Novu

Project Overview

Client: Novu, an early-stage HR tech startup
Industry: SaaS, Fintech
Timeline: 12 weeks
My Role: Freelance Product Designer

I joined Novu as the first product designer, responsible for taking the founders’ initial vision and early mockups and turning them into a fully designed, developer-ready MVP. Over six months, I owned the end-to-end design process across employee and admin experiences, built a lightweight design system, and helped shape a product polished enough to support enterprise demos and secure early clients.

Context

Novu is an early-stage startup helping companies improve employee well-being by providing access to global perks and benefits. The product needed to serve two distinct audiences—employees and administrators—while remaining simple, trustworthy, and fast to understand during sales demos.

At the time, the founders had an initial concept, but the product needed structure, clarity, and execution speed to reach MVP and support early business traction.

My Role

As the first and sole product designer, I:

• Owned end-to-end UX and UI design

• Designed experiences for both employees and admins

• Built and maintained a lightweight design system

• Worked directly with founders (PM and engineering) and a frontend developer

My responsibility was not only to design screens, but to help shape what the MVP should be—and what could wait.

Phase 1 — Defining the MVP and reducing risk

Goal: Deliver a credible MVP that could win demos and early clients.

I facilitated early kickoff sessions with the founders to clarify product vision, define target users, and align on what success looked like for both the business and the user experience.

Together, we mapped key flows, identified onboarding risks, and prioritized features that could demonstrate value quickly. This led to a clear set of principles:

• Lower the entry barrier for new users and prospects

• Balance product quality with ease of implementation

• Focus the MVP on moments that matter during demos

These decisions guided all subsequent design work.

Phase 2 — Solving onboarding and KYC friction

Goal: Help users see value before committing to a long setup process.

User research with HR managers and employees revealed a core issue: long onboarding and KYC flows created early drop-off, preventing users from experiencing the product’s value.

Key insights:

• Admins were reluctant to provide full company and financial details upfront

• Employees wanted quick access to benefits without navigating complex menus

I redesigned onboarding around progressive disclosure:

• Split onboarding into essential first steps and optional follow-ups

• Introduced a view-only mode so users could explore the platform early

• Used empty states and guided prompts to encourage completion later

• Created role-specific sections so admins could also experience benefits firsthand

This approach balanced compliance needs with a smoother first experience.

Phase 3 — Designing core admin and employee experiences

Goal: Support two user types without increasing complexity.

I designed clear, role-specific experiences for admins and employees, including:

• Admin onboarding and company setup

• User and role management

• Benefits program creation and budgeting

• Employee profiles, budgets, and spending history

Throughout, I focused on clear hierarchy, consistent patterns, and meaningful empty states to reduce cognitive load and improve usability during testing and demos.

Phase 4 — Prototyping, testing, and iteration

Goal: Validate usability and polish before development.

I built multiple interactive Figma prototypes used for usability testing and client demos. Testing consistently highlighted the same issues: unclear hierarchy and onboarding friction.

Based on feedback, I iterated by:

• Shortening onboarding flows

• Improving guidance and copy

• Refining layouts and empty states

These iterations directly informed the final MVP specs delivered to engineering.

Design system and delivery

To support fast development with minimal rework, I created a lightweight design system:

• Based on Ant Design, extended with Novu-specific components

• Ensured visual consistency across screens

• Provided clear specs and reusable components

This helped speed up implementation while keeping the product cohesive and easy to evolve.

Impact

• 60% faster onboarding completion in testing

• +25% increase in demo interest due to a more polished product

• +35% tester satisfaction after simplifying flows

• ~20% faster development enabled by reusable components and clear specs

The result was an MVP that was not only functional, but credible enough to support early enterprise conversations.

Collaboration highlights

This project was highly collaborative:

• With founders, I helped translate vision into clear product decisions and trade-offs

• With engineering, I aligned design scope to technical realities and delivery speed

• With sales and demos, I optimized flows to showcase value early

Novu strengthened my ability to design from zero, make pragmatic MVP decisions, and balance user experience, business needs, and delivery constraints in an early-stage environment.