCR results for documents uploaded by customers. Allowing underwriters to quickly verify bank statements, tax documents, and more.

04 — Admin portal (Servicing)
04 — Admin portal (Servicing)

What's owed, what's been paid, and what to do next.

A centralized hub for servicing. One account view shows what's coming due, what the borrower owes, and every payment. Admins can log a promise to pay, issue a refund, and more. Every payment shows its split between interest and principal, with lifetime totals for both, as well as additional reporting dashboards.

The servicing center clearly displays loan and payment data associated with a borrower's account in collapsable accordions, as well as transaction tables and multiple servicing dialogs shown in modals.

The servicing center clearly displays loan and payment data associated with a borrower's account in collapsable accordions, as well as transaction tables and multiple servicing dialogs shown in modals.

Multiple dashboards were created to show all loan portfolio data clearly to admins and business owners.

Multiple dashboards were created to show all loan portfolio data clearly to admins and business owners.

05 — Customer ApplicaTion
05 — Customer ApplicaTion

How a borrower applies, decided by the lender.

Lenders choose an application flow from our screen library. They have options like pulling income data straight from Plaid. Fifty step options are a burden if you don't know which to pick, so lenders can take a recommended flow we've drawn from research and best practice.

The customer application is fully responsive and can be configured to use open banking APIs like Plaid.

The customer application is fully responsive and can be configured to use open banking APIs like Plaid.

Customization UI so an admin user can change the branding and colors of their application.

Customization UI so an admin user can change the branding and colors of their application.

Customization UI so an admin user can change the branding and colors of their application.

100+ application screen library to quickly configure a lender's application to their needs.

100+ application screen library to quickly configure a lender's application to their needs.

100+ application screen library to quickly configure a lender's application to their needs.

Contracts and compliance handled as content, not code.

A lender uploads a document once, then decides how it behaves: a disclosure shown inline, a contract requiring a signature, or an email or SMS fired at a chosen point in the application. All in PayPlan's document center.

The document center and how uploaded disclosures are displayed in a customer application flow.

06 — Customer Portal
06 — Customer Portal

A customer portal for any loan type.

Payment tables and account headers reformat to the loan type, so the right portal is a switch rather than a build. I designed the customer portal to show all the data a borrower wants to see without overwhelming them. And for the lender, the portal can quickly be configured to show or hide any of the data they choose.

The customer portal features an account header and payment tables with different UI for each loan type.

07 — Results
07 — Results
0

K

Loans Funded

0

K

Unique Users

$

0

M+

Funded through the Platform

$

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M+

Funded Through the Platform

08 — Reflection
08 — Reflection

Every yes to a client had a cost.

Every lender wanted something bespoke, and every yes made the platform slower to deploy and harder to trust. Since we were starting from scratch, every new feature requested added to our libraries to help configure another client in the future. The downside was this strayed away from the product's goal of simplicity and efficiency and at times it felt like we were just building custom products.

With more time I'd push for more research done at the borrower level, rather than primarily lenders. Also I would want to look more into whether configurability shortened launches or just moved the work further down the line with incompatible configurations or something being overlooked for the sake of speed.

Next Project
Next Project

Crypto-Native Line of Credit Products.

Crypto-Native Line of Credit Products.

Founding designer crafting clear, reliable product experiences from early definition to shipped software.

Available for new projects

© 2026 Austin Griblin. All rights reserved.

Founding designer crafting clear, reliable product experiences from early definition to shipped software.

© 2026 Austin Griblin. All rights reserved.

Founding designer crafting clear, reliable product experiences from early definition to shipped software.

©2026 Austin Griblin.

All rights reserved.