Bpifrance - Rethinking the complexity of a financial product catalog to deliver a better partner experience

Objectives: Designing a dedicated ecosystem of partner platforms to strengthen collaboration

As France’s public investment bank, Bpifrance plays a pivotal role in providing financial support and strategic guidance to SMEs, fueling their growth and contributing to the development of the national economy.

In addition to working directly with entrepreneurs, Bpifrance also supports an extensive ecosystem of partners—including commercial banks, startup accelerators, and regional authorities. The goal of this collaborative network is to streamline access to financing and enhance cooperation between stakeholders to better serve business owners.

Driven by a desire to reimagine the partner experience and deepen collaboration on joint initiatives, Bpifrance entrusted us with the design of a dedicated ecosystem of partner platforms to streamline the management and distribution of funding solutions for businesses.

Key challenges: Simplifying access to Bpifrance’s full range of financial products

This was a large-scale digital transformation initiative, aiming to revamp the full spectrum of Bpifrance’s partner-facing financial products—over 300 offerings and related services.

Historically, the product catalog was only available in static formats, such as printed guides or downloadable PDFs. These materials would often become outdated shortly after release due to the frequent addition of new products and changes in existing ones. Moreover, the logistics of printing and distributing the guide across mainland France and overseas territories came with significant costs.

As part of the product catalog’s digital transformation, a key focus was on information architecture—rethinking how content is structured and accessed. One of the main challenges was the legacy classification system, which grouped products based on Bpifrance’s internal organizational structure. This taxonomy did not align with how partners searched for or expected to navigate product information, making it necessary to redesign the entire categorization approach.

Our solution: Restructuring product information to fit partner needs

To enhance searchability, clarity, and usability, we began by conducting in-depth interviews with partner organizations to understand how they currently interact with the product guide.

This research uncovered a clear disconnect between how information was produced internally and how it was consumed externally. In many cases, partners had to reinterpret and reformat product data to fit their internal tools and workflows.

We facilitated a series of co-creation workshops involving Bpifrance and its partner network to collaboratively redefine the structure and presentation of the product offering. Over a six-month period, 100 participants contributed to expanding the catalog’s navigational model across four key dimensions:

• Type – The nature of the financial product or non-financial support (reflecting the original categories from the printed guide)
• Sector – Products tailored to specific industries
• Theme – Solutions supporting strategic initiatives such as innovation, international expansion, or sustainable development
• Region – Offerings designed for specific geographic areas within France

Simultaneously, we overhauled the product page design to improve information hierarchy and highlight the most relevant content for partners, enabling them to identify and extract key insights in just a few clicks.

We also integrated Bpifrance’s intelligent recommendation engine to guide partners toward the most suitable products, based on both their needs and those of the entrepreneurs they support.

Results: A more streamlined, actionable experience for Bpifrance partners

This initiative underscores the value of user-centered design in driving operational efficiency and delivering business value. Partners can now assess their eligibility for financial solutions without having to navigate lengthy documentation.

They can also move seamlessly from discovery to action by submitting product requests directly online—eliminating unnecessary steps and significantly reducing the time and effort required to identify appropriate offerings.

For Bpifrance, digitizing the catalog has led to tangible benefits: real-time updates across platforms, lower printing and distribution costs, and a reduced environmental footprint. The organization now has full visibility into its live product portfolio at all times.

The project was submitted to the UX Design Awards 2023, and was nominated in the “Product” category—one of only a few selected from 544 entries across 54 countries. The UX Design Awards is a global competition recognizing excellence in user experience design across all industries. This nomination highlights ekino’s ongoing commitment to crafting meaningful digital experiences that meet real user needs.