Paven — Turning financial anxiety into confident action
Consumer Finance0→1iOS + WebDesign SystemsQualitative Research
Role Senior Product DesignerPeriod Aug 2020 – 2022Team 10+ cross-functionalPlatform iOS · Web
Quick Brief — for the hiring manager
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Problem
Despite high motivation, Meta employees felt crushed by financial complexity. Existing tools created "Overwhelm Paralysis" — too many options, too little guidance, zero action taken.
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My Role
Senior Product Designer at Round Feather. Sole owner of mobile experience design; led web. Team of 10+ including illustrators, content writers, engineers, and CEO as product owner.
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Impact
24% user growth from v1 to v3. 50% of all Deloitte financial coaching sessions booked directly via Paven. Meta employees arrived at sessions more informed, reducing cost per session.
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Approach
Journey mapping to identify 6 core failure points. Designed to defeat "Overwhelm Paralysis" and "Figuring-it-out Fatigue." Built mobile-first with an active learning + human coaching model.
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Outcomes
Paven 3.0 launched Jan 2022 (mobile) and May 2022 (web). Three major versions shipped with measurable growth at each iteration. Product valued at $7–8M.
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Learnings
Emotional barriers in personal finance aren't solved by adding features — they're solved by removing cognitive load. Scaling content-heavy mobile designs to web requires its own separate design strategy.
Timeline
Aug 2020 – 2022
Team Size
10+ cross-functional
Platform
iOS (primary) · Web
The Challenge
Starting with a blank canvas and a precise mission: make Meta employees feel financially empowered, not overwhelmed. The challenge was emotional as much as functional. Money is complicated, and people shut down when it gets hard — not because they don't care, but because the effort required to understand their own financial picture is genuinely exhausting.
We had to design a product that holds someone's hand through their financial life without feeling patronizing. One that gives them just enough information to take a meaningful next step — not so much that they close the app and never return.
The Core Insight
"People don't lack motivation. They lack a clear, manageable first step. Our job was to make that step obvious."
Who
Young Facebook employees who are seeking benefits through their employer and who are not financially tech savvy but are looking to achieve financial security / independence.
What
Paven is the only financial well-being app that is easy-to-consume, at your own pace and works with your whole human self, not just a bank account.
Why
Facebook as an employer wants to help their employees in addressing the financial stress and take action towards it.
How
Providing a web and mobile experience, rich in bite sized content also integrating necessary calculators for future planning.
56%
Employees feel high to medium financial stress
91%
Are highly motivated to do what it takes to create a strong financial future
62%
Employees feel they do not have the knowledge they need to improve their financial lives
Design Process
Research & Insights
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Overwhelm Paralysis
Users with high financial motivation still took no action. Too many options without prioritization led to decision paralysis — and eventual abandonment.
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Figuring-it-out Fatigue
Users spent more time researching how to improve their finances than actually improving them. Research exhaustion was a key drop-off point.
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Coaching Changes Everything
Users who accessed Deloitte coaching were significantly more likely to take action. The product needed to funnel people toward human support at the right moment.
Ideation — From Insight to Solution Space
Journey mapping surfaces surfaced six core failure modes. From these we defined a solution space that addressed each barrier directly — not with features, but with structural design choices about how content, goals, and coaching should interact.
Planning — Information Architecture & Sprint Structure
We defined three core areas of the app — Home, Lifepath, and Explore — and mapped the full sprint delivery timeline before moving into visual design, ensuring research findings directly shaped IA decisions.
Early Designs — Paven v1 for Facebook Employees
The first version established the core content model — financial articles, goal-setting, and coaching access. Designed exclusively for mobile, the early build validated the product hypothesis before expanding to web.
Key Design Decisions
01
Content-first, feature-second
Rather than leading with tools and calculators, we led with educational content that met users where they were emotionally. Active learning modules built confidence before asking users to take action — a counterintuitive but highly effective sequencing.
02
Integrate coaching as a first-class feature
The Deloitte coaching integration wasn't a sidebar — it was a core path in the product. We designed explicit moments in the journey where users were nudged toward booking a session, at precisely the points where DIY research would otherwise lead to fatigue.
03
Mobile-first, web as a distinct experience
Web wasn't a stretched mobile. We designed the web experience independently once mobile was validated — adapting the content density and interaction patterns to the different context of use rather than forcing responsive scaling.
"I can control the course of my life (and so I should)"
Am I spending my time right?
Will I be protected for my future?
Am I moving at the right pace?
Do I have enough information to make the right decision?
User Concerns
Little time to see the bigger picture
Many goals to balance
Uncertainty of progress
Overwhelming financial system
Barriers
Freedom from > Freedom to
Reconcile conflicting goals together rather than in isolation
Focus on the now vs. focus on the future
Learn based on financial relevancy to me
Solution Space
Enable users to see the big picture and redefine financial wellbeing as "freedom from" to "freedom to"
Reconcile conflicting goals together rather than in isolation
Enable users to reduce their temporal distance between their goals
Learn based on financial relevancy to me
Mobile UX — Solving the Content Engagement Problem
Only 35% of users who started reading articles actually finished them. We redesigned the entire content experience: shorter bite-sized formats, rich audio/video, action cards at the end of each article, and bookmarking — each change driven by a specific observed failure mode.
Web Experience — Paven Launched May 2022
The web experience was designed independently from mobile — not stretched, not responsive-scaled. Different context, different density, different user intent. Each financial goal gets its own dedicated planning view: budget, debt, retirement, education, and emergency funds modeled with full projection tooling.
Outcomes & Impact
24% Growth
User growth from Paven v1 to v3 — measurable at each iteration
50% Bookings
Of all Deloitte coaching sessions booked directly through Paven
$7–8M
Product valuation at time of engagement
3 Versions
Shipped — v1 launch, v3.0 Jan 2022 (mobile), May 2022 (web)
Beyond the metrics, Paven shifted how Meta thought about employee benefits. Financial wellness moved from a checkbox item to a product Meta was genuinely proud of — one that measurably reduced employee stress and improved their relationship with their own financial future.
Learnings
🧠
Emotional barriers aren't solved by adding features. The best product decision we made was to remove friction and cognitive load — not add capabilities.
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Mobile-first doesn't mean web is an afterthought. The web experience needed its own design strategy — different context, different content density, different user intent.
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Human coaching amplified digital product impact. The most powerful features we designed were the ones that seamlessly handed users off to a real person at the right moment.
