Case study 01 · Regulated onboarding
A scalable KYC module for a TRCSL-regulated telco
It started with 32,417 rejected orders in the Retail Hub Sales App, the app our sales agents use to connect new customers. It grew into a KYC module for every digital channel, self-service and assisted.
01 · Where it started
What the rejection data said
67% of rejections were capture or data-entry problems, not fraud.
32,417 rejected orders, Aug–Oct 2023, all from the Sales App. Add expired documents and 76% were avoidable.
| Reason group | Share | Aug → Sep → Oct |
|---|---|---|
| Image unreadable | 37% | 34 → 37 → 41 ↑ |
| ID number mismatch | 30% | 28 → 33 → 31 |
| Fraud or tampering | 21% | 26 → 19 → 17 ↓ |
| Expired or underage document | 9% | 9 → 10 → 8 |
| Wrong or incomplete document | 3% | 4 → 2 → 4 |
The trend that mattered
34% → 41%
Unreadable images were getting worse every month, while fraud fell from 26% to 17%.
Top individual reasons
The three image reasons (24 + 7 + 6) make up the whole “Image unreadable” group.
02
Auditing the flow against the data
Most rejections were avoidable, so I went back through the Sales App’s KYC flow looking for the design flaws behind each reason.
| Rejection reason | Design flaw I found | Change I proposed |
|---|---|---|
| Image unreadable 37% | The image capture wizard relied on the agent’s judgement for focus and lighting when photographing documents. | Auto capture, with on-screen guides that help the agent get alignment, focus and lighting right. |
| ID number mismatch 30% | Agents typed the ID number by hand. Any local ID that passed format validation was accepted, and passports had no format check at all, leaving room for human error and fraud. | Read the ID number from the captured document instead of having the agent type it. |
| Expired or underage 9% | No check on the customer’s age or the document’s expiry date before submission. | Check age and expiry from the scanned ID before the order can be submitted. |
03
Phase 1: fixing the Sales App
Proposed, not shipped- Auto capture with guides. On-screen guides help the agent get alignment, focus and lighting right, so image quality no longer depends on judgement alone.
- ID number read from the document. The number comes from the captured ID, not the agent’s typing, which leaves far less room for human error and fraud.
- Age and expiry checked upfront. Both are read from the scanned ID and checked before submission, so an expired or underage document is caught on the spot, not after rejection.
Figma · Before and after
See the real Sales App screens, before and after the redesign
Capture guides, ID read from the document, and upfront age and expiry checks.
04
The shift: KYC becomes a standard
The process team in our division set out to standardise KYC across every digital channel that reaches customers. I joined those discussions and presented the Sales App findings as evidence of where the process was failing.
SELF-SERVICE
Channels customers use on their own. [e.g. MyDialog, web]
ASSISTED
Channels where an agent helps. Retail Hub Sales App, [OTHERS]
What the standard had to do
05
Phase 2: one module for every channel
In progressI’m the designer of the module. The aim was a structure flexible enough for each product’s rules and simple enough to scale to every channel.
Common KYC levels as dynamic sections and subsections. Identity, address and billing proof are shared, so every channel asks them the same way.
Unique requirements appended per product. A product adds its own section after the core instead of forking the form.
The layout renders sections and fields from config. A new product is configuration, not a new screen.
SHARED CORE
PER PRODUCT
OUTPUT
One rendered form
In every self-service and assisted channel
Options I rejected
[REJECTED OPTION 1]
Why not: [REASON]
[REJECTED OPTION 2]
Why not: [REASON]
Plain language in extended KYC
Fintech products needed extra questions written in finance jargon. I rewrote each in plain words and kept the compliance meaning.
BEFORE
[ORIGINAL JARGON 1]AFTER
[PLAIN REWRITE 1]BEFORE
[ORIGINAL JARGON 2]AFTER
[PLAIN REWRITE 2]06
Result
- Fixes proposed for the three causes behind 76% of rejections
- Deprioritised before launch, a business decision outside my control
- The findings went on to shape the company-wide KYC standard
- Findings fed the company-wide KYC standard
- Module designed for all self-service and assisted channels
- Design proposed. The next step is standardising the underlying systems so every channel can use it. Plus extending to fintech.
For Homey
Why this matters at Homey
UK conveyancing has the same shape of problem. Firms must verify ID and address before a sale can progress, and a mismatch means asking for more proof. That is the billing-proof rule here.
The approach transfers: start from the rejection data, fix capture where it fails, then build one verification core that every channel shares.
Next · Case study 02
Retailer loan: rewriting a bank’s language for the shop counter