Financial Health & Goal Setting

Research & Strategy

I partnered closely with a senior user researcher to build the foundation for this work from the ground up.

• Conducted foundational research into how users think about, talk about, and struggle with their financial lives beyond their credit score.
• Synthesized findings into a holistic financial health strategy, reframing the product's role from 'score tracker' to 'financial health partner.'
• Sketched a future-state vision for the program spanning multiple releases, from a single tool to a full financial health platform.
• Validated the strategy and vision directly with users and with Experian executives, refining the narrative and priorities based on both.

Key Insights

• Users didn't lack information - they lacked a next step. Seeing a score or balance without a clear action attached to it created anxiety, not progress.
• Goals made financial health concrete. Users engaged more when their finances were tied to something tangible, like an emergency fund, a car, or a home, rather than abstract 'improvement.'
• Trust had to be earned incrementally. Rather than pitching the full vision at once, we needed a small, low-risk way to prove the hypothesis before asking the business to invest.

Validating the Vision: An Emergency Fund MVP

Rather than pitching a large, multi-quarter platform on research alone, I scoped a fast, deliberately scrappy MVP to test one part of the vision: would users actually engage with a goal-setting tool inside the Experian app?

We designed a single, focused engagement test - a goal-setting flow for building an emergency fund. It was intentionally minimal: one goal type, a simple setup flow, and lightweight progress tracking. The point wasn't polish; it was a clean read on user intent.

The results were decisive. Users who set a goal saw engagement triple compared to users who didn't - a clear, low-cost signal that the broader financial health hypothesis was worth the business's investment.

From MVP to Platform: Financial Health

The MVP's results gave the team the case it needed. Experian prioritized building a full, all-encompassing financial health experience, partnering with the Financial Health Network - a nonprofit focused on financial wellbeing - to ground the product in a proprietary, research-backed financial health algorithm rather than an internally invented one.

As Design Manager and Lead Product Designer, I led the team through:

• Designing the end-to-end Financial Health experience, translating the algorithm's outputs into clear, plain-English guidance.
• Directing 2 senior designers and partnering with 2 senior researchers, a PM, and 6 engineers to take the vision from concept to shipped product.
• Integrating AI/ML capabilities that explain, in plain English, what is affecting a user's financial health and why.
• Designing E.V.A., a conversational chatbot that lets users ask follow-up questions about their financial health and receive personalized next steps.

Financial Health launched this year and continues to evolve based on user feedback and usage data.