Designing in the fintech space requires more than just technical skill; it requires a deep sense of empathy for the "human" side of money. Karly Bryerman, a Senior Staff Product Designer at SoFi, has spent the last five years mastering this balance. As a leader in the Borrow unit, Karly specializes in untangling the complexities of debt and lending, transforming intimidating financial hurdles into transparent, manageable roadmaps for SoFi’s members.
From leading massive platform migrations to rethinking the emotional journey of homebuying, Karly’s work is a testament to what happens when a design-led approach meets a mission to help people get their money right. We sat down with her to discuss her journey, her proudest wins, and why she’s "obsessed" with member impact.
You sit in the Borrow unit at SoFi; what is it about the complexity of lending and debt management that keeps you energized and inspired every day?
Within the Borrow unit, we often tackle the ‘ick’ factor of debt. Many see taking on debt as a sign of being ‘bad with money’. Our challenge is to flip that narrative. Showing how debt, when managed correctly, can be used as a strategic tool keeps me energized. At the heart of our work is a tough design problem centered around shifting sentiment, eg. ‘how might we design an experience where refinancing student loans is understood as a lever towards other financial goals?’.
More generally, I feel an immense responsibility to do right by our members. I’m often thinking about how we integrate educational moments into our experiences as a way to break down the complexities of the Borrow space.
Having been at SoFi for five years, you’ve seen the Borrow product evolve significantly. What is one design challenge you’re particularly proud of solving that you feel has had the greatest direct impact on our members?
After five years at SoFi, the project I’m most proud of is the end-to-end redesign of our student loan loan management experience, sometimes referred to as loan servicing. This was a design-led initiative to rebuild how members manage their debt post-funding, which includes actions such as making payments and viewing payoff progress.
Historically, members were required to move to a third-party platform to manage their student loans. We’d often hear our members express a ‘bait and switch’ during moderated interviews; some wondering if SoFi had sold their loan before their first payment was due. The transition between platforms was creating confusion at a critical moment in their journey. More importantly, we were losing trust early.
As the designer owning this space, I had the opportunity to define our vision and elevate the pain of this problem. We pitched owning this surface as a foundational layer towards our north star, designed and built our v1 experience, and migrated existing borrowers back to the SoFi ecosystem – all within one calendar year. Seeing folks post their ‘paid off’ screens of the new SoFi experience has been incredibly rewarding.
You played a massive role in migrating our student loans into the SoFi platform. Beyond the technical migration, how did you approach designing a service experience that makes the daunting task of managing debt feel manageable and transparent for our members?
We started this exercise by addressing the trust gap highlighted above. Our approach focused on three key moments:
- The hand-off between application and servicing: We’re prioritizing transparency across surfaces by ensuring that interest rate / loan amount seen during the application process remains consistent and visible on first login.
- Effortless payments: By integrating SoFi bank accounts by default, we’ve removed the friction of manually entering bank account details. Members can see payments reflected immediately as progress towards payoff.
- Final payoff as an opportunity to introduce delight: Paying off your student loans is a big deal and should always be celebrated with a stream of confetti.
Throughout the UI, we included educational copy to explain complex data points around interest accrual and principal balance, highlighting that these numbers can change daily.
Homeownership is often the biggest purchase of a person’s life. How do you design the home loans journey to move beyond just a lending product and actually prepare a first-time buyer for the emotional and practical transition to owning a home?
Most folks have the dream of buying a home, but for many, it feels increasingly out of reach. Our challenge is to bridge the gap between dream and the reality of affordability.
We’re exploring ways to bring moments of reflection into our product experiences. Rather than focusing exclusively on the numbers, kicking off the home buying journey with the vision; definition of that dream home. Whether someone is eyeing that single-family home in the Inner Sunset, or a condo in the Mission District, we’re crafting a dedicated space to guide folks through the process.
We’re asking ‘How might we design unique experiences that transform the home-buying journey into a personalized roadmap?’. By moving beyond high-level loan estimates and providing a tangible vision of a future, we’re helping members transition away from feeling like they're priced out.
