Sallie Mae — Loan Products
Two Lean UX–driven redesigns for Sallie Mae's private student loan business: a full application rebuild carried through a company rebrand, and a first-of-its-kind loan estimator built to prove out a process the org had never run end to end.
One primary application, every educational loan product
In early 2018 I joined Sallie Mae to redesign its online loan application — the company's primary application, encompassing every educational loan product and serving students, cosigners, parents, and PhD and Bar-exam candidates. The existing experience was aging and married to an inflexible, convoluted architecture, with real technological and business constraints shaping what could change and when.
A rebuild, and a first Lean UX pilot
Online Loan Application
Standardized inputs across 30+ form modules and carried the redesign through an unplanned company rebrand — plus an interim Return Borrower flow shipped on request.
Loan Estimator
A first full Lean UX cycle for the org, built to answer a real question: what do borrowers actually need to see to understand the cost of a loan?
What shipped, across the role
- Represented the UX department before oversight committees, including the CMO and senior corporate leadership
Outcomes specific to the loan application and loan estimator redesigns are on their own case study pages above.