Bill Pay Merchant Partner

 
 

Unify and simplify the Bill Pay partner experience from onboarding to servicing for our front-book, back-book, and sub merchants. Create a cohesive interface supporting the full stack payment processing and full ledger control payouts features.

Team

My Role: Design lead of 1 other designer
The team included 4 product managers

Audience / Stakeholders: Cross functional teams and senior leadership
Sr. Director, Head of Product // Sr. Director, UX // Sr. Director, Developer Ecosystem // Sr. Director, Product Management - Tech // VP of Global Design // Sr. VP of Global Design

CONSTRAINTS TO ENABLE ACCELERATION

When PayPal acquired Braintree in 2013 the two platforms processed payments independently until the unification efforts in 2021. Braintree’s processing power supported our larger more complex partners, providing them the transaction processing insight Partners required to run their business and support their sub-merchants and customers. Designs were created prior to engineering efforts and were subsequently the “eye opener” to the extent of backend work needed to properly support our partners.

My role was to guide internal partners using a design vision to understand the gaps, requirements, and dependencies to reach our business and design goals.

Approach

WHAT IS BILL PAY PARTNER SOLUTION?

Integrated payment processing service solution for billing model businesses who need support collecting customer payments

  • Billing aggregators help billers become flexible/available when collecting different payment types

    • example: Where to pay, how to pay, when to pay

  • PayPal / Braintree is the payment processor

    • PayPal currently has no direct relationship with Billers or Consumers

    • There is a PayPal Bill Pay consumer experience that has yet to be linked

 

WHAT WAS THE MERCHANT/CUSTOMER PROBLEM?

Billing model businesses need to be flexible and available when collecting payments from customers. When there are so many different ways to pay, reporting and payment processing increases in risk. Customers need to feel safe and secure when paying their bills; merchants need the same when capturing, processing, and receiving payments.

Supporting these businesses is a $4.6 Trillion dollar market opportunity. But most importantly, customers can pay their bills in a safe, secure and manageable way, while businesses get paid as soon as possible.

 

BILL PAY SEGMENTS

When supporting the Bill Pay product there are 4 key players in payment processing flow. Biller merchants that collect payments from customers will often work with Aggregators to collect those payments. PayPal processed those payments. The flows my team worked on focused on the Aggregator employee experiences using PayPal and monitoring the payments customer made to Billers.

 

PRIMARY USERS

All of these users work for an Aggregator (example aggregator: Paymentus).

 

WORKSHOPS | FOG (Facts, Opinion, Guesses)

To collect and align on existing platform experiences, I ran a 2 day FOG workshop with 11 cross functional team members.

 
 
 
 
 

EXISTING FLOWS

In the company’s effort to merge products onto a singular platform, it was imperative I fully understand the product as it existed on all platforms.

 
 

All data on screen views have been modified for public viewing

 

FINAL DESIGNS

There were 2 phases with the Bill Pay implementation. Phase 1, MVP and Phase 2, Vision.

Following each user I walked our stakeholders through the existing flows and identified the pain points and opportunities. I then walked through the improved flows on the new platform, following the same user. Leaders empathized with the user and understand the users goals, motives, and daily tasks.

 

Phase 1 / MVP

 

Phase 2 / Vision

The visuals and features that differ from Phase 1 and Phase 2 are aligned with multiple teams roadmaps and priorities.

 

MEASURED SUCCESS

Throughout the project, and its many evolutions, I maintained a project brief to document the work done and the effort made. Because the project was reprioritized the final designs where never built, but the work was still relevant and guided the designers after me to learn, understand, and grow Bill Pay. Below is an example of the project brief for the Discovery phase.

 

Looking Forward

As a Design leader in my organization, I am excited to support and grow other designers. I find that in helping others define their real value is through guiding them to understand what they truly care about.

Within the Bill Pay segment, the work I do supports the greater good of PayPal, but I find that it is most encouraging to see the work connect into a greater vision and make a global impact.