Guava: Banking for Solopreneurs
Guava is a digital banking platform built to support the financial needs of solopreneurs — especially Black entrepreneurs who’ve historically been excluded from traditional financial systems.
I joined Guava as a freelance product designer for a nine-month engagement, working closely with the Head of Product to bring more clarity, usability, and strategy to the early product. I started with a full audit of the platform and brand, then identified key opportunities and co-developed a roadmap that would guide design and development across multiple phases.
Improving Onboarding Conversion by 17%
One of my first projects at Guava was reworking the onboarding experience, which was creating friction for new users. After auditing the flow and reviewing product metrics, I found a key blocker: users were required to watch a mandatory onboarding video — with no captions or alternative way to engage.
To fix this, I made the video optional, added captions using TikTok’s auto-captioning tools, and rewrote the onboarding copy to make the process clearer and more welcoming. These changes led to a 17% increase in onboarding conversion — a quick win that set the tone for user-centered improvements across the platform.
Making transactions easier to understand
I redesigned Guava’s transaction interface to help users more easily understand where their money was going. The original experience was dense and hard to scan, so I introduced merchant logos for quick visual recognition, redesigned the layout for clarity, and added a simple categorization feature.
I also designed a new receipt view that gave users clean, accessible details about each transaction — making the entire experience feel more intuitive and trustworthy.
Secure Spending & Budgeting with Virtual Cards
While Guava offered physical plastic and metal cards, users needed a safer, more flexible way to spend online — especially solopreneurs managing both personal and business finances.
In response to a top user request, I designed a new virtual card experience that made it easy to generate, manage, and budget with company cards. I created a streamlined flow for creating virtual cards, an intuitive management interface, and a menu that tied everything together. The result was a simple, secure tool that helped users track spending and stay in control.
