Ledger

A personal finance app rebuilt around one question: what can I safely spend today?

Client
Ledger, a Series B fintech
Role
Lead product designer
Platform
iOS and Android
Year
2025
Outcome
Activation +31 points in 60 days
Ledger 01
Fig. 01

Problem

Ledger had every feature a finance app is supposed to have and a 19% activation rate. People linked a bank, saw a wall of transactions, and left. The interviews were blunt: nobody wanted a ledger, they wanted to know if they could go out on Friday.

Approach

We put that one number, safe to spend, at the top of the home screen and made everything else a way to explain it. Onboarding dropped from nine steps to three; the first budget is set for you from your own last two months. I prototyped the flow in the first week and tested it with eleven people before a screen was built.

Outcome

Activation rose from 19% to 50% within sixty days of release, and the support queue about "where is my money" went quiet. The component set from this project became the seed of Arbor.

Ledger 02
Fig. 02 Ledger / Link a bank
Ledger 03
Fig. 03 Ledger / Transaction
Ledger 04
Fig. 04 Ledger / Budgets
Ledger 05
Fig. 05 Ledger / Monthly report
Ledger 06
Fig. 06 Ledger / Goals
Ledger 07
Fig. 07 Ledger / Card controls
Ledger 08
Fig. 08 Ledger / Web overview
Ledger 09
Fig. 09 Ledger / Transactions table
Ledger 10
Fig. 10 Ledger / Components