Palolo

WEB + MOBILE

WEB + MOBILE

UI/UX DESIGN

UI/UX DESIGN

DESIGN SYSTEM

DESIGN SYSTEM

BRANDING

BRANDING

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Short on time? Skip to a section ✨

Product Design

Brand Identity

Product Marketing

Project Overview

Financial stress leads to loss of productivity, lower team morale, and increased turnover. For employers, this is an issue because turnover costs them both time AND money.

The problem: Hourly and minimum wage workers face a specific set of challenges that many benefits platforms do not address, and their employers are also impacted as a result. It can be very difficult to make ends meet as many Americans live paycheck to paycheck, and unexpected expenses can leave employees vulnerable to predatory sources of income such as payday loans.


The solution: A suite of financial tools that are good for employers and employees, which act as a safety net and promote financial literacy through offerings such as 0% interest short-term loans, no-fee earned wage access, employer-sponsored bonus programs, and much more.


Product Design - Design System

I joined Palolo as the founding Product Designer, creating an MVP for the mobile and desktop app, as well as an initial design system in about one month.



In addition to the design system and components, we started by designing table stakes flows such as the signup process and password recovery, and then moved on to main features of the app such as the home screen and Pay Access perk.


Product Design - Design Development


Low Fidelity Mapping: By mapping out the screens, we were able to determine potential edge cases that needed to be considered in each of the user flows. In order to work efficiently, I worked closely with the engineering team to translate the Figma screens into the app, and with the design system and components library not every screen needed to be designed in Figma because I made sure they understood the design parameters. By ensuring that the engineering team understood the design standards and intent, it allowed me to provide copy and they were able to work independently.



Medium Fidelity: After mapping out the MVP flows, I moved to medium fidelity to focus on layout, structure, and interaction flow with updated colors and brand elements. At this stage, I refined the information hierarchy, user pathways, and key functionality using simple styling to a level that allowed me to test usability and gather feedback before investing in final visuals or development.



Final MVP Screens (Mobile + Web): The final designs incorporate the brand identity developed alongside the product, featuring a cohesive suite of custom icons that represent key features. The visual style uses a clean, neutral color palette accented with bold, vibrant highlights to draw attention to key interactions and create an engaging user experience.


Branding/Identity


In parallel with creating the MVP product we focused on refining the platform’s branding and identity. Our goal was to create a look that felt bright and approachable, and playful, yet trustworthy enough for a financial product. Early feedback revealed that our initial palette leaned too playful (and that vibrant pink, while fun, was a bit polarizing!).


We asked ourselves: How can we design a color system that feels lively and optimistic, but still communicates stability and confidence?


Through competitive analysis and a series of design charrettes, we landed on a purple primary palette, complemented by soft pastels to maintain warmth and approachability without mimicking competitors’ aesthetics. The logo, which is a stylized open wallet with sparkles emerging from the top, symbolizes the “Perks,” or financial benefits users gain through Palolo. All final brand assets, including icons, color styles, and typography, were documented in a shared Notion library for company-wide access and consistency.


Product Marketing

As a Product Marketing Manager, I owned the positioning, messaging, branding, and uptake of the product. My focus was on the user experience, acting as the connective tissue between sales/marketing/ops/product.

I produced a variety of deliverables, some of which are highlighted below.

Text message, e-mail, and phone campaigns: Using Sendgrid, I was responsible for sending all emails related to the app: invites, signup reminders, loan payment due dates, etc until the engineering team was able to automate them.

In order to determine which emails needed to be drafted, I created flow charts to map out all touchpoints at which the user experience might require email communcations.

I also created and managed email campaigns to annouce the launch of new Perks/features and to reach out to users to collect feedback and offer assistance with their signup and account. Phone calls and text messages were executed via Zendesk, which we also used to manage our customer support requests.


As a Product Marketing Manager, I owned the positioning, messaging, branding, and uptake of the product. My focus was on the user experience, acting as the connective tissue between sales/marketing/ops/product.

I produced a variety of deliverables, some of which are highlighted below.

Text message, e-mail, and phone campaigns: Using Sendgrid, I was responsible for sending all emails related to the app: invites, signup reminders, loan payment due dates, etc until the engineering team was able to automate them.

In order to determine which emails needed to be drafted, I created flow charts to map out all touchpoints at which the user experience might require email communcations.

I also created and managed email campaigns to annouce the launch of new Perks/features and to reach out to users to collect feedback and offer assistance with their signup and account. Phone calls and text messages were executed via Zendesk, which we also used to manage our customer support requests.


As a Product Marketing Manager, I owned the positioning, messaging, branding, and uptake of the product. My focus was on the user experience, acting as the connective tissue between sales/marketing/ops/product.

I produced a variety of deliverables, some of which are highlighted below.

Text message, e-mail, and phone campaigns: Using Sendgrid, I was responsible for sending all emails related to the app: invites, signup reminders, loan payment due dates, etc until the engineering team was able to automate them.

In order to determine which emails needed to be drafted, I created flow charts to map out all touchpoints at which the user experience might require email communcations.

I also created and managed email campaigns to annouce the launch of new Perks/features and to reach out to users to collect feedback and offer assistance with their signup and account. Phone calls and text messages were executed via Zendesk, which we also used to manage our customer support requests.



Marketing materials + pitch decks: I created visual marketing materials such as pitch decks and posters for employers to display in breakrooms and other public areas to announce the launch of Palolo at their company. View full pitch deck here.



Marketing materials + pitch decks: I created visual marketing materials such as pitch decks and posters for employers to display in breakrooms and other public areas to announce the launch of Palolo at their company. View full pitch deck here.



Marketing materials + pitch decks: I created visual marketing materials such as pitch decks and posters for employers to display in breakrooms and other public areas to announce the launch of Palolo at their company. View full pitch deck here.



Employer onboarding: After launching Palolo with multiple companies, we learned that employer endorsement and communication is a crucial aspect of the onboarding process that builds employee trust and leads to higher adoption rates.

The main hurdles that we identified that we needed to overcome included: The answer to the question 'what is Palolo', conveying that the platform is free to use due to the fact there are many competitors that charge the end user fees, and finally, that the emails we send aren't some type of phishing scam.

Based on our learnings, I created a 3 phase onboarding process and adopted a platform called Trumpet to create customized employer onboarding pages which help track progress in each phase, store important documents for reference, and more.

Previous launches that did not utilize this process yielded approximately 10% employee signup rate within 24 hours, but once we began this new process we reached over 15% adoption rate within 12 hours.



Employer onboarding: After launching Palolo with multiple companies, we learned that employer endorsement and communication is a crucial aspect of the onboarding process that builds employee trust and leads to higher adoption rates.

The main hurdles that we identified that we needed to overcome included: The answer to the question 'what is Palolo', conveying that the platform is free to use due to the fact there are many competitors that charge the end user fees, and finally, that the emails we send aren't some type of phishing scam.

Based on our learnings, I created a 3 phase onboarding process and adopted a platform called Trumpet to create customized employer onboarding pages which help track progress in each phase, store important documents for reference, and more.

Previous launches that did not utilize this process yielded approximately 10% employee signup rate within 24 hours, but once we began this new process we reached over 15% adoption rate within 12 hours.



Employer onboarding: After launching Palolo with multiple companies, we learned that employer endorsement and communication is a crucial aspect of the onboarding process that builds employee trust and leads to higher adoption rates.

The main hurdles that we identified that we needed to overcome included: The answer to the question 'what is Palolo', conveying that the platform is free to use due to the fact there are many competitors that charge the end user fees, and finally, that the emails we send aren't some type of phishing scam.

Based on our learnings, I created a 3 phase onboarding process and adopted a platform called Trumpet to create customized employer onboarding pages which help track progress in each phase, store important documents for reference, and more.

Previous launches that did not utilize this process yielded approximately 10% employee signup rate within 24 hours, but once we began this new process we reached over 15% adoption rate within 12 hours.



Final Thoughts

My time at Palolo provided holistic insight into the early stages of both product design and startup development, as well as valuable perspective from the end-user’s point of view.


Building trust among employees to drive initial sign-ups at launch proved to be a key challenge, but redesigning the onboarding process significantly improved conversion rates.


There’s still room for growth, particularly in helping users quickly understand what Palolo offers within a limited attention span. As a next step, I’d explore creating a visually engaging, bite-sized informational video for use in email campaigns and on the website which addresses common questions and concerns while continuing to gather user feedback to refine the experience further.