NERDWALLET+
PROJECT NAME
NERDWALLET+
YEAR
2024
ROLE
SENIOR PRODUCT DESIGNER
Overview
NerdWallet+ is a rewards membership program designed with the simple question: how can we reward people with smart financial behaviors? The project was NerdWallet's first zero to one subscription based startup venture. Multiple pods were involved to ship various reward features quickly. The product successfully launched in Oct 2023 continuing to add features until 2025 when it was deprecated. The following case study highlights the insurance rate discount product I worked on as a solo designer across two pods to execute in parallel the insurance core product and insurance quote finder feature.
TL;DR
NerdWallet+ launched an insurance feature enabling users to find lower home and auto insurance rates.
Project Overview
User Problem
In 2023, rising insurance rates placed increased financial pressure on consumers. NerdWallet identified an opportunity to support users by helping them better understand their insurance costs and uncover opportunities to save on their premiums.
Success Metrics
Growth in new NerdWallet+ subscribers
Insurance account linking adoption
Average dollar amount saved on insurance premiums
Design Process
From Idea to Execution
As Chris Sacca, Founder of Lowercase Capital, famously said, “Ideas are cheap. Execution is everything.” This project proved that point. While many teams set out to help consumers save on rising insurance costs, delivering a seamless and scalable solution required navigating significant technical and product complexity.
Execution involved integrating three distinct APIs to power the end-to-end experience:
Canopy Connect — Enabled users to securely link and manage their existing insurance providers
Cover — Surfaced lower insurance quotes based on users’ linked policies
Quadrant — Generated insurance rate reports and visualized low-to-high pricing ranges
Together, these integrations formed the foundation for a cohesive product experience that translated a simple idea—saving money—into meaningful, actionable value for users.
Design Process
Defining the MVP: Think Big, Ship Small
We approached this project with a scrappy, execution-first mindset. While we were not domain experts in insurance, we partnered closely with internal insurance specialists to quickly build context and align on constraints.
Given high visibility and stakeholder expectations for this initiative to become a new revenue driver for the NerdWallet+ membership program, speed and focus were critical. To move quickly without over-designing, I collaborated closely with my product manager and engineering partners to right-size the design effort and define a clear MVP scope.
Our MVP was anchored by the following principles:
Start with auto insurance policies to validate demand before expanding coverage types
Leverage out-of-the-box insurance linking flows to minimize custom build and reduce risk
Support policy management for the primary policyholder only, excluding additional household members
This focused approach allowed us to validate core value for users while maintaining momentum toward launch.
Design Process
Expanding the Design Scope
As the project evolved, it became critical to maintain a single source of truth for the end-to-end experience. I owned the holistic design across the feature, ensuring consistency and cohesion as the scope expanded.
In addition to designing the insurance dashboard, I partnered closely with a second product pod to guide the execution of the insurance quote feature, ensuring their design decisions remained aligned with MVP constraints.
Together, we aligned on key integration points within the insurance dashboard, including where to introduce quote entry points and how to clearly capture user consent to run insurance quotes in the background. This coordination enabled a seamless experience while preserving speed and focus.
Key Results
We successfully launched the insurance feature ahead of stakeholder expectations. Following launch, the pods analyzed early performance, focusing on NerdWallet+ sign-ups and feature adoption. While the feature activated a majority of existing NerdWallet+ members, it was less effective at attracting new subscribers. Based on these insights, the pods pivoted post-launch to a freemium model, allowing users to explore potential insurance savings before committing to a NerdWallet+ membership. This shift aimed to reduce friction, increase trial, and drive new user acquisition.
