Prepaid Portal
Company: Brim Financial
Role: Product Designer
Timeline: Ongoing
Tools Used
Problem
The core problem we are addressing is financial friction caused by the gap between traditional banking and the modern digital economy. Currently, many individuals are excluded from online commerce due to a lack of credit or formal bank accounts, while others struggle with the risk of overspending and the security vulnerabilities of linking their primary savings to digital transactions. By offering a prepaid cash card, we eliminate these barriers, providing a secure, "debt-proof" gateway that combines the accessibility of cash with the functionality of a digital card, ultimately giving users greater control over their financial lives without the burdens of traditional debt or banking requirements.
Role & Responsibilities
I collaborated closely with the Project Manager and the Director of Prepaid to align on the legislative and FINTRAC requirements essential for a digital prepaid card. This involved mapping the mandatory onboarding flows, defining fund movements across various wallet structures, and establishing protocols to mitigate high-risk or illegal activity. Leveraging this deep understanding of prepaid card architecture, I partnered with another designer to architect the customer portal while syncing with backend engineers to ensure the development of robust, corresponding APIs.
Problem
Unlike traditional credit cards, which leverage credit scores and deep financial histories, prepaid cards lack a natural barrier to entry. This creates a significant vulnerability for money laundering and high-risk activity. As a designer, my challenge was to architect an application flow that ensures a strict 1:1 ratio between users and prepaid credit cards. I had to solve for identity duplication and FINTRAC compliance without compromising the experience that prepaid users expect.
Mapping the application
To align the team on the required information needed to be gathered, journey maps were created prior to any low-fidelity design work. This allowed us to visualize the complex application and ensured we captured every regulatory information requirement—such as FINTRAC declarations—at the ideal moment in the user experience.
Prepaid portal
Following the application flow, I led the end-to-end design of the Prepaid Customer Portal, a comprehensive dashboard focused on post-verification utility and retention. To ensure a market-competitive experience, I conducted an extensive comparative audit of industry leaders like Koho and Wise, identifying critical UX patterns in real-time transaction tracking and wallet management. This research, combined with targeted user testing, allowed us to bridge the gap between complex backend API capabilities and a user-centric interface. By leveraging our internal Design System, I maintained high visual parity across the platform while streamlining the handoff to backend engineers. This systematic process ensured that high-stakes actions—such as fund movements between wallets and instant card locking—remained intuitive, secure, and aligned with our overarching goal of financial transparency.
Challenges & Key Lessons
Bumps along the way, and insights leanred
Challenge: Bridging the Gap Between Credit and Prepaid
While I initially expected prepaid cards to mirror credit card UX, the discovery phase highlighted a fundamental shift in architecture and regulation. The challenge lay in unlearning credit patterns to solve for FINTRAC-mandated onboarding and complex, real-time 'money-movement' logic. I led cross-functional working sessions to synthesize these requirements, ensuring our portal design was both user-centric and fully compliant with the unique legislative landscape of prepaid stored-value products.
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