Life at Lendi: Nico talks innovation and accessibility as a Senior Product Designer
By Nico Mele, Senior Product Designer,| 3 min read
We took a moment with Lendi Group's Senior Product Designer, Nico Mele, to uncover the best things about working in Platform, learn about the team dynamics and understand what sets Lendi Group apart.
Hey Nico, thanks for giving us some time out of your schedule. Can you let us know about your role and approach here at Lendi Group?
I’m one of the Senior Product Designers in Platform and started just over a year ago now. I work in a cross-functional team, overlooking data points captured during the customer home loan application process. We have multiple brands here at Lendi Group – my work with the data is predominantly with the Lendi brand.
My approach to product design is quite simple: it’s all about finding a good mix between delivering value to our customers whilst helping the business grow. I’m passionate about user research and accessibility and believe that designing for all is the key to ‘good design’.
What is it like to work within a scaleup, and more specifically what's it like in design?
It’s been exciting to see the team grow over the last year - the design team alone has almost doubled in size compared to when I joined back in June 2021! Despite the rapid growth, the ways we work with our cross-functional teams have not overly changed as we had some great processes in place from the start.
When it comes to the design team specifically, we’re a relatively new team and we all bring different skill sets to the table. We have skills like User Research, User Experience, UX writing and User Interface design, just to name a few.
When we’re not busy supporting our respective teams, we’re all working towards maturing the design practice here at Lendi Group. I continue to find exciting challenges as I get to shape the future of design and be part of the innovation.
The tech space is huge, what sets Lendi Group apart from its technology competitors?
The main point which sets us apart is our rapid innovation. Unlike other companies including some of our competitors, teams at Lendi Group can quickly identify problems and produce working solutions, in a matter of days. This is cultivated from the synergy of working in small, empowered cross-functional teams.
Further to this, our ways of working help foster this environment, such as with our fortnightly showcases, which are one of my favourite meetings. The showcases are truly a testament to how well design, engineering and product folks work together to continuously and quickly to deploy software that works, directly into the hands of our customers.
Can you tell us your top 3 highlights of working at Lendi Group?
People: everyone is highly collaborative and always willing to help. As a designer, I enjoy coming up with creative solutions built together by team collaboration.
Flexibility: having a Flex First philosophy continues to allow Lendi Group to attract the best talent from all over the country, as we now have team members in pretty much every state! Lendi Group has also recently introduced the Flex Internationally Guide. This allowed me to extend my recent trip to work from Europe because I could also work for a few weeks, which meant I got to spend more time visiting my family.
Learning opportunities: I’ve been at Lendi Group for over a year and I continue to learn every day! Every project we work on comes with challenges, and every challenge becomes a learning opportunity.
Lendi is hiring!
We're always on the lookout for passionate, motivated individuals who are excited about innovation and ongoing learning. If you're looking for a new opportunity, check out our open roles and company page to find out more.
An introductory rate is a promotional interest rate that lenders use to attract new customers. It is sometimes referred to as a ‘honeymoon rate’. An introductory rate is only for a limited period of time, typically 12 months, after which the interest rate on the loan typically rises and reverts to the lender’s standard variable interest rate.
Comparison rates
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