Bridgit: Building the Case for a New Way to Lend

Before a single feature could be designed, we needed answers to three questions: How big is this market? What are brokers and BDMs actually offering these customers today — and where does it fall short? And could we make a case strong enough to convince a major bank to fund it?

• Researched the market value and competitive landscape for retirement-adjacent lending in Australia — mapping current offers, pricing and gaps.
• Joined broker and BDM discussion groups to hear first-hand what these customers were being offered, what objections came up, and where existing products failed them.
• Worked with credit, risk and compliance to interpret responsible-lending requirements, ensuring the product concept was compliant by design, not retrofitted.
• Partnered with Business Development Representatives to understand customer objections, financial goals and commercial needs.
• While researching broker and customer friction, identified improvement opportunities in our internal CRM that streamlined how credit checkers reviewed and signed off loans — contributing to Bridgit's 24-hour approval times.
• Contributed to the deployment of 20+ user stories: requirements, prioritisation, rollout, troubleshooting and adoption documentation.
• Co-wrote a research paper with the marketing team documenting the market opportunity and customer need.
• Created the investor deck presented to Macquarie Bank making the case for why this market — and this product — was worth backing.

The research and investor presentation supported a further $100m equity investment from Macquarie Bank, funding development for a market segment most lenders overlook — while the internal improvements shipped during the same period helped Bridgit offer 24-hour approval times.

I'd formalise the broker listening programme into a repeatable research channel from week one — the insight density was too valuable to gather ad hoc.