Credit Karma — Credit Karma: a suggested goal — Pay off credit card debt — is tapped, plants into the home, and a control mark fills.

Pay off credit card debt

Credit Karma

I sat in member sessions, then designed goal-setting as a first-class flow. A member names a goal; the product reorganizes around that commitment.

The onboarding flow captures the user's primary financial goal. Today's tab then prompts them to add one, while the For You feed begins tracking their debt.

Name the goal.
Credit Karma Today: TransUnion score 638 Fair, then an Add a goal card to review and set goals.
Add a goal on Today.
For You feed: Debt strategies with a Credit Card Debt Plan, then Credit monitoring at 27% utilization.
The feed follows the debt.

We used this progress map so a goal wasn’t one generic prompt. A member in scarcity and a member with a safety net do not name the same next step.

Progress Segment Guide: a human-centric guide to Credit Karma members. A green progress line with car-trouble setbacks and pay-raise recoveries, then four columns — Slipping Backwards, Staying Afloat, Building Momentum, Navigating Opportunity.
Goal-setting had to match the member’s actual progress.

Progress Segment Guide

Money stress wasn't a fringe case. It was the baseline: present hardship stacked on setbacks still to come. Stress erodes attention, planning, and the capacity to name a goal — so naming one is the opening.

  • I'm in a gray fog, trapped underwater.

Dscout diary study

Select the goals.
They’re added.

Pay off credit card debt and buy a home sit on Profile.

They sit on Profile.

Next steps track the goal. Missed payments are the blocker — progress as control, not a score ring.

Credit Karma Today: credit card debt $10,234 with a next step to take care of missed payments.
The home is the debt.
Credit Karma asks whether to set up a debt plan to track goals, with an estimated payoff date and interest cost.
A plan to track the goal.
Take care of missed payments: JPMCB $4,200 and Capital One $2,800, with Take action.
The blocker on that goal.

The Metrics

  • +34%Improved Retention90-day retention rose, driven by a more relevant onboarding flow tailored to credit-building goals.
  • +36%Boosted EngagementThe new front-door experience with goal confirmation increased member engagement, with 72% of users completing credit-building actions within the first week.
  • -66%270,000 → 91,000SupportCustomer service contacts.

Mixpanel

Close

  1. Goal-setting member flow

    I designed goal-setting as a first-class member flow: a goal as an artifact, tied to the features that move it.

Paul Banks

Charlotte, NC · Remote

Paul Banks

Principal Product Designer

After 16+ years shipping product interfaces, I now design the surfaces where people and agents share a task: prompts, confidence, and the checkpoint where a human still decides.

Get in touchDownload resumeSee my brand-voice work →