Class project · 2024 LendMate Alum

Finding out what kind of alumni would actually lend to students

Before a lending platform got built, our research gave its founders their first evidence-based view of the alumni who would fund it.

Client: LendMate, an early-stage startup
Role: UX researcher
When: Class project · February to April 2024
Team: Five student researchers · 30 alumni interviews · I recruited 11 participants and helped run 7 interviews
Tools: Miro, Canva

the problem

LendMate had a compelling pitch for students and no validated picture of the alumni who would fund the loans.

what I did

Recruited 11 of our 30 participants, helped run 7 interviews, synthesized the notes in affinity diagrams, and built two lender personas and journey maps.

what changed

The founders got two distinct kinds of lender to design for, backed by evidence instead of a hunch.

“We couldn't assume. We had to ask.”
How our team started

Mile 1 · Sit with the problem

An unproven lender side

LendMate is building peer-to-peer lending between a university's alumni and its current students. Alumni lend directly, earn a return and support their school: personal, flexible and good for both sides, in the way Airbnb is.

Our class worked as LendMate's research team. Alumni would be putting real money into a personal loan for a stranger, so we needed to know:

Who would actually lend?
What would motivate them, and what would make them hesitate?
How would their relationship with their university shape the decision?

what I owned

Recruiting
Alumni interviews
Interview guide
Synthesis
Affinity diagrams
Lender personas
Journey maps
Founder presentation

Mile 2 · Listen to real people

Interviews, not surveys

We were trying to discover hypotheses, not confirm them. A survey can't tell you why someone trusts or distrusts a financial platform, so we chose in-depth interviews. Our team of five interviewed 30 alumni. I recruited 11 of them, and I helped run 7 interviews, asking the questions in most and taking notes in the rest.

One interviewer, one note-takerSo the person asking could stay fully present in the conversation.
Open, non-leading questionsHow alumni feel about their university as adults, how they think about money they've already earned, and what giving back means to them.
Recruiting the hard wayUniversity email lists and alumni groups went mostly unanswered, so we turned to personal networks. That kept the project moving, and it introduced sampling bias.
Affinity diagrams in MiroWe coded the notes and clustered them until the patterns across participants were clear.

A blue and gold flyer: Alumni of the University of Michigan, we need your help. Participate in a 20-minute student-led interview and share your experiences about your time as a student. — Two of our recruiting flyers. I covered a teammate's email address.

A navy and yellow flyer: Remember being a broke college student? Participate in LendMate, alumni to student loans. Be interviewed by current students and personally make a difference in a student's life. — Two of our recruiting flyers. I covered a teammate's email address.

Affinity board columns: volunteers for personal benefit, far from the university, moved on after college, college only wants money from alumni, invests based on morals, doesn't owe success to college, involved with university alumni, mainly lends to people they know, and involved with the university. Each sticky note is tagged by participant. — Part of our affinity board in Miro, with every note tagged by participant. Click a board to open it full size.

More affinity board columns: not connected with the university, religious values, community service for the good of others, involved as a student, good university experiences, values financial return, doesn't value financial return, financial platforms, and how they manage money. — Part of our affinity board in Miro, with every note tagged by participant. Click a board to open it full size.

Mile 3 · Find the insight

Two reasons to lend

One onboarding flow would not serve both kinds of lender.

The two archetypes weren't just age groups. They differed in motivation, risk tolerance and what they expected LendMate to be.

the middle-aged investor

Financially established and engaged with the university. Motivated by return, credibility and building a legacy. Thinks in portfolios, so LendMate has to feel structured and trustworthy.

the retired philanthropist

Less focused on returns, more on community impact and helping the next generation. The human story matters as much as the financial terms.

Persona of John Smith, the Middle-Aged Investor: a University of Michigan alum and data scientist in his 30s who wants to build his wealth, with his goals, frustrations, interests and traits. — Persona: John Smith, the Middle-Aged Investor

Persona of Sarah May, a retired philanthropist, with her biography, motivations, goals, frustrations and personality traits. — Persona: Sarah May, the Retired Philanthropist

Mile 4 · Admit what I got wrong

What I'd do differently

Recruiting through our own networks gave us people who already trusted us, which likely tilted answers toward optimism. Next time I would recruit a more varied group earlier, build in incentives from the start, and give synthesis more time. The notes held more than we had time to surface.

Mile 5 · Make it work for them

What it meant for LendMate

Trust has to be built two waysInvestors need confidence in the financial structure and the returns.
The value can't only be financialPhilanthropic lenders need to see the human and community impact.
There is no single lender mindsetThe product experience should reflect both motivations.

We mapped each lender's journey in five steps, from first hearing about the opportunity to looking back after lending. For both, worry peaked at the trust step, before they decided whether to lend: they wanted to know the student was real and could be trusted.

Journey map for John Smith, the Middle-Aged Investor, across five steps: investment opportunity, financial consideration, trust, investment decision and retrospective. He goes from intrigue to unsure, a spike of anxiety at trust, contemplation, then relief. — Journey maps for both lenders. Click a map to open it full size.

Journey map for Sarah May, the Retired Philanthropist, across the same five steps. She goes from interested to unsure, anxious at trust, determining, then contemplation. — Journey maps for both lenders. Click a map to open it full size.

Where it landed

At the end of the semester we presented our findings and journey maps to LendMate's founders. They appreciated the findings and seemed genuinely intrigued by them. I don't know what they did with the research after the semester ended.

We also delivered a mock investor pitch deck that turned the research into a business story, showing that UX insight can speak beyond the design team.

Thank you to Professor Natalie Fang, the LendMate founders and my team.

Reflection

The best moments came from restraint: not leading, not filling the silence, and letting people keep talking.