The Step App

The normal emotions surrounding money make it hard to understand user behavior but to make it more difficult for us, teen banking is inherently a dual-audience problem.

1. 01Teens need a product that feels simple, intuitive, and empowering.
2. 02Parents need to trust the product enough to approve and fund their child's account.

To add to that, most teens have limited financial knowledge and small balances, which raises the bar for clarity and usability.

I led product design from zero to launch, including:

• —Conducting early user research with teens and parents
• —Defining product strategy and core feature set
• —Designing the initial app architecture and UX
• —Building Steps first design system
• —Hiring and mentoring the first additional product designer

We focused the product on three core behaviors in the form of jobs to be done.

1. 01Checking account balance
2. 02Transferring money
3. 03Tracking transactions

I also drove a 6-month soft launch strategy, using real users from the waitlist to identify friction and run rapid experiments to improve onboarding conversion. We specifically targeted KYC — the process in which users enter the required personal information like Social Security Number — and funding.

This work highlights my ability to:

• —Take a product from 0 → 1 in an early-stage environment
• —Balance user needs with business and growth strategy
• —Build design systems and teams alongside product development
• —Use research and experimentation to drive measurable outcomes