Year
2026
Role
Product Design Manager
Duration
4 months
Scope
Product Strategy, UX, UI, Microcopy, Design System Governance, Cross-Functional Leadership
Directed the design of a loan application built for customers of any bank, not only Bank Hapoalim's own. A new product, built from zero to one and shipped in 2026.
How do you earn a fast, confident answer from someone who has no relationship with you yet?
Most of our loan work starts with an existing Bank Hapoalim customer. This one doesn't. It's built for anyone, whether they bank with us or not, and that changes the whole problem.
The applicant could bank with us, with a competitor, could have already been rejected elsewhere, or could simply be shopping rates. The flow can't assume any prior relationship or trust.
Nobody without an existing account will sit through a long form on faith alone. The product had to give a real signal, an approval in principle, in as few steps as possible.
Cracking this wasn't a design problem alone. It needed a real business case, a working product mechanism, and an experience that could carry both without feeling like a hard sell.
The operating principles I set for the team before a single screen got designed.
We inherited the DSM from a prior flagship project instead of starting from a blank canvas: colors, type, iconography, button hierarchy, and component behavior all came from the existing style guide before a single screen got drawn. A more consistent product, a stronger brand, and a cheaper build.
Applicants span every level of tech comfort and every age group, and none of them can be left behind. The interface stayed as simple and airy as possible, tuned equally for web and mobile, with nothing on screen that wasn't required to complete the task.
A beautiful interface that doesn't work helps no one, its polish goes unnoticed until the basics hold. Once functionality, reliability, and usability were solid, the team layered in the subtle animation and micro-interactions that make a bureaucratic process feel personal.
The flow went through repeated usability labs, watching whether real applicants understood it, moved through it easily, and took action, then back to research whenever a gap showed up. None of it happened alone: weekly reviews with product and engineering kept every screen at the bar we'd set.
The actual product decisions that turned those principles into an answer, mapped to the real four steps of the flow.
State a purpose, an amount up to ₪50,000, and a term from 3 to 72 months. Watch the estimated payment update live.
A tailored offer in principle within a couple of screens, personalized by purpose, optionally sharpened by connecting outside accounts through Open Banking.
Choose where the money lands and pick a payment date, then open a fee-free account by scanning a QR code, strict identity verification built in.
Funds land in the account by the next business day. Direct debit for repayments gets set up right after, not before.
This wasn't an iteration on an existing product, it was built from zero to one, with no legacy screens to inherit. Early measurement is just getting underway, too soon for a delivered number, but the first real read on usage has started.
Speed and trust aren't opposites, even with someone who owes you nothing yet. The fastest way to earn a stranger's confidence turned out to be giving them a real answer quickly, not a longer form dressed up as reassurance.