Fintech • Product Design
Paytm Bonds
Designing a seamless investment experience for retail investors entering the fixed-income market for the first time.
16
months
+12%
conversions
Strong!
user satisfaction
Project Overview
Role
Lead Product Designer
Timeline
16 months (2022-2023)
Team
2 Designers, 5 Engineers, 1 PM
Tools
Figma, Maze, Mixpanel
Paytm, one of India's largest fintech platforms, wanted to introduce bonds as a new investment option for their 300+ million users. The challenge was to make a traditionally complex financial product accessible to first-time retail investors.
The Challenge
Fixed-income investments like bonds are traditionally seen as complex products reserved for sophisticated investors. Our users were primarily comfortable with simpler products like mutual funds and gold.
We needed to answer: How might we make bonds feel as approachable and trustworthy as the investment products our users already love?
Key Challenges
- 1
Low financial literacy around bonds among target users
- 2
Complex jargon and terminology in the bonds market
- 3
Building trust for a new investment category
- 4
Regulatory compliance while maintaining good UX
The Process
1Research & Discovery
Conducted 25+ user interviews and analyzed competitor products. Found that users wanted transparency about risks and returns, and preferred visual representations over text-heavy explanations.
2Ideation & Prototyping
Created multiple concepts focusing on progressive disclosure - showing users only what they need at each step. Built interactive prototypes to test different information hierarchies.
3Testing & Iteration
Ran 3 rounds of usability testing with 45 participants. Key insight: Users needed comparison tools to understand bond value relative to other investments they knew.
4Implementation & Launch
Worked closely with engineering to ensure design integrity. Created a comprehensive design system for the bonds vertical that could scale to future products.
Results & Impact
+12%
increase in conversions
4.5/5
user satisfaction score
-35%
reduction in support queries
The product successfully launched to millions of users and became one of Paytm's fastest-growing investment categories. The design system we created was later adopted for other fixed-income products.
Key Learnings
Simplicity wins: Users don't need to understand everything about bonds to invest. They need to understand what matters to them: safety, returns, and liquidity.
Trust through transparency: Being upfront about risks actually increased user confidence in the product.
Progressive disclosure: Showing information at the right time in the user journey prevents cognitive overload without sacrificing completeness.
More case studies coming soon
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