Case Study

HCB Business App Redesign

I led the redesign of HCB Business — Home Credit Bank Kazakhstan's SME banking app that had outgrown its MVP architecture.

RoleHead of Product Design
Team4 designers · 9 streams
TimelineFeb – Dec 2025
ScopeEnd-to-end redesign
55→76%Registration
+23%Stickiness
+19%Merchant MAU
4.9VoC
HCB Business App Redesign
01

Context

Product
Home Credit Bank is historically a retail bank. Three years ago it launched its first business direction — an SME banking app built from zero. The team went from concepts to production in 6 months and reached break-even by December 2025.
Problem
The product scaled faster than its design could adapt — 7 currencies, cards, deposits, loans, insurance, merchant cabinet. The team was shipping so fast that new features were layered on the original MVP structure without time to rethink the foundation.
Initiative
This wasn't assigned — I identified the need, built the business case, and defended it to C-suite and shareholders. The first attempt reached final mockups but was killed for business reasons. I regrouped and made the second one ship.
Scope
Pre-auth zone · Home screen · Merchant cabinet · Operations · Support · Growth. End-to-end: research → concept → design → production.
02

Research

Competitive analysis across Kaspi, Halyk, Jusan, and HCB. 50+ user interviews across merchant, SME, and FX segments.

AI-Accelerated Research

I built a pipeline with WhisperAI + Claude + Obsidian to process interview recordings. AI transcribes, fills research protocols, and enables instant quote retrieval.

1.5h→5min· per respondent · 10+ per study
03

From a dead-end placeholder to a conversion engine

Registration conversion was stuck at 55%. The pre-auth zone was a placeholder — a tagline and two buttons. Users arrived with no product context and no way to tell which registration path applied to them.

The obvious fix was an onboarding wizard, but data showed users drop at different points by business type. I split into 3 entry points instead — with product info, pricing, and quick access to branches and FAQ.

Pre-auth zone — before redesign

Before — placeholder with two buttons

Pre-auth zone — after redesign

After — product info, pricing, branch access

55→76%

Registration conversion

04

Reducing friction for daily banking tasks

Users couldn't find basic features — requisites, statements. The home screen showed everything at once without hierarchy, burying core actions.

I could reorganize the layout, but research showed fundamentally different needs. We introduced quick actions + My Bank hub. I accelerated design system updates with AI agents for token and component generation.

Home screen — before redesign

Before — everything at once, no hierarchy

Home screen — after redesign

After — quick actions, balance, promotions

+23%

Stickiness on working days

15% → 18.5% DAU/MAU
05

Surfacing the core product for our primary audience

The merchant cabinet — primary daily tool for our core audience — was buried multiple navigation levels deep. Merchants had to hunt for features they used every day.

My instinct was to redesign the cabinet. The real problem was access. We moved it to tab 5 — minimal change, outsized impact. Feature design was led by Nikita Bugornov on my team.

Merchant cabinet — before redesign

Before — buried in navigation

Merchant cabinet — after redesign

After — tab 5, instant access

+19%

Merchant MAU

+40% new merchants · +21% total revenue
06

Results

55→76%

Registration conversion

+23%

Stickiness (workdays)

15% → 18.5% DAU/MAU
+19%

Merchant MAU

+40% new merchants
4.9

Voice of Customer

+21%

Total merchant revenue

+15%

Sessions per user

+12%

Customer base

43K → 48K
07

How we worked

Research — Feb 2025
50+ user interviews across merchant, SME, and FX segments. Competitive matrix across Kaspi, Halyk, Jusan, and HCB. Top-10 operations benchmark.
Concept — Mar–Apr 2025
App Vision deck — defended to C-suite and shareholders. I authored ~80% of the presentation; the director presented.
Design — Apr–Aug 2025
Full redesign across all screens and flows. New design system aligned with the retail banking app.
Shipping — Sep–Dec 2025
Gradual production rollout. Monitoring via Power BI. Iteration based on VoC and engagement data.

I initiated the redesign — identified the need, built the business case, and sold it to leadership. We ran this in parallel with active delivery across 9 product streams: 4 designers, each covering 2–3 streams, plus the redesign workload on top.

08

What I learned

Design can lead business strategy
The redesign wasn't assigned to us. I identified the need, built the case, and defended it to the C-suite. The business followed design. This is what design leadership looks like in practice.
Two attempts make the third one work
The first redesign (early 2024) reached final mockups, passed reviews — then was killed for business reasons. That experience shaped the framing and buy-in that made the second attempt ship.
Access beats features
Moving the merchant cabinet to tab 5 was a minimal design change. It drove a 19% MAU lift. Getting users to their core task faster matters more than building new features.
AI multiplies, humans decide
AI transcribed interviews, generated tokens, accelerated research pipelines. But every decision — what to build, what to cut, how to frame the case — was human. AI is the multiplier, not the decision-maker.
09

Let's talk

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