Ideation & Research • Information Architecture • Design Strategy • Design System Contributions
1 Product Manager • 4 Engineers • 1 UX Researcher
Mobile App • Web • Tablet App
Neo Financial
As a challenger bank aiming to disrupt Canada’s Big Five, Neo Financial needed a bold strategy to grow its user base. Partnering with Hudson’s Bay—the country’s oldest department store—offered the perfect entry point. Together, they launched the Hudson’s Bay Rewards Mastercard, unlocking access to millions of potential customers.
To make the most of this opportunity, Neo needed to enable fast, intuitive onboarding directly at store checkouts. The product experience had to serve both associates and customers, often on a single device, in a matter of minutes. A key challenge was enabling fast, intuitive onboarding directly at store checkouts. The experience had to support both associates and customers—often on a shared device—and complete within minutes to maintain retail flow.
The onboarding journey was designed to accommodate a co-piloted experience between store associates and customers-completed quickly within a few minutes, in a retail setting. It had to be clear, informative, and reassuring.
Onboarding millions of customers was a monumental task that required addressing numerous use cases and scenarios. To account for the various actors involved in the onboarding process, extensive research and analysis of existing systems, as well as customer and store associate behaviours, were conducted over several tens of hours.
Before diving into design, we uncovered several critical challenges through fieldwork, testing, and stakeholder interviews. These issues impacted both user confidence and operational efficiency. By validating each problem using proven UX research methods, I was able to design targeted, scalable solutions that improved the onboarding experience for millions of Canadians.
All problems are not equal—and some presented more of a challenge than others, requiring deeper thought, multiple iterations, and ongoing user testing.
I designed introduced a dual-mode screen with distinct flows for store associates and customers. The associate view included coaching tips and handoff instructions, while the customer view emphasized clarity and brevity.
Legal copy and promotional terms were reformatted using progressive disclosure. We introduced collapsible sections and chunked important content into digestible steps.
Added a persistent progress indicator with clearly labeled steps, helping users anticipate next actions and reducing abandonment at critical steps.
The app's design needed to enable quick transitions between store associates and customers to meet the distinct needs necessary for successful onboarding. Optimizing the information architecture was essential for facilitating new customer onboarding to obtain credit cards. By focusing on this aspect, I was able to effectively accommodate the flows for potential customers seeking to acquire a credit card.
Post-launch Mixpanel data showed a 92% completion rate for the onboarding flow, with positive feedback from both store associates and customers citing ease of use and reduced confusion.
“This was the fastest store sign-up I've ever done. Everything was just... clear.”
Two weeks in, we noticed a 15% drop-off at the final confirmation screen. Mixpanel funnels revealed users were unsure if clicking 'Submit' would finalize their application or allow edits.
We ran another usability test and updated the final screen copy and CTA to reflect clarity: changing "Submit" to "Complete My Application" and adding a short summary box of their inputs.
This project was a lesson in merging the speed of digital onboarding with the human nuances of in-person retail. By grounding decisions in user research and data, we were able to deliver a flexible, scalable product that’s now used by hundreds of store associates and millions of customers across Canada.
