Digital Identity Manager: Upselling users without compromising trust
Company
Experian
May 2022
Role
Product Design Lead
Sole Designer
Collaborators
Product Owner - Identity
Senior Researcher
Developers
Executive summary
Leading the design of Experian Partner Solutions' Digital Identity Manager project, I transformed a complex privacy challenge into a compelling user experience that balances trust-building with business needs. By designing an educational journey that revealed personal data exposure before requesting commitment, I achieved 40% user engagement with the free scan and an 8% conversion rate to paid services. When faced with unexpected technical constraints, I developed an innovative parent-child UI structure with inferred status logic, which maintained usability while accommodating system limitations. This trust-first approach generated millions in new revenue while establishing a repeatable framework for converting free users to paid subscribers without sacrificing user trust.
Context
Designing for trust and growth: A privacy tool that converts.
Digital Identity Manager is a privacy-focused feature developed within Experian Partner Solutions (EPS), Experian's B2B2C arm. EPS delivers white-labeled financial wellness and identity protection solutions to partner organizations through portals, APIs, or custom implementations.
People-finder sites, also known as data brokers, collect and sell personal data (names, addresses, relatives, and phone numbers), often exposing users to identity theft risks. Digital Identity Manager (DIM) helps users regain their privacy by scanning these sites for information and requesting its removal.
My roles
I advanced a trust-first user experience, user flows, cross-functional UX alignment, and interface consistency and scalability through design systems.
I executed tasks including clarifying the problem space and vendor capabilities, defining scope, writing user-facing copy, designing solutions, testing, and overseeing the hand-off process.
Project impact
The launch of Digital Identity Manager generated millions in new revenue, validating the commercial viability of a trust-first design approach. The free scan experience achieved 40% user engagement and an average conversion rate of 8% from free to paid. The results demonstrate that when users clearly understood the risks and value, they were motivated to upgrade.
Understanding
The users:
Interested in protecting their identity
As a B2B2C product, the end users were often not the direct customers. They accessed the platform via a partner-branded portal, making design consistency and white-label flexibility essential. Users varied widely in tech savviness, motivation, and understanding of privacy best practices; the design needed to accommodate the lowest common denominator.
The tasks:
Engage, understand, upgrade
Users needed to engage with the free scan experience, understand people-finder sites and their risks, and learn how the paid service could help them reclaim their privacy.
Pre-scan product page description carousel.
The tool:
People-finder description, scans, upgrades, and status
DIM is an automated privacy and identity protection feature that continuously scans for users' data on people-finder sites. This feature was powered by a third-party blackbox API that we could not modify, only design around. The product included a one-time free scan and an option to upgrade to paid continuous scans and automated removal requests.
Dashboard call-to-action (free scan) button
Scan results call to upgrade to paid.
Project Goal & Scope
The goal was to launch a modular, white-label privacy product that continuously scanned people-finder sites and automatically requested the removal of user data. This included creating a free version with a one-time scan to demonstrate value and encourage upgrades to the paid version, as well as a variation that facilitated direct onboarding for paid users. All solutions needed to be compatible with a legacy platform used across partner implementations.
Our original plan for this product was to integrate it with our Identity Health Score feature. We intended to add data from the scans into the score calculation and present each scan as a special type of task that we completed for the user. I worked on this for a few weeks when our Stakeholder informed us that one of our partners was interested in DIM as a stand-alone product, not integrated with IHS, and we needed to pivot in that direction.
Project Task I
Designing the core free-to-paid experience
Scan results, free vs paid.
Problem
I conducted research on the problem space to understand how people-finder websites expose consumers to risk.
During the discovery phase, I researched the business models of people-finder sites and the specific risks they presented to consumers. They are data brokers that collect, store, and sell personal information. They collect data from public records and information posted online in public forums or social media. Their customers use these sites for various reasons, such as reconnecting with an old friend, researching a potential love interest, or connecting with a neighbor. Having this information available on the Internet makes it more likely to fall into the wrong hands, which can increase the risk of fraud, identity theft, and even stalking or harassment. This research informed our strategy for communicating these complex threats in a clear and accessible way.
Problem
User testing revealed that many individuals were unaware and alarmed to find out that their personal data was available for purchase.
Collaborating with a Senior Researcher over two rounds of testing, I initially focused on explaining what people-finder sites are, their functions, and the potential risks associated with them. Users were hesitant to engage because of the paradox of identity protection products: to protect their identity, they need to share more personal data. However, early tests showed that once users engaged with a scan and saw what data of theirs was being sold, they became intrigued and motivated to learn more. I was surprised at how impactful a button labeled "free" could be!
Problem
Initial tests revealed that our subjects initially struggled to understand the value proposition.
Test participants did not immediately grasp the difference between the free scan and the paid protection, despite having a paragraph describing the differences. One participant asked, "What exactly do I get if I pay?" Some believed that the paid option would scan more sites or search for additional types of data. Consequently, I revised our messaging to emphasize the automated removals, which resonated well with our subjects.
Approach
Scanability and guiding users from awareness to action.
I designed a user flow that began with a dashboard card offering a free scan, utilizing minimal text and a clear call to action. Before engaging with the free scan, the product page contained approachable and informative content about people-finder websites and the risks they may pose. The free scan revealed users’ exposed personal data, creating a strong emotional impact. I paired these results with upgrade messaging emphasizing the convenience, security, and ongoing protection the paid service provides.
Product page risk description and free scan prompt.
Scan results with a call to upgrade to paid.
I collaborated closely with the Product Owner to promote a trust-first approach, rather than pushing for an immediate upsell. My years of experience working with users who were either worried about identity theft or looking to improve their credit scores taught me that nothing undermines trust more quickly than a hard sell. This collaborative approach ultimately enabled our team to align on a user experience that strikes a balance between business goals and user needs.
Project Task II
Scope increase: manual validation for broker networks
Problem
After explaining automated removals to users, some sites started to block them, and I had to pivot.
When we encountered a late-stage challenge, specifically when certain people-finder networks started blocking automated removals, I took the lead in designing a solution. Instead of overhauling the entire design, I developed a parent-child variation of the accordion pattern already in use. I included additional instructions that helped users understand the network concept and the extra steps they needed to undertake with these networks. This approach preserved the user experience and design system consistency while addressing the underlying technical constraints. It gave clear instructions without overwhelming users and kept the product delivery on track.
People-finder network and non-network sites
Above: No people-finder networks
Problem
I figured out a way to display the system's status, for sites we don’t control, to users.
After being relieved to devise a simple solution to distinguish stand-alone people-finder sites from networked ones, I encountered another challenge. The email validation process would occur on the people-finder sites, not in our system or the vendor's. Therefore, we would be unable to update the system status for our users. Even after a user completes the manual validation, the status message still indicates "action needed," leading to a poor and confusing user experience.
Then it occurred to me that since we frequently re-scanned the network sites, if we saw that user data had been removed from one network child site, we could infer that the sibling sites were also being updated. If all data had been removed from a network’s child sites, we could update the network status to "completed." I communicated the importance of addressing this issue to the team and presented my idea for implementing logic to update the status accordingly. After collaborating with the Development team to assess the level of effort required, everyone was on board, and we successfully implemented the solution.
Approach
Adaptive problem-solving that balances user needs with technical constraints while maintaining system consistency.
When confronted with the unexpected challenges of automated blocking, I took a strategic approach instead of starting from scratch. I utilized existing design patterns and thoughtfully adapted them to meet new requirements. I demonstrated a strong understanding of user mental models by anticipating potential points of confusion, such as discrepancies in status messaging, and addressing them effectively. I proactively designed solutions that aligned the system’s behavior with user expectations.
My process involved close collaboration with the development team to ensure feasibility while advocating for improvements in user experience. This approach helped ensure that technical limitations did not compromise the overall user journey. Throughout this process, I maintained a holistic view that considered both the immediate needs of users and the long-term consistency of the product.
I grouped networks and their sites into hierarchical containers to underscore their relationship and help users understand that a single validation could affect multiple sites. These containers included simple instructions for users to follow, and then we applied logic to the scan updates to infer status, providing clarity and confidence in the data removal process.
Output
Final screens
Impact
Success metrics & results
40% user engagement with the free scan
8% average conversion from free to paid product
Fewer than 100 service calls for the user base
“
I like that there is an option to see what information is available for free to really demonstrate how much could be out there and the option for upgrading ... and have someone handle it for you.
P7, Complete ID user
Conclusion
This project embodied three key design principles that guide my work:
Building trust before asking for commitment, evidenced by our educational approach
Progressive disclosure - revealing information in digestible chunks at the right moment
Emotional impact as a motivator - showing users their actual exposed information created urgency without fear-mongering
Joining design, product, and development early in problem-solving has effectively addressed changes and technical constraints. I have often had to address restraints with design compromises, but I am increasingly recognizing places where they can be opportunities for innovation. My case study for the FICO Score Planner is an example of how I continue to address limitations with innovations.