The KYC Overhaul
An end-to-end tech & design KYC revamp from high friction experience to building trust-led experience.
We tripled our KYC success rate after the release!
Quick FYI 📌
This is the high-altitude version of a case study I'm working on. The full version walks through the proper design process, specific design decisions, the trade-offs we made, and the solutions that didn't make it.
Happy to give an end-to-end walkthrough 1:1.
What is it about?
We've all hit that mandatory KYC wall. Setting up a wallet, applying for a loan; same story. A tedious flow that either frustrates you or makes you drop off entirely.
MobiKwik was no exception - our highest-revenue products i.e. Wallet, Pocket UPI, and ZIP EMI are regulated. To unlock any of them, users must complete KYC.
Around 7.5M+ MAU were getting stuck in a compliance-heavy, broken, high-friction flow built more like a regulator's checklist than a user experience.
User Insights & Data were loud!
The Leaky Funnel: The end-to-end KYC conversion was sitting at 4.71%. To put that in perspective, we were losing 95 out of every 100 potential users before they could access any product. It was the single biggest bottleneck between users and our most important offerings.
The Frustrated Users: Support ticket analysis and a heuristic audit surfaced recurring frustrations.
Where the problems actually sat?
Four structural issues underneath the complaints:
A broken experience - long, unintuitive, and unguided.
A weak value proposition asking for sensitive data without explaining why.
High friction at Video KYC because users were unprepared.
A leaky funnel where technical and flow failures compounded each other.
What we solved?
A guided KYC flow with a clear progress bar.
For users not opting into Video KYC, we designed an optimised non-face-to-face compliance path using CPV (contact point verification) and a first-transaction check - deliberately positioned as the fallback.
We automated minimum KYC by pulling PAN and DOB via bureau data using just the user's phone number, turning the process into a one-click journey for nearly 40%-60% of users.
We reworked the Video KYC nudge strategy to actively steer users toward it, with clear prep guidance upfront because Video KYC consistently delivered the highest-quality verifications.
When things broke, we replaced hard failures with 5-10 second failover logic that rerouted users to alternate verification methods instead of dropping them into a dead end.
Every one of these decisions came with a trade-off we knowingly accepted. Friction we kept on purpose. Cost we absorbed. User choice we narrowed. The full case study walks through the reasoning behind each.
