→ challenge

Exponent Financial is a Series A fintech startup building the technology platform that helps franchisors, franchisees, and corporate-owned brands grow their portfolios. Yet the product hadn't caught up to that ambition — onboarding was a scattered mix of separate links, the application process was one dense, unstructured flow, and there was no design system tying any of it together. Exponent needed a product that felt as sophisticated as the financial infrastructure it was built on.

→ Opportunity

Working at Exponent as Head of Product Design & Creative, I identified the opportunity to reclaim the company's position through elevated user experience — the tangible proof point of a fintech platform built for franchisees, franchisors, and corporate-owned brands to grow their portfolios. I built a design system that aligned with Exponent's brand identity and became the core of the entire product. Onboarding was the first priority — one of the biggest pain points for users, who once navigated a scattered mix of separate links. I rebuilt it into one flow that split users into three distinct paths by business type and product, simplifying the experience for franchisees while giving the business cleaner data from the very first screen. The application process needed the same attention. What was once a single, dense flow became a modular structure — letting users complete sections at their own pace, track progress clearly, and return without losing what they'd already entered. I redesigned the entire onboarding experience — from the application, to completing it in modules, to tracking underwriting status, to activating your card. The cash card redesign extended the same system into a physical product, from typography to a token-based palette.

→ outcome

An integrated design system that aligned the product with Exponent's brand identity — and shaped how the company scales.