SynoFin LMS: Loan Management System
While working on-site at CSL Finance, Noida my team comprising of our product manager, a junior product designer and I(product design trainee) was tasked with pitching and customizing Synofin LMS, Synoriq’s established Loan Management System. This project was a different kind of challenge. Instead of building from scratch, my role, alongside another designer, was to adapt a mature, full-fledged platform to the specific needs of a major new client, ensuring a smooth transition from their existing tools.
My Role
Tools Used
Challenges
The primary challenge was ensuring our product could seamlessly replace the client's existing software from a leading competitor, Finova, which was known for its modern and efficient platform. To guarantee smooth adoption, our design changes needed to feel just as intuitive and powerful to their employees. This meant strategically aligning our UI with their established workflows while also improving upon them and tailoring the experience to the client's specific needs.
Constraints
This project ran in parallel with the Syno Vein build, meaning I was juggling two high-stakes projects at once. The work environment was a little different: stationed at the client's office in Noida, isolated from my senior design mentors, and working within a strict 9-to-5 schedule that required intense focus and efficiency during the day.
Understanding from the Client
Our daily process was a tight, collaborative loop with the client. Each morning, our Product Manager would present our progress via our prototype to the head of the NBFC. She would voice her team's pain points and request changes, and my fellow designer and I would dive in. Our job was to take that direct feedback, discuss more user-friendly alternatives, and implement the updates to design, prototype and the design system, ensuring the product evolved to meet their exact needs.
Key Iterations
One of my main tasks was to bring order to the platform's data tables and other components. They lacked a consistent system, so I designed and implemented new standards for alignment, spacing, and data presentation to improve readability and efficiency for fast iterations.
I worked on improving and designing the various form flows within the application, making them more intuitive and reducing friction for the client's employees.
We strategically adjusted certain UI elements and workflows to feel familiar to the client's team, who were heavy users of the competitor's platform. This was a key part of our strategy to reduce the learning curve and ensure smooth adoption.
Final Deliverables
My work on this project resulted in a fully customized and updated version of the Synofin LMS platform, tailored specifically to the client's workflows. This included a set of updated design system standards, particularly for the data tables and form flows, to ensure consistency and improve the overall user experience for their team.
Takeaways & Reflection
Synofin LMS taught me the art of adaptation. It was a masterclass in direct client collaboration and the nuances of customizing an existing product without compromising its core identity. I learned how to listen to a client's immediate needs, translate them into actionable design improvements, and balance their requests with best practices to deliver a solution that felt both familiar and superior to what they had before.