How Designing for Finance Taught Me to Put People First

Last week I had a blast joining The Kunai Podcast: Fintech Is Eating the World, hosted by Henk Campher. We dug into my journey, from sketching interfaces in MS Paint back in Brazil to shaping user experiences for Google’s most strategic fintech products. If you’re a designer, builder, or just fintech-curious, here’s what I shared:

I still remember firing up MS Paint on my family PC, drawing buttons pixel by pixel. That early “toy” was my first lesson in interaction design: even the simplest tools spark big ideas. Whether it’s a napkin sketch or a Figma file, every prototype teaches you something about flow, hierarchy, and how humans really click. Moving from Brazil to New York wasn’t just a change of skyline; it was a crash course in cultural empathy. I learned that inclusive design means more than color contrast or alt tags. It’s about listening deeply to diverse user stories and then weaving those voices back into every screen, form, and error message.

2. Bridging Creativity and Compliance in Financial Design

Working at Citi taught me the art of balancing the visionary with the regulated. Here’s how I navigated that tightrope:

Partner with legal early. Invite compliance teams into your brainstorming sessions so their insights inform your prototypes and don’t stall them.

Prototype fast, validate faster. Use MVPs in sandbox environments to test flows like KYC or AML checks without risking production data.
Tell user stories. When you share research anecdotes (“I watched Maria struggle to upload her ID on mobile”), stakeholders feel the pain and empathize, smoothing approval paths.

3. Building a High-Performing Fintech UX Team

Designing at scale means growing people, not just headcount. My playbook:

Hire curious minds, not just portfolios.
Pair juniors with mentors through “design buddies” so learning happens on live projects.
Embed UX across squads so when designers sit with engineers, ideas flow more naturally.
Celebrate micro-wins like a sticky prototype, a user delight moment, or a bug caught early. Recognition fuels creativity.

4. Your Next Steps as a Fintech Designer

Want to break into this world? Try these three moves:

Design a financial flow by redesigning a loan application or mobile deposit experience.
Learn core regulations such as KYC, AML, or PSD2, depending on your region.
Join fintech communities through meetups, Twitter Spaces, or niche Slack groups for mentorship and networking.

I’d love to know which trend you’re most excited about— send me a DM on LinkedIn!