{if first_name}
Hi {first_name},
{else if name}
Hi {first(name)},
{else}
Hi there,
{/if}
If you've ever sat in a product meeting where the risk team wants to add one more verification step and the product team wants to delete three fields, I have a virtual event for you.
For years, the instinct in lending has been to treat friction like a kitchen fire: stamp it out wherever it appears, since every extra step gives a borrower another chance to quit the application. I don't think that instinct holds up anymore.
Some friction deserves to die. Ask a borrower to retype a name and phone number you already have, and you've added a step that protects noone. But ask for a one-time passcode, and that friction reassures a borrower their data’s being safeguard by that institution. Ask why they need the loan, and you might learn something the rest of the application would never share.
Same instinct, opposite effect, hinging entirely on what that friction is for.
On September 30 at 1 PM ET, I’m sitting down with Tomás Campos, co-founder and CEO of Spinwheel, for The Science (and Fiction) of Friction.
Spinwheel has been conducting some fascinating research in the wild, and they’ve surfaced a few things I want to dig into, like how some friction is just bad information (40% of consumers say that at least half the time they get refinance offers at rates higher than what they already pay, while 43% get offers for credit cards they already have). Or how some friction is just bad timing. They’ve found that more than 1 in 4 abandon their online carts at least half the time when their card isn't within reach (for Gen Z, it’s 52%).
That said, what feels reassuring today can feel suspicious tomorrow. Embedded credit, marketplaces, and personalized experiences are already shaking up which is which.
We’ll chew on questions like:
- Is the traditional lead form dead, killed by the friction it was built on, or is that friction the only thing proving a lead is real?
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How does the right amount of friction change across a direct application, an embedded flow, an auto loan, a credit card, or a mortgage, and what happens once the applicant is an AI agent that couldn't care less how many fields you make it fill out?
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Can debt type and payment history already answer the question your extra verification step is trying to ask?
- Is a dynamically tailored application, different for every user, where we're all headed?
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If you're in risk, fraud, product, UX, marketplaces, or lending, or if you work on financial health. consumer advocacy, and product design standards … come join us, and bring your least favorite application field.
We can argue about whether it deserves to survive.
Register here: https://finitynetwork.com/events/8823f7d0-e120-4964-988c-8949724631a7
