Debt Management Plan Web Portal
GreenPath Financial Wellness
GreenPath is helping people escape debt and build a financial foundation for their dreams.
web
web
mobile
mobile
desktop
desktop
embedded
![](https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/628fcc1631ad0b25b32f223e/6345c41cef06be85edfe8cad_Hero_fe25e19ecd3ccb2d1839c16b8e269f2a-min.png)
Atomic started by observing and interviewing GreenPath's call center team. Together with GreenPath, they created a prototype for testing using a sketching exercise.
A mockup of the mobile view of the portal was shared directly with GreenPath clients (the end users) via the private GreenPath DMP Facebook community.
Atomic learned that starting the DMP can be stressful. Clients are often confused about what they need to do, and they’re hungry for practical information about their plan. Atomic also learned that clients really appreciate encouragement and motivation to continue.
During design, Atomic asked the Facebook group to review workflows, user interfaces, and visual designs. They then made a clickable prototype and tested it with DMP clients on-site.
Member of the DMP Facebook Community
Coordinating Stakeholders
![](https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/628d552469d2a1b0c6b730a9/63625c0796c6527710c14ea9_Recycle.png)
![](https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/628d552469d2a1b0c6b730a9/63625c054b004d70d1c2c567_Groups.png)
![](https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/628d552469d2a1b0c6b730a9/63625c028a367e8a4bebfcc0_Computer.png)
Project Highlights
The portal emphasizes motivational messages and useful, encouraging stats. It shows each user their unique tasks and offers live chat support with GreenPath. Users also receive nudges, progress updates, just-in-time messaging, and milestone badges to keep them motivated.
The three main features on the dashboard were designed to answer the 3 most common questions surfaced during user research: When is my next payment due? What tasks do I need to complete? How long until my debts are paid?
Technical Specs
Atomic designed the system architecture and wrote software and firmware for:
![](https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/628d552469d2a1b0c6b730a9/6362571bbe17203b58c6ab7b_network.png)
![](https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/628d552469d2a1b0c6b730a9/63625882a89d6c4d89f0e07f_gateway.png)
![](https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/628d552469d2a1b0c6b730a9/636258867bb31f12ea922948_web-app.png)
Nicole Bladzik, Director of Information Technology
Phase 2: Developing a Full-feature Workshop Experience
With the Learning Map developed into a digital product, Root wanted to further help users dive into their organization’s strategy, financials, or processes with a second release. Among other features, they sought to create a kind of a virtual whiteboard, where everyone’s voice could be heard in a fun, engaging, and meaningful way.
Atomic’s Software Design Practice Lead in Ann Arbor, Bryan Elkus, led design work on the project. He saw the user experience of going through the Learning Map activities as a type of collaborative online challenge.
Under the guidance of Atomic's Software Consultant & Designer Bryan Elkus, the project emphasized collaborative user experiences, akin to an online group challenge, focusing on:
- Consultants facilitating onboarding, ice-breakers, and exercises.
- Client company employees engaging in organizational change.
Atomic Object Software Consultant & Developer Matt Soto his development work focused on delivering Root’s vision of polish, complex features, and emphasizing a business model around the digital product.
Root's VP, Nate Butki says Atomic’s consultative approach helped the project team uncover and address underlying needs rather than merely executing requests.
“Atomic didn’t want to just figure out what we wanted and give it to us—but rather figured out the need and helped us with it,” he said. “If they had listened to us and spit out exactly what we asked for, they would have only gotten 80 percent of it. Atomic’s team asked the questions and pushed us further.”
Technical Specs
Atomic designed the system architecture and wrote software and firmware for:
![](https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/628d552469d2a1b0c6b730a9/6362571bbe17203b58c6ab7b_network.png)
![](https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/628d552469d2a1b0c6b730a9/63625882a89d6c4d89f0e07f_gateway.png)
![](https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/628d552469d2a1b0c6b730a9/636258867bb31f12ea922948_web-app.png)
Nicole Bladzik, Director of Information Technology
![](https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/628fcc1631ad0b25b32f223e/6345c2e275c34dbb53236eac_greenpath-details.png)
Phase 2: Developing a Full-feature Workshop Experience
With the Learning Map developed into a digital product, Root wanted to further help users dive into their organization’s strategy, financials, or processes with a second release. Among other features, they sought to create a kind of a virtual whiteboard, where everyone’s voice could be heard in a fun, engaging, and meaningful way.
Atomic’s Software Design Practice Lead in Ann Arbor, Bryan Elkus, led design work on the project. He saw the user experience of going through the Learning Map activities as a type of collaborative online challenge.
Under the guidance of Atomic's Software Consultant & Designer Bryan Elkus, the project emphasized collaborative user experiences, akin to an online group challenge, focusing on:
• Consultants facilitating onboarding, ice-breakers, and exercises.
• Client company employees engaging in organizational change.
Atomic Object Software Consultant & Developer Matt Soto his development work focused on delivering Root’s vision of polish, complex features, and emphasizing a business model around the digital product. Root's VP, Nate Butki says Atomic’s consultative approach helped the project team uncover and address underlying needs rather than merely executing requests.
“Atomic didn’t want to just figure out what we wanted and give it to us—but rather figured out the need and helped us with it,” he said. “If they had listened to us and spit out exactly what we asked for, they would have only gotten 80 percent of it. Atomic’s team asked the questions and pushed us further.”
Nate Butki, Root VP
Taste-testing the Product in the Field
Delivering A Great Product and An Empowered Team
By getting to share their decades’ experience with agile practices, Atomic’s team got to watch the counterparts at Root develop new skills over the course of the second engagement.
Soto says he loved watching Root’s inherently collaborative culture adopt the agible practices they were learning.
“After a few months, they loved how easy and smooth it was to make last-minute changes, to pivot in another direction, and use feedback to spend their time where it was most impactful,” he said.
Root’s Jared Page says the agile approach to product design, development, and management he saw during the engagement had a profound impact.
“One of my favorite things about this project is that everyone got better—better at our jobs and better with communication; it just feels cool,” he said. “Sometimes you work for a year and don’t know if you’ve improved but everyone could look back on this project and say they’ve improved. This project changed the way I will work forever.”
![](https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/628fcc1631ad0b25b32f223e/6345c31edcfdca5940471229_Hero.png)
Results
- Feedback from clients has been extremely positive, and retention rates are up.
- Clients can better understand the program and see their progress, which helps them stick with the DMP to the end.
- Increased transparency means clients feel more confident about GreenPath.
Under the Hood
For the new client portal, Atomic developed a responsive, single-page web app.
GreenPath had security concerns about giving the web app access to the API. The middleware server gives GreenPath the ability to publish information from their CMS into the infrastructure of the single-page web app.
During development, GreenPath’s internal team updated their backend CMS and connected it with the new API. The two teams collaborated on technical challenges.
If we needed to figure out how to make something work, Atomic was always part of the solution. The communication was great. There was always flexibility to meet our needs in the fastest way possible. It was like working with our own internal team.
Coordinating Stakeholders
![](https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/628d552469d2a1b0c6b730a9/63625c0796c6527710c14ea9_Recycle.png)
![](https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/628d552469d2a1b0c6b730a9/63625c054b004d70d1c2c567_Groups.png)
![](https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/628d552469d2a1b0c6b730a9/63625c028a367e8a4bebfcc0_Computer.png)
A Partnership with a Storybook Ending
The team’s careful project management, client communication, cutting-edge architecture, and cohesive design strategy helped the team ship the product on time and on budget.
Reflecting back on the multi-year, high-profile project, Robinson said Atomic helped his company arrive at a special moment in time.
“We'd never done anything this big. Ever,” he said. “We’re live across all the major pillars Atomic said they would deliver on. It was delivered on time, on budget, to expectation, live. Not three or four milestones late with people leaving and the platform half-baked and full of bugs.”
StoryLoom began open-beta in December 2022. A global launch is scheduled for the spring of 2023.
“We’ve been given a rare opportunity," said Robinson, "to find success by chasing opportunities Starship Enterprise-style: going where people aren’t—pushing boundaries.”
Nicole Bladzik, Director of Information Technology