Designing how we design

2020-2025. Financial services/Fintech, UX leadership, Product design

When I joined, design was mostly seen as a service: fragmented, reactive, and dependent on other teams’ decisions. I quickly realized that to make a real impact, we needed to change not just what we designed, but how we designed.

I started by building trust and structure, introducing planning rituals, clearer roles, and shared tools. Over time, our work evolved from creating isolated deliverables to shaping connected experiences across channels.

We formalized Design Ops practices that made design visible in company planning and execution, and we began defining early frameworks for Research Ops to give structure to how we learn from users. Through initiatives like the Design System and Experience Governance, I helped the company design how it designs, establishing the culture, processes, and tools that sustain design at scale.

Here's a few of the initiatives we tackled

Designing with data Website Revamp Mobile App

Outcomes

App store rating increase
2.9→4.7

25%
App enrollment increase

-45%
Contact center calls

Reduced user exits to external browsers

Context

The mobile app was a critical touchpoint for our users yet it suffered from inconsistent UX, fragmented information, and confusing flows.

We had an opportunity to redesign not just the interface, but the entire user experience with a focus on clarity, functionality, and measurable outcomes.

This effort built upon the foundations of our Designing with Data initiative, and marked a key moment in positioning design as a strategic partner in product development.

Challenge

How could we optimize and scale the app experience to make it more useful, consistent, and centered on real user behavior?

Solution

Working closely with product and engineering, we identified and addressed key pain points across the experience.

1. Fuel Map

Redesigned the experience to make it more intuitive, visually clear, and functional on the go, helping users quickly find nearby stations and compare prices.
2. New Benefits Section
Unified Promotions and Benefits into a single, clearer, and categorized experience.
- Migrated all flows to the native app, eliminating the need to open a browser
- Defined rules to display different types of ads depending on strategic partnerships
3. User Profile Optimization

Simplified navigation, reorganized key information, and streamlined frequent actions like editing and updating data.
4. Enrollment Flow

Updated the cardholder onboarding to make it more straightforward, understandable, and visually consistent with the rest of the app.
5. Merchant Map MVP

Co-designed with Product an MVP for exploring affiliated merchants, with filters by location, category, and relevance.
6. Notification Center

Completely redesigned the notifications experience to improve hierarchy, reduce friction, and increase visibility of relevant messages.

Outputs