Reducing time to onboard dealers into Motorway's payment product
TLDR
I led the redesign of the KYC (Know Your Customer) process for professional dealers, reducing the average form completion time from 18 days to just 5 days. By streamlining the flow, improving UX, and aligning with compliance needs, I enhanced dealer satisfaction and increased completion rates, driving faster onboarding and business growth.
Role
Senior Product Designer
Timeline
Feb - June 2024
Skills
Research, process mapping, documentation, team alignment
The problem
Motorway created an industry-first payment service called Motorway Pay. To comply with regulatory requirements, our payment provider required dealers to complete and pass a KYC (Know Your Customer) check before gaining access to the product. However, onboarding dealers was a lengthy, manual process involving three agent teams and took, on average, over 40 days.
After analysing the 5 main stages of onboarding, we realised that getting dealers to return the completed KYC form (Stage 1-2) was the part that took the longest time in the process, so that's where we decided to focus on Phase 1 of the KYC Onboarding project.
Goal: To provide dealers with an effortless onboarding experience by:
Reducing the average time between Stage 1 and 2 by 50%.
Give agents the visibility of the form before it's completed and submitted.
The discovery
Understanding the existing process
I conducted side-by-side sessions with the Payments Onboarding, Account Management, and Dealer Governance teams to gain a detailed understanding of the onboarding process. Through these sessions, I mapped out the step-by-step KYC journey for both new and existing dealers and uncovered the main pain points causing delays:
Form accessibility: The form was hosted on a separate server and could only be accessed via a link shared by agents or Account Managers. Dealers frequently lost the link in their inboxes, leading to repeated follow-ups from agents.
No progress visibility: Agents could only see the form answers after submission, meaning they had no insight into where dealers were getting stuck.
Inaccurate information: Before sending the form to our payment provider, agents manually cross-checked dealer answers with Companies House. Many dealers provided incorrect information, leading to repeated back-and-forth communication. That's why we can see a high number of days between Stage 2-3 of onboarding.
Disconnected systems: Agents relied on 9 different tools (including phone calls, spreadsheets, and various software systems), making the process difficult to manage and track efficiently.
Mapping agents process to onboard new and existing dealers on Motorway Pay
Solution requirements
After reviewing the mapped process and discussing pain points with the Product Manager and Client Onboarding agents, we defined the following requirements for the new solution:
A KYC form accessible on both the Dealer Platform and Agent Dashboard.
Pre-filled dealer information where possible.
Permission-based access, ensuring only authorised users could view or edit sensitive information.
Save progress functionality, allowing dealers to complete the form in stages.
Real-time status tracking integrated into the Dashboard — eliminating the need of spreadsheets.
Migration of existing KYC data for dealers already onboarded.
The solution
At first glance, the solution seemed simple: move the form into the product and connect it to the Dashboard. But as always, the reality was more complex.
Progress tracking
Completing the form was not a linear process. The user completing the form would often need additional details from other team members. In some cases, multiple people needed to complete the form (e.g., when Directors and Beneficial Owners were different individuals), so it was very important to differentiate what was completed and what wasn't.
Progress bar displayed on the KYC form
UI difference between empty and filled input fields
Form location
The Dealer platform didn’t have an “Accounts” section, which led to a navigation challenge. In collaboration with another designer from the Dealer team, we designed a new Accounts section, ensuring smooth navigation for both desktop and mobile users. This structure also benefited other teams, as it created a scalable space where they could later add additional account-related pages.
Permissions & Access control
KYC forms contain sensitive personal data, including residential addresses, so we had to ensure only the right people had access to this information.
Agent dashboard: All agents could see the KYC status, but only Client Onboarding agents could view and edit form details.
Dealer platform: Since a Users & Permissions system didn’t exist and building one was out of scope, we applied default logic. The Primary User (the main dealership contact) was granted KYC permissions, but dealers could request permission changes and agents would be able to edit it on Dashboard. A big majority of the dealerships had only one user, making this approach effective while keeping the system flexible for exceptions.
New users process
Previously, new dealers couldn’t access the Dealer platform until their KYC form was completed and they had full access to Motorway Pay.
Now that the form was integrated, new users needed restricted access — so they could complete the form but not bid on vehicles. I designed a ‘blocked’ view, which was lifted once KYC status changed and onboarding was complete.
Despite these hurdles, close collaboration and structured communication ensured smooth execution, and developed my ability to write detailed documentation.
User testing
Although dealers were the end users, we were quite confident they wouldn't have any issues completing the form. We knew the biggest process shift would impact agents from three different teams. To ensure smooth adoption, we:
Kept open communication channels via Slack and weekly feedback sessions.
Shared prototypes regularly to get input from agents early.
Ran in-person testing in Brighton a week before launch, allowing agents to test the staging environment.
Confirmed no last-minute issues, ensuring we went live on schedule.
To align all teams on the new process, I created an internal document mapping the user journey for each role. This served as a central reference, enabling each team to:
Develop role-specific training documentation.
Clearly understand who to contact at each stage of the process.
The impact
Reduction in the average time between Stage 1 and 2 of the Onboarding experience
Reduction in Client Onboarding agents needed to deal with KYC form related requests