Leading by Design

Baraka Financial

Process Improvement

Introduction

Baraka is a Y Combinator-backed fintech startup offering the GCC’s first commission-free US stock trading app.

For the first time in the GCC market, Baraka was to be a simple, trustworthy trading experience for first-time investors.

What I did

As the Lead Product Designer, I aligned UX, product, and delivery strategy to drive engagement, retention, and market adoption pre and post-launch.

Impact snapshot

USER GROWTH

8x Increase

In conversions from app downloads to fully KYC'd accounts

CUSTOMER SENTIMENT

50% Less

Drop in KYC-related support queries after redesigned onboarding

BRAND TRUST

20m Series A Funding

Secured through strong User growth and AUM numbers

CONVERSION

40% boost

In first-time deposits over the first 2 months of app launch

As a Product Design Lead with Baraka Financial (YC '21), the startup was at a critical inflection point—preparing to launch the GCC's first commission-free investment app for US stocks and ETFs. The pre-launch product faced significant hurdles:

The app felt confusing and inconsistent
Sign-up and verification were frustrating for users
Too many people dropped off before funding their account
The team wasn’t working in sync
Working remotely made communication messy

I led the end-to-end effort to elevate our product experience and streamline operational efficiency which played a central role in Baraka securing $20 million in Series A funding after launch. Throughout this critical startup phase, I owned the process, drove cross-team alignment, and pushed initiatives from concept to execution to ensure we delivered measurable impact.

1. Team Alignment & Process Optimization

I quickly recognised that solving technical design issues wouldn't be enough. The team needed streamlined processes to maintain velocity.

Lightweight Tools for Startups → Implemented Notion instead of heavier tools like Jira to document product requirements, design decisions, and development handoffs

Product Management Integration → Stepped into a hybrid design/PM role to create structured workstreams and prioritisation frameworks

Visibility Framework → Created collaborative spaces where remote team members could track progress and contribute asynchronously

Clear Ownership Model → Established responsibilities and decision-making frameworks to prevent bottlenecks

2. Design System Rehabilitation

Audit & Consolidation → Conducted a comprehensive audit of the existing UI, identifying redundant components and inconsistent patterns
Figma Implementation → Rebuilt the design system with proper component hierarchy, variants, and auto-layout to ensure scalability
Design-Dev Handoff Optimization → Created clear documentation and implementation guidelines to reduce development questions and iterations

3. User Experience Redesign

Focusing on critical conversion paths through heuristic analysis and usability testing.

KYC Flow Simplification → Redesigned the onboarding experience to reduce complexity while maintaining regulatory compliance
Funding Experience → Reimagined the account funding process with clearer instructions and feedback mechanisms
Portfolio Management → Simplified how users view and manage investments, making complex financial data accessible to novice investors

4. Customer Support Integration

Support-Driven Development → Established direct channels between support and product teams to quickly identify and address user pain points
Self-Service Solutions → Designed in-app help resources to reduce support ticket volume
Feedback Loops → Created systems to capture and categorize user feedback for continuous improvement

Refined and streamlined the design-development handoff process which reduced confusion and helped ensure quality output.

PROJECT DELIVERABLES

Adding functionality to support card funding, represented in a systematic flow which helped iron out the user route and fully detail the use case.
Tracking week on week growth through analytics data and KPIs. This helped the team understand how users were interacting with the app and prioritize / validate Product improvements.
MindMap to rollout a marketing campaign that was reflected in-app.
Admin Dashboard sketch to concept. This was built to manage the backend config for the app, help visualize analytics data and for stakeholders + VC representatives.
Solved typical startup chaos with a lightweight Notion workstream which help the growing team better structure, prioritize and execute their ideas as well as bring visibility across different functions.
Also used Notion to create a dedicated Design workspace and mentor the small design team in best practices to ensure quality UX/UI output.

Redesigned onboarding and funding flows

improving user trust and completion rates to boost AUM in a matter of months post launch

Used MixPanel analytics data and user testing

Effectively shaped product roadmap and bring team alignment around value-driven priorities

Established a foundational, scalable Design System

Streamlining design-dev collaboration, cutting iteration cycles by 35%.

Results

Delivered a polished, high-performing app that connected with local users and strengthened investor confidence and laid the foundation for Baraka’s successful growth and investor confidence.

Within four months, my work helped transform Baraka's product readiness and market traction:

8x improvement in conversion from app download to fully KYC’d account
50% drop in KYC-related support tickets
30% increase in conversion across key app flows
Faster development thanks to consistent design patterns and clear documentation
Better team alignment with shared processes across design, engineering, and support

Key Learnings

Launching in a new region requires cultural UX fluency.

Design succeeds when it balances data with empathy, aligning local behaviour, trust, and usability.

Small, high-impact wins create momentum → focusing on low-effort, high-value improvements builds trust quickly in a startup environment.
Simple processes beat heavy frameworks → early-stage teams move faster with lean, flexible systems.
Design systems unite teams, not just interfaces → they improve communication, alignment, and delivery across functions.
Real user feedback drives the best decisions → direct insight into user problems leads to smarter, faster improvements.
Remote teams need visibility → clear documentation and transparent work habits are essential for distributed teams.