The app worked exactly as intended.
The problem was that its purpose was too small.
When I joined UP Sí Vale, the mobile application had just been visually redesigned. It looked more modern, but the product itself remained almost unchanged.
Employees could check their card balance and review recent transactions. Once they confirmed their deposit had arrived, they closed the application until the next payday.
The product fulfilled its technical purpose. It simply wasn't creating continuous value — neither for employees, nor for the business.
One advantage we had was that we weren't researching strangers. My Innovation Lead and I were also users of the product — we experienced the same frustrations every month.
Whenever we wanted to use our benefit card, we weren't sure where it would actually be accepted. Sometimes it worked. Sometimes it didn't. The application didn't answer that question. Neither did the company's website. Most employees relied on assumptions or trial and error.
That experience became our first hypothesis.
Instead of jumping directly into redesigning the interface, we wanted to validate whether our own experience represented a broader user problem. The Innovation team analyzed installation and usage data while we conducted qualitative interviews and usability testing.
The findings were remarkably consistent. Although thousands of employees had the application installed, most users opened it only on payday — it wasn't part of their daily lives.
"I never knew where I could actually use my card, so I'd usually just take my chances."
UP Sí Vale employee, usability interview
At first glance, it seemed like users simply needed a list of participating stores. Research revealed something different.
The real problem wasn't information. It was confidence. Employees already had money available — they simply weren't confident about using it.
That insight completely changed our strategy. Instead of asking "What feature should we add?" — we started asking "How can this product become useful beyond payday?"
The company had already established strategic partnerships with brands like Walmart, Starbucks and 7-Eleven. Those partnerships represented value — the problem was that users couldn't easily discover them. At the same time, partner brands had no meaningful visibility inside the product.
Rather than designing another informational screen, we proposed transforming the application into a discovery platform connecting employees with participating merchants. That single decision aligned user needs with business goals.
We deliberately approached the redesign as a product evolution rather than a one-time launch.
Our long-term roadmap included:
Although this second phase was never implemented after our team left the organization, it demonstrated how we envisioned the product evolving over time.
The first release wasn't considered finished. It became the starting point for another research cycle.
We conducted usability tests to identify friction points and prioritize quick wins before continuing the roadmap.
Users expected the back button to close the application instead of navigating backwards.
We redesigned the navigation flow to better match user expectations.
The launch created something we hadn't anticipated: new business opportunities.
Marketing wanted promotional campaigns. Partnerships negotiated new commercial agreements. Customer Support reported recurring issues. Engineering managed releases. UX continued researching and validating future improvements.
Everyone cared about the product. But everyone understood it differently.
Instead of trying to work faster, we focused on helping everyone understand how product decisions were made.
Together with my Innovation Lead, I organized workshops introducing:
These sessions evolved into recurring cross-functional product reviews involving Product, Engineering, Marketing, Partnerships, Customer Support and UX. Every department gained visibility into roadmap priorities, blockers, customer feedback and upcoming releases. Meeting notes ensured alignment even when stakeholders couldn't attend.
Years later, I became a UP Sí Vale user once again. The first phase of the vision remains visible in today's product. The second phase never happened. Surprisingly, that isn't what I remember most. What stayed with me was realizing that successful products aren't built by adding features — they're built by helping organizations ask better questions. The biggest lesson from this project wasn't learning how to redesign an application. It was learning that the greatest opportunities often emerge when we challenge the original purpose of a product.
This case study covers the why — product strategy and business impact. That one covers the how: visual language, accessibility, and the component system behind it.