Simple
Credit Card Expense
Empowering users with a credit card synced savings pocket.
UX Design
Mobile + Web
Growth Focus
Role
Design Lead
Responsibilities
Discovery, UX Research, Visual Design
Collaborators
Compliance, Product, QA, Engineering
Timeline
10 weeks
Summary
This project was my welcome to Simple, which in many ways was a dream job. While the work around this concept of a Credit Card Expense had been started, it was in need of continued support + v2 iteration. While learning indepth the ins + outs of Simple users I jumped into this unique functionality full steam.
Months later our cross-functional team was delivering the first of its kind Expense, which in Simple parlance was a kind of savings account, attached directly to a third party credit card providing a ‘set it + forget it’ environment providing users the best of both credit + debit.
Goals:
reach 1000 customers to test hypothesis (v1)
increase adoption of Simple Plus
add credit card auto pay from Credit Card Expense (v2)
1000
Target user audience reached for v1 hypothesis validation pool
1
Edge case of 'Statement Gap' that team conquered
Challenges
The Experiment
Simple aimed to launch this Credit Card Expense feature for a first 1000 users in order to evaluate potential impact on user adoption and the value proposition of Simple Plus.
By offering this unique budgeting feature, we hypothesized it would differentiate Simple from competitors and bring value to Simple Plus.
Moreover, this initiative served as an opportunity to explore using expense adoption behaviors as an alternative to traditional credit modeling, potentially assessing if Simple Plus customers using Credit Card Expenses were less likely to default than non-users.
Key insights
Upon release of v1 we learned;
One
Users were having trouble distinguishing between funding the expense + actually paying the card balance.
Two
Confusion also existed around how the credit card was to be paid with expectations focused around it being auto spent from the expense.
Process + Methodology
Strategic Foundation
Armed with the above information from the v1 release, we proceeded to design the needed steps to bring full credit card payment direct from the Expense to life. What we didn't expect was perhaps the highlight of the entire project.
Design Process
Discovery & Architecture: We worked iteratively following the user flow from above as well as the insights gleaned from the v1 release. Mapping out mockups below got us a majority of the way there.
Ideation & Exploration: For further validation we turned to a usability study that I relish employing - a simple but effective way to clarify + communicate where in the flow users are struggling + finding pain points. From there we jumped into solving the biggest issue, that of not just savings the funds to pay the credit card but actually linking + paying the card balance at the users discretion.
"There shouldn't be ANY confusion about how and when it gets paid. Make it super clear."
User CB
Highlight
One edge case we spent a significant amount of time with was that of Statement Gap. This is the period of time on the credit provider's side between the end of the statement period + the actual release of what that balance is. There are numerous reasons for this delay + detailed guidelines in place so it was something meaningful we had to account for.
I took it upon myself to put together a visual (below) for the sake of the team + our executive stakeholders in order to clearly tell the story of how we would handle this in regards to making credit card payments via the Credit Card Expense (copy in red to right).
Outcome
Credit Card Expense v2 was completed on schedule as designed near the end of the year. It was on track to grow Simple Plus adoption in the coming new year. Unfortunately not long after, Simple's parent company was purchased + as a result Simple as an entity was shut down. The feedback (see blow) and mometum was in place to make this a truly special tool for our users + for that I'm disappointed we never got the opportunity to truly run with it. For the record, I'm still not aware of any tool like this to this day.
Business goals
From the beginning our goal was to release to 1000 users in order to gauge both the risk involved with this as well as explore using expense adoption behaviors as an alternative to traditional credit modeling, potentially assessing if Simple Plus customers using Credit Card Expenses were less likely to default than non-users. We achieed this number + it was simply a matter of time to gather the data.
Simple
Credit Card Expense
Empowering users with a credit card synced savings pocket.
UX Design
Mobile + Web
Growth Focus
Role
Design Lead
Responsibilities
Discovery, UX Research, Visual Design
Collaborators
Compliance, Product, QA, Engineering
Timeline
10 weeks
Summary
This project was my welcome to Simple, which in many ways was a dream job. While the work around this concept of a Credit Card Expense had been started, it was in need of continued support + v2 iteration. While learning indepth the ins + outs of Simple users I jumped into this unique functionality full steam.
Months later our cross-functional team was delivering the first of its kind Expense, which in Simple parlance was a kind of savings account, attached directly to a third party credit card providing a ‘set it + forget it’ environment providing users the best of both credit + debit.
Goals:
reach 1000 customers to test hypothesis (v1)
increase adoption of Simple Plus
add credit card auto pay from Credit Card Expense (v2)
1000
Target user audience reached for v1 hypothesis validation pool
1
Edge case of 'Statement Gap' that team conquered
Challenges
The Experiment
Simple aimed to launch this Credit Card Expense feature for a first 1000 users in order to evaluate potential impact on user adoption and the value proposition of Simple Plus.
By offering this unique budgeting feature, we hypothesized it would differentiate Simple from competitors and bring value to Simple Plus.
Moreover, this initiative served as an opportunity to explore using expense adoption behaviors as an alternative to traditional credit modeling, potentially assessing if Simple Plus customers using Credit Card Expenses were less likely to default than non-users.
Key insights
Upon release of v1 we learned;
One
Users were having trouble distinguishing between funding the expense + actually paying the card balance.
Two
Confusion also existed around how the credit card was to be paid with expectations focused around it being auto spent from the expense.
Process + Methodology
Strategic Foundation
Armed with the above information from the v1 release, we proceeded to design the needed steps to bring full credit card payment direct from the Expense to life. What we didn't expect was perhaps the highlight of the entire project.
Design Process
Discovery & Architecture: We worked iteratively following the user flow from above as well as the insights gleaned from the v1 release. Mapping out mockups below got us a majority of the way there.
Ideation & Exploration: For further validation we turned to a usability study that I relish employing - a simple but effective way to clarify + communicate where in the flow users are struggling + finding pain points. From there we jumped into solving the biggest issue, that of not just savings the funds to pay the credit card but actually linking + paying the card balance at the users discretion.
"There shouldn't be ANY confusion about how and when it gets paid. Make it super clear."
User CB
Highlight
One edge case we spent a significant amount of time with was that of Statement Gap. This is the period of time on the credit provider's side between the end of the statement period + the actual release of what that balance is. There are numerous reasons for this delay + detailed guidelines in place so it was something meaningful we had to account for.
I took it upon myself to put together a visual (below) for the sake of the team + our executive stakeholders in order to clearly tell the story of how we would handle this in regards to making credit card payments via the Credit Card Expense (copy in red to right).
Outcome
Credit Card Expense v2 was completed on schedule as designed near the end of the year. It was on track to grow Simple Plus adoption in the coming new year. Unfortunately not long after, Simple's parent company was purchased + as a result Simple as an entity was shut down. The feedback (see blow) and mometum was in place to make this a truly special tool for our users + for that I'm disappointed we never got the opportunity to truly run with it. For the record, I'm still not aware of any tool like this to this day.
Business goals
From the beginning our goal was to release to 1000 users in order to gauge both the risk involved with this as well as explore using expense adoption behaviors as an alternative to traditional credit modeling, potentially assessing if Simple Plus customers using Credit Card Expenses were less likely to default than non-users. We achieed this number + it was simply a matter of time to gather the data.
Simple
Credit Card Expense
Empowering users with a credit card synced savings pocket.
UX Design
Mobile + Web
Growth Focus
Role
Design Lead
Responsibilities
Discovery, UX Research, Visual Design
Collaborators
Compliance, Product, QA, Engineering
Timeline
10 weeks
Summary
This project was my welcome to Simple, which in many ways was a dream job. While the work around this concept of a Credit Card Expense had been started, it was in need of continued support + v2 iteration. While learning indepth the ins + outs of Simple users I jumped into this unique functionality full steam.
Months later our cross-functional team was delivering the first of its kind Expense, which in Simple parlance was a kind of savings account, attached directly to a third party credit card providing a ‘set it + forget it’ environment providing users the best of both credit + debit.
Goals:
reach 1000 customers to test hypothesis (v1)
increase adoption of Simple Plus
add credit card auto pay from Credit Card Expense (v2)
1000
Target user audience reached for v1 hypothesis validation pool
1
Edge case of 'Statement Gap' that team conquered
Challenges
The Experiment
Simple aimed to launch this Credit Card Expense feature for a first 1000 users in order to evaluate potential impact on user adoption and the value proposition of Simple Plus.
By offering this unique budgeting feature, we hypothesized it would differentiate Simple from competitors and bring value to Simple Plus.
Moreover, this initiative served as an opportunity to explore using expense adoption behaviors as an alternative to traditional credit modeling, potentially assessing if Simple Plus customers using Credit Card Expenses were less likely to default than non-users.
Key insights
Upon release of v1 we learned;
One
Users were having trouble distinguishing between funding the expense + actually paying the card balance.
Two
Confusion also existed around how the credit card was to be paid with expectations focused around it being auto spent from the expense.
Process + Methodology
Strategic Foundation
Armed with the above information from the v1 release, we proceeded to design the needed steps to bring full credit card payment direct from the Expense to life. What we didn't expect was perhaps the highlight of the entire project.
Design Process
Discovery & Architecture: We worked iteratively following the user flow from above as well as the insights gleaned from the v1 release. Mapping out mockups below got us a majority of the way there.
Ideation & Exploration: For further validation we turned to a usability study that I relish employing - a simple but effective way to clarify + communicate where in the flow users are struggling + finding pain points. From there we jumped into solving the biggest issue, that of not just savings the funds to pay the credit card but actually linking + paying the card balance at the users discretion.
"There shouldn't be ANY confusion about how and when it gets paid. Make it super clear."
User CB
Highlight
One edge case we spent a significant amount of time with was that of Statement Gap. This is the period of time on the credit provider's side between the end of the statement period + the actual release of what that balance is. There are numerous reasons for this delay + detailed guidelines in place so it was something meaningful we had to account for.
I took it upon myself to put together a visual (below) for the sake of the team + our executive stakeholders in order to clearly tell the story of how we would handle this in regards to making credit card payments via the Credit Card Expense (copy in red to right).
Outcome
Credit Card Expense v2 was completed on schedule as designed near the end of the year. It was on track to grow Simple Plus adoption in the coming new year. Unfortunately not long after, Simple's parent company was purchased + as a result Simple as an entity was shut down. The feedback (see blow) and mometum was in place to make this a truly special tool for our users + for that I'm disappointed we never got the opportunity to truly run with it. For the record, I'm still not aware of any tool like this to this day.
Business goals
From the beginning our goal was to release to 1000 users in order to gauge both the risk involved with this as well as explore using expense adoption behaviors as an alternative to traditional credit modeling, potentially assessing if Simple Plus customers using Credit Card Expenses were less likely to default than non-users. We achieed this number + it was simply a matter of time to gather the data.