Payday comes once a month. Emergencies don't.
Salaries stayed flat. The cost of living didn't.
Across Africa, salaries have largely stayed the same while high inflation pushes up the cost of living. Employees who need cash before payday have nowhere good to go.
01Payday comes once a month.
02Emergencies don't wait for it. The money is earned; it just isn't reachable.
03The alternatives (payday loans, banks, digital lenders) are slow, paperwork-heavy and predatory.
04With Flow, the wages already earned this month are available to withdraw.
05Picking an amount shows the fee and the payday deduction before anything is committed.
06The money lands right away, and it comes out of the next pay automatically.
Illustrative, drawn for this case study from the research and design described here.
- Product strategy from the first idea, as one of the people driving the project
- Problem and market framing: who's affected, how big the gap is, and why now
- Scope: earned wage access at the core, plus the features around it
- Product design of the mobile app, end to end
- The marketing website that explains the product and lowers the barrier to entry
- Team building: helped bring the team together from inception
- 01 · FrameProblem & market
- 02 · ListenEmployee research
- 03 · ShapeStrategy & scope
- 04 · DesignApp & website
Sizing the pain, then listening to it.
“It's disheartening that I still get paid in a monthly cycle when emergencies don't care about that.”
| What employees need | Payday loans | Traditional banks | Digital lenders | Flow (design goal) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fair cost | ✗ predatory rates | ✗ predatory rates | ✗ predatory rates | ✓ wages already earned |
| Fast access | ✗ slow | ✗ slow | ✗ slow | ✓ on demand |
| Light paperwork | ✗ cumbersome | ✗ cumbersome | ✗ cumbersome | ✓ minimal |
From my review: current providers are characterised by predatory interest rates, slow processes and cumbersome documentation requirements.
What shaped the product.
The problem is timing, not income.
“Emergencies don't care” about a monthly pay cycle. The money is earned; it just isn't reachable.
Credit punishes people for needing cash.
Every existing option was costly, slow or buried in paperwork.
One feature won't cover a whole financial life.
Employees' wider needs went beyond salary advances: spending, saving and paying bills.
People save in small, regular amounts.
Research showed employees wanted to put money away daily, weekly and monthly.
A new idea needs explaining before the download.
Earned wage access was unfamiliar to most employers and employees.
Trade-offs, and why I made them.
1Grow beyond on-demand pay into everyday money tools
Evidence · Insight 03Ship earned wage access on its own (one job, smallest scope), or build a broader money app around it.
Add cards, savings and bills around the core, so Flow becomes where employees manage money, not just a place to withdraw it.
On-demand salary alone only matters in emergencies. Everyday tools give people a reason to come back in between.
More scope and a busier home screen, so the withdrawable amount stays the clear hero.
2Show earned wages, not a loan offer
Evidence · Insights 01 & 02Present a credit limit like a lender would, or show the money already earned this pay period.
The dashboard leads with "amount available to withdraw", with a progress bar of total earnings.
It tells the truth: this is your money. That builds trust where every alternative felt predatory.
Smaller numbers than a credit limit early in the month, so the progress bar shows it growing every day.
3Two ways to save: FlowOn-Demand™ and FlowLock™
Evidence · Insight 04One savings pot, or separate pots for flexible and locked money.
A flexible pot for everyday buffers, and a locked one for goals you shouldn't touch.
Different money has different jobs. Separating them makes the right habit the easy one.
Two concepts to explain, so each gets a clear name and purpose.
4A marketing site to lower the barrier to entry
Evidence · Insight 05Rely on app store listings and employer onboarding, or design a dedicated site.
A responsive landing page that tells the brand story and covers current and upcoming features.
Acquisition starts before the download. A clear story makes the first session feel familiar.
Another surface to keep in sync with the product as features ship.
Same salary. A very different month.
Drag across the phone to compare an employee's dashboard without FlowOn-Demand™ and with it.
Illustrative comparison. Figures are examples, not user data.
The dashboard, annotated
- 1The withdrawable amount is the biggest thing on screen, because 'how much can I get right now?' is the question people open the app with.
- 2The progress bar ties the money to days already worked. It frames the advance as your own wages, not a loan, which matters for trust.
- 3Withdrawals sit in the same history as airtime and data purchases, so employees see one honest picture of their money.
What changed, and how we'd know.
- Insight 01Time from tap to cashTime on task: from opening a withdrawal to the money arriving.
- Insight 02Drop-off at the fee screenAbandonment rate: withdrawals started but not confirmed.
- Insight 03Use beyond withdrawalsSessions per user between paydays, and the share who also save or pay bills.
- Insight 04Savings consistencyFrequency of use: users saving at least weekly.
- Insight 02Debt avoidedLikert and self-report: reliance on payday loans before and after.
- Insight 05Marketing site to sign-upBounce rate on the landing page and click-through to sign-up.
Contagious energy, from idea to team.
- Strategy is design work. Being there from the first idea meant shaping what we built, not only how it looked.
- Energy is contagious. From the idea to assembling a team, everyone's drive kept the project moving.
- The mission keeps it honest. I can't wait to see how Flow improves employees' financial wellness across Africa.
Withdraw money you've already earned.
This is the core flow, rebuilt as a working prototype. Follow the steps and the reasoning behind each moment appears beside the phone.
Open the interactive prototypeOptional: try the core flow yourself, with the reasoning at each step.Open ↓Close ↑
12 Jan+₦12,000
11 Jan−₦1,000
10 Jan−₦1,000
Try it yourself
- Tap Withdraw
- Drag to pick an amount, then continue
- Enter any 4-digit PIN
- Tap Done and watch your balance
Each step you complete explains the design decision behind it.
An interactive recreation of the shipped design. Amounts and fees are illustrative.