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Re-Imagining the Client Profile
Creating a financial profile independent of the mortgage application process
About Perch
Perch is a Canadian startup with a bold mission: to simplify the home-buying process and help Canadians save on mortgages. Through a range of digital tools, Perch creates a seamless experience for buyers, realtors, and brokers alike.
Their client portal acts as the central hub of this ecosystem—allowing users to:
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See what they can afford
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Get same-day pre-approvals
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Connect with realtors and start house hunting
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Work with Perch advisors to pick the right mortgage
But beneath this promising user journey, one part of the platform needed a rethink: the client profile.
The Problem
When I joined the project, the client profile section was tightly coupled with the mortgage application. Users could only begin adding personal and financial information once they had already initiated a mortgage application. Not only was this limiting, but it also created barriers for those who wanted to explore different scenarios or reuse their data.
This setup created three major pain points:
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No reusability: Users had to re-enter the same information every time they applied.
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Poor discoverability: Updating personal or financial details wasn’t intuitive.
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Lack of integration: The profile didn’t link well with other Perch tools.
It became clear: the client profile needed to become an independent, user-friendly space that supported the broader Perch ecosystem.
The Solution
My goal was to redesign the profile experience as a standalone financial dashboard—one that users could build, manage, and reuse across different tools and applications.
The new profile had to:
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Be intuitive and easy to navigate
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Allow users to manage and update information at any time
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Seamlessly integrate into Perch’s mortgage and financial products
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Enable the business to personalize offers using this data
My Role
I led the redesign from start to finish—conducting research, defining the product direction, building wireframes, and designing high-fidelity mockups in collaboration with the product team.
🛠️ Tool stack:
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Personas & interviews: Notion + Google Meet
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User flows & competitor research: FigJam
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Designs: Figma
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Project tracking: Jira
Challenges
1
Making it Intuitive
2
Aligning with the
Mortgage Application
The new experience had to support easy updates, surface required actions, and give users a clear sense of their document history.
Since the client profile feeds into mortgage pre-approvals and approvals, it had to mirror every step of that process—without overwhelming the user.
4
Untangling Employment & Income
5
Managing Different
Document Types
Previously, employment and income lived together in one section. But not all income is job-based. I redesigned this to separate employment income from additional sources like rental income, alimony, or disability payments.
Provide support for two distinct document types:
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Static documents ( eg. IDs )
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Signed documents (eg. agreements)
The challenge was to make uploading, viewing, and managing them easy—for both users and advisors.
3
We needed a clear system that tied each credit check to a valid consent form, to reduce the risk of legal or procedural errors.
Tracking Credit Check
Consent
Design Process
The design journey started with understanding the humans behind the profiles.
I started by diving deep into our existing user personas and research. From there, I conducted interviews with both clients and internal stakeholders. These conversations revealed frustration with the current flow, but also highlighted a desire for a smarter, reusable profile experience.
“I want to reuse the same info for multiple mortgage scenarios—I don’t want to start over every time.”
— A user during interview
Listening to Users & Stakeholders
Studying the Market
I ran a competitive analysis of platforms like Nesto, Homewise, Morty, and Pine. It helped me benchmark user expectations and identify gaps in our current product.
Design Process for Perch Client Profile
Based on my research, I worked with the product manager to identify high-impact features that could be built first. We focused on structuring key profile sections, creating a smart document manager, and enabling profile reuse.
Once the vision was in place, I translated it into flows and screens.I created a detailed user flow that outlined how users would navigate through their profile—adding employment details, uploading documents, or giving consent for a credit check.
Defining the MVP & Mapping the User flow
Crafting the Experience
We tested internally and with real users, gathering feedback on everything from navigation labels to field groupings. Each round of feedback helped refine the flow, leading to a more intuitive experience.
Testing & Iterating
User Flow for Perch Client Profile
The redesigned profile section allows users to create, edit, and reuse their financial profile at any time—whether or not they’ve started a mortgage application.
Each section—from employment details to document uploads—is cleanly organized and easy to navigate. This not only helps users, but also gives Perch a clearer picture of their clients, enabling smarter product recommendations.
The Final Solution
Final Perch Client Profile
The redesigned client profile had an immediate impact:
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Higher completion rates: More users were finishing their profiles independently.
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Reduced advisor burden: With structured information, advisors spent less time sorting through documents.
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More cross-product engagement: Users who created profiles were more likely to explore other Perch services.
It also gave Perch the infrastructure to build long-term relationships with clients—offering them more relevant financial tools as their life stage or housing needs changed.
Impact
Credit Consent for Client Profile
This project was a perfect mix of UX thinking, systems design, and business alignment. From untangling the user flow to crafting a document system that actually works, it challenged me to think holistically.
I’m proud of how this redesign simplified users’ lives and added value to the business. It also sharpened my ability to connect research insights with product decisions—and tell a compelling story through design.