COVID-19 Pandemic Response: Credit Karma's Relief Roadmap
At the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, millions of people were thrust into financial uncertainty and hardship - unable to work, pay their bills and rent, and make ends meet. Because it was uncharted territory for most of us, we struggled to make sense of it all and did not know where to look or who to trust for help. Credit Karma created a personalized guide that connected our members directly to the resources most relevant to them.
My role
⏵ Product strategy and roadmap
⏵ Product scope and requirements
⏵ Part-time content designer
⏵ Led team on all phases of execution
⏵ Led go-to-market, scaling, optimization
Core team
⏵ 6 frontend/backend engineers
⏵ 3 UX & content designers
⏵ 1 product analyst
⏵ 1 brand marketer
⏵ 1 growth marketer
⏵ 1 product legal counsel
Delivery
⏵ 1 week to general resources guide
⏵ 1 month to launch personalized guide
Problem
At the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, millions of people and small businesses were thrust into financial uncertainty and hardship - unable to work, pay their bills and rent, and make ends meet. Problems of unemployment, eviction, defaulting on debt payments, and access to medical care surged. Because it was uncharted territory for most of us, we struggled to make sense of it all and did not know where to look or who to trust for help. Credit Karma acted fast to create a personalized guide that connected our members directly to the resources most relevant to them.
With 130 million registered members, Credit Karma had a presence in virtually every US household. It was our mission to champion financial progress for all, and we were well-positioned to make a widespread impact during one of the most unique moments of our lifetime.
Solution
Week 1: We launched a general but comprehensive resources page that consolidated the latest and most trustworthy information across trending topics including eviction moratoriums, student loan forbearance, mortgage and credit card debt relief, and remote employment opportunities. Our members could trust that Credit Karma had their backs, instead of having to scour the internet in an inefficient and fragmented way.
Month 1: The goal of our second phase was to get members to the exact resources most relevant to them, even faster. For example, if we knew a member lived in Los Angeles, California, was a renter, and had outstanding student loans, we would surface information for eviction moratoriums specific to Los Angeles county, and the latest student loan forbearance measures enacted by the federal government. Members also had the option of interacting with an AI chatbot to either provide additional information (e.g., income, employment status, household details) to further personalize their experience, or to ask questions to get direct answers to their most pressing questions.
Solution Validation
Strategy
Unlike other initiatives that were typically the culmination of months of careful planning and strategizing, this was a purely mission-focused all-hands-on-deck response to one of the most unique moments in our lifetime.
Strategic Approach
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Quite frankly, deliver whatever we could, as fast as humanly possible to help our members.
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Leverage our powerful tools for personalization (stories, chatbot) to increase the speed, accuracy, and trust with which our members accessed information on Credit Karma.
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Use the feedback loop from the personalized experience to help us rapidly iterate and enhance the feature.
Tactical Approach
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In the essence of time, conducted rapid user surveys to gain quick and dirty insights.
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Kicked off design working session with key cross-functional stakeholders.
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Developed a roadmap with key milestones to hit.
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Ran an extremely brief experiment only to get a signal on guardrail metrics and technical quality/performance.
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Launched and scaled the Relief Roadmap together with email/push and ad marketing campaigns.
Success Metrics
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Monthly Active Users: While we were mission-focused, we nevertheless anticipated a lift in MAU, as we were launching a new and unique feature, together with an aggressive marketing campaign.
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Credit Score: Unfortunately, it was logical to assume that our members would be hit hard by the pandemic. While we did not expect to see credit score improvements, we monitored for directional evidence that we could at least help minimize the damage through our Relief Roadmap. Similarly with payment defaults, it was very much expected that this problem would spike during the pandemic, but we aimed to curb the impact.
Impact
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Drove one-third of our MAU to engage with the Relief Roadmap
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Drove a 2% spike in sitewide MAU over the first several months of the pandemic
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Recognized in Fast Company's World Changing Ideas Awards 2021: Pandemic Response.
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Strategic impact: The template for the Relief Roadmap proved to be a useful tool even beyond the pandemic, and it lives on with ever evolving content.
Retrospective
What a crazy time, but the timing couldn't have been better. On the heels of scaling up our new modular Stories technology for the first time, we were suddenly very well-equipped to build something extremely fast - as fast as it was required for the pandemic response. It was a Herculean effort across the entire organization, and a testament to the sacrifices team members were willing to make, and the walls they were willing to break down, to come together to help our members in need.