Spark to Core:
Upward Card

HausMoney provides instant tip payouts to restaurant employees. Their entire business depends on uninterrupted card infrastructure and app access, so when both were sunset in mid-2024 by their previous provider, it wasn't just a technical problem. It was an existential one. So we saw the opportunity to build it for them. As the sole designer, I owned it end-to-end. It was Upward's first Mastercard-labeled credit builder card product, a new category that came with real banking relationships, compliance requirements, and KYC flows baked into every design decision. I worked alongside CEOs and PMs from both companies, shipping a product that went live in 6 months on the App Store and Google Play.

Before designing anything I audited competitor and industry apps to understand what conventions users were already trained on, and also how we could stand out in a crowded market. For users accessing their pay through a new product, the design needed to feel like it belonged alongside the banks they already relied on and offer something unique.

From there I worked closely with our COO to map out everything the product needed, building a wishlist that became the foundation for the full flow architecture. Feedback was folded in, final UI was locked, and I handled all UX copy throughout, working with our legal team to make sure disclosures were visible without overwhelming the experience.

The goal for onboarding was to simplify as much as possible. Every step had to earn its place. The MVP product launched in December 2024, on time.

The HausMoney launch proved that Upward could build and ship a card product at speed, and the market noticed. Partner after partner signed on. Unlike HausMoney's native app, subsequent partners embedded the card experience directly into their own products, letting them launch a branded card program without building the infrastructure themselves. The card product became Upward's core offering, exponentially expanding reach and establishing the company as a serious player in the embedded fintech space.

A year in, the product was trusted. But usage data told a clear story: onboarding was strong, but activity was low. Through our own support calls and an internal beta program I ran, combined with research HausMoney had gathered, the friction points came into focus. Users needed faster transfers, better visibility into their transaction history, and more value from everyday card use. I completed the full redesign in one month, then led the rollout end to end, working directly with our frontend engineer to cut tickets and phase the expansion across Q1 2026.

The two screens users interacted with most needed the most work. A hierarchy reset on the home screen and a long overdue consolidation of card management.

This is the project I am most proud of. Building an entirely new product category from scratch, with real stakes for real users, and watching it put Upward on the map is not something I expected this early in my career. It was also one of the most collaborative projects I have worked on, across two companies, multiple stakeholders, and a tight knit engineering team that made the whole thing possible.

Phase 2 taught me a lot about what it means to lead through a product, not just design one. Running beta sessions, synthesizing feedback, and working closely with our frontend engineer to plan and execute the rollout showed me how much of good product work happens in the spaces between the screens.