Mortgage in Sberbank Online
Product Designer · Sberbank Online · Dec 2021 – Jun 2022
Now you can apply for a mortgage right in Sberbank Online, no need to jump over to Domclick anymore. I put together that in-app process for a product with 67M monthly users.
Problem
Mortgage issuance had stalled, and applying kicked users out to a separate site
My role
✦ Designed the end-to-end in-app flow✦ 5 user interviews
Focus
✦ Native mobile on a 67.2M-MAU app✦ Handed off at launch (no post-launch metrics)
Timeline
Dec 2021 – Jun 2022
Skills
✦ Product thinking✦ User research✦ Design
Team
✦ Product Owner✦ Product Designer✦ Developers (×2)
Product & Problem
Context
In December 2021 I joined a team building new functionality in the Sberbank Online app, a product with 67.2M monthly and 33.2M daily active users.
Business goal
To grow mortgage volume.
Problem
By 2022, the number of mortgages had stopped growing. The business needed a way to boost mortgage applications.
Key Design Decisions
The research: "Why would I go to some website if I want a mortgage here and now?"
I checked out all the ways people start the mortgage process in the Sberbank system and noticed that when you tap “Mortgage” in Sberbank Online, it sends you to a different site called Domclick. I talked to 5 users and it was obvious: they didn’t like being taken to another site and a lot didn’t even know Domclick was part of Sberbank.
«Why would I go to some website if I want to get a mortgage loan here and now?» 3 of 5 users said.
The solution: bring the mortgage into the app
We chose to put the entire mortgage application right inside Sberbank Online. Once the application gets approved, the process moves over to Domclick for things like finalizing the deal, adding co-borrowers and picking the property. I designed the whole flow from start to finish, including edge cases like under-18 applicants, rejected applications and error handling.
Outcome
Result
This shipped into an app used by 67.2M people monthly. I left the project before the post-launch stats came in, so this case is more about the design and the choices we made than the numbers.
Reflection
Reflection
Building a service this big showed me how even the tiniest details matter when millions rely on it, because every little edge case counts.
If I did this again, I’d track the whole funnel from the start (app launch → approvals) so we could actually prove the impact of moving the flow in-app, not just design it.