KYC as a service
Know Your Customer (KYC) is the process that identifies and confirms that a customer is who they say they are.
This case study discusses how Design can help prevent fraudulent account creation and usage.
The team
04 Product Designers
04 Product Designer, Design System
02 Content Designers
05 Product Managers
12 Engineers
My role
Only member of the Design team who worked on all stages of the projects. Solo designer at Research and QA stages.
Results
11,2k+
Global users
64,9%
Conversion Rate
92,2%
Completion Rate
KYC, explained
As regulated financial services companies, crypto exchanges are required to identify the users on their platforms - and Know Your Customer (KYC) is just the way to do so once it confirms that customers are who they say they are.
This multi-step process is one of the first things users see when signing up for a new account. Before users can fully use crypto exchange services, they must provide personal information over several screens.
KYC helps prevent the creation and use of fraudulent accounts - a massive problem in the crypto world - besides improving customer transparency and building customer trust.
Users need KYC to be easier
Data on Amplitude showed that since January 2021, +239k users have completed signed up at Okcoin, but only 30% have started the KYC1 flow. Of those who started, 89% successfully finished the flow.
Also, on the first seven days after signing up, users weren't perform actions like trading (17,9%) or buying crypto (5,85%).
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Okcoin hired a third party to run a competitor analysis from crypto exchanges, which made it possible to understand that the most prominent players in the market have two KYC approaches:
Standard onboarding, where users have to go through all the identity verification and authentication steps in one go. Deposit and trade are only available after this.
Progressive onboarding, where users can access the app with restricted actions while identity isn't verified. It also allows user to pause their onboarding if needed.
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By checking communication channels, PMS and I found out both Okcoin and OKX had KYC related problems, such as ID scan and instability of vendor's system.
The path to verify an identity
After the lead PM structured the architecture, the Design Team started developing the prototype. This helped me identify error cases and determine the best path for business goals.
Once crypto jurisdiction differs for each country, we've had to work with six scenarios. For instance, the US requires Social Security Number, while European countries ask for proof of address.
Around 2% of users that undergoes the KYC process provide information that matches with names on a sanctions list. These users are required to go through the Enhanced Due Diligence (EDD) Program to prove their identity and ensure that the heightened financial crime risk presented by the customers is addressed.The team decided to move forward with the first option to provide the same experience to all OKG products, allowing us to compare metrics in the future.
Designing for speed vs. scale
OKX started to prototype before Okcoin, so we had to deal with two starting points:
- OKX screens, where the Lead Product Designer applied the Okcoin Design System to each screen designed by OKX.
- User flows, where I've designed screens having user flows and current onboarding screens as a basis.
This highlight our trade-off: building for speed vs. scale which made us ask: can we translate current styles to the new flow, or should we design for the best scaling system?
The team decided to move forward with the first option to provide the same experience to all OKG products, allowing us to compare metrics in the future.
Design &
Product Management &
Engineering
Most of the communication between the squad was asynchronous, through Figma, group channels, and a stand-up board document. Some of the agreements of the cross-collaboration were
- Implementation of address autocomplete having street address as a reference to prefill city, state, and postal code.
- Display clear guidance about proof of address requirements.
Because the team was focused on the MVP, it was decided that the App would use a vendor to run ID and facial scans instead of building the scanning system internally.
Next steps
Iterate
I have written a few ideas that can improve the users. For instance, adding a card about unfinished KYC to the App's homepage can provide artificial progress toward a goal, motivating users to complete the task (Zeigarnik Effect).
Develop services
Provide eligibility status for different types of transactions (eg. crypto to crypto, fiat to crypto) based on trader's current location and not just residence.
Takeaways
Nothing great is built alone
Reach out at adria_meira@gsd.harvard.edu // ameira@cyber.harvard.edu
