Visa · 2022–2023

Building the bet before the answer is obvious.

Standing up Visa North America’s product incubation practice.

1 → 6

designers

led as interim Head of Product & Design

regions adopted the model

provisional patent

Role: Design lead & interim Head of Product & Design
Team: 13-person product and design team
Focus: 0-to-1 innovation · Product strategy · Research

I joined Visa’s innovation center in 2022. The center had run several models over the years, and most of its work lived in executive briefings and client engagements. I came to build things that would reach real people. In North America, the practice I was hired to build didn’t formally exist yet. On paper it was a line item.

Shortly after I arrived, a reorg split the group in two. I stayed with new product development, which had a large team, open runway, no head of product, and no mandate yet. I stepped in as interim Head of Product & Design, grew the design team from one to six, and built the practice that took four concepts from discovery to an executive pitch in under a year.

Introducing Visa Innovation Americas—the incubation program’s identity.

Reflection

I loved this work. We had real autonomy, a team that liked working together, and concepts I still believe in. We also had a lot of open space and not much business sponsorship behind it, and I learned that those two together are a risk. One senior leader who wasn’t sure at the start what design would add ended up one of our strongest advocates once he saw the work up close. I should have built more relationships like that one. Instead I put much of my energy into process, and when a leadership change reset the innovation org’s priorities, the work didn’t yet have enough executive backing to carry it forward.

It changed how I lead 0-to-1 work. The product isn’t the only thing that needs designing. The path to adoption does too, and it starts with a business owner who wants the bet to win. When Visa later needed a regional design team to fill the gap innovation left behind, I built it with that in mind.

The NA Innovation practice was built, essentially, from scratch including strategy, operating plan, and implementation. Kelly was instrumental in making that happen, playing a lead role in defining the narrative that brought it all together, which was evangelized across Visa Senior Leadership Team.

— Mike Muniozguren · Senior Director, Big Tech and Fintech Advisory

Kelly has enabled the team to deliver three proof of concepts this year… Her ability to double-head her role as a Strategy Designer and Head of Products Incubation… showcases her commitment to driving results.

— Vanessa Meyer · VP, Head of America’s Innovation

Operating model

Where to play, and how to decide

Adopted byNorth America and Latin America innovation teams

I wasn’t handed a backlog, so the first job was deciding where to look. I ran some of the more than 45 conversations across Visa and directed the team on the rest, and a scoring session with product, strategy, and business teams narrowed the field to a handful of opportunity areas the business actually cared about.

From there I built the process every team would run. It had four phases, from mapping an opportunity to developing and piloting a solution, each with its own deliverables and a clear call to continue, pivot, or stop. A project brief template made each team write down its success criteria and how its concept fit Visa’s existing products. Every workstream met every two weeks with an advisory board of VPs curated for its area, using a shared update template so the conversation stayed at the right altitude. When Latin America’s innovation team saw it working, they adopted the model as-is.

Diagram of the four-phase incubation model (Map, Validate, Solution Design, Develop) mapped against design research phases from exploratory to validation, as problem clarity increases — The phased incubation model, mapping program phases to design research methods as problem clarity increases.

Project brief template page with prompts for the market opportunity and alignment to Visa strategy — Pages from the project brief template, where each team made the case for its opportunity before investing further.

Project brief template page with an ecosystem map running from end users through service providers, enablers, banks, and regulators — Pages from the project brief template, where each team made the case for its opportunity before investing further.

Team

Hiring before the mandate

I started hiring before our direction was settled, so I hired for range. I paired people whose strengths covered each other, like a strategist with sharp research instincts next to an exceptional visual designer, and looked for a mix of backgrounds so everyone was learning from someone. We had no dedicated researchers, so I commissioned and edited a research guide that gave designers and PMs the confidence to run studies themselves.

Product and design shared ownership. Monday standups were mixed. Craft reviews were design-only. PMs sat in on research, and designers had a voice in product calls. The line between the two roles blurred on purpose, and the team was better for it.

Cover of the research guide, titled How to Design a User Interview (that actually uncovers valuable insights) — The research guide I commissioned and edited so designers and PMs could plan and run studies without a dedicated researcher.

Research guide page showing how an assumption breaks down into research objectives and interview questions — The research guide I commissioned and edited so designers and PMs could plan and run studies without a dedicated researcher.

Concept 1 of 4

Merchant value-added services

OutcomeStopped weeks in, on card fees

I coached the team through our merchant work, which started broad: how could Visa give small businesses more value through the software they already use? With our stakeholders, the team looked at healthcare first, where insurer-to-provider payments still run on checks and ACH. Our advisors pushed back. The space was heavily regulated, and a pilot partner would be hard to find, so the team moved on.

Education looked stronger on paper. Unmoderated tests with 30 K-12 parents pointed us to private schools. Interviews with parents, a head of school, a principal, and a CFO then surfaced the barrier we couldn’t design around: card fees. One parent had done the math and said they’d switch to a card at 1%, but never at 3.5%. Many schools also lacked the staff to take on a new system. The work stopped there, weeks in, which is exactly what the model was built to do.

Key learnings slide: for credit, the fee is the biggest barrier on both sides, with quotes from a parent and a school administrator — The key learning that stopped the work: card fees outweighed the value for parents and schools alike.

Concept 2 of 4

Luxury resale authentication

OutcomeBeta partner, provisional patent

I guided the team through each decision on this one as the research came in. They started in livestream shopping, looking at how Visa could let people buy inside a stream without jumping to another app. The research kept pointing somewhere else. Shoppers worried about whether what they were buying was real, and some had friends who’d been scammed. Creators and resale platforms told us the same thing. Trust was the real barrier, so the team followed it.

The concept became product authentication for luxury resale: verifying goods and carrying proof of ownership from one resale platform to the next. The team lined up a beta partner, sized a multi-hundred-million-dollar opportunity, and filed a provisional patent.

Journey map of livestream shopping across review, consideration, engagement, and transaction, with shopper sentiment dropping during engagement and checkout — The livestream shopping journey, where trust dipped at the moment of purchase.

Research synthesis slide on trust in resale and social commerce, with quotes from a TikTok influencer, The RealReal, and Farfetch on counterfeiting and demand for authenticity — Creators and resale platforms pointing to the same barrier: whether the goods are real.

Concept 3 of 4

Home solar financing

OutcomeConsumer-validated concept, carried forward after the reorg

Home solar is expensive up front, and the Inflation Reduction Act had created incentives that were hard for homeowners to claim. I coached the team as it narrowed its focus to lower-income homeowners and mapped the solar ecosystem, down to the installer software where financing decisions actually happen. The team designed a card-based financing concept that bundled flexible repayment with rebates, tax credits, and rewards, and consumers validated it.

I kicked off the advisor sessions, and the team presented two versions: one offered by the homeowner’s bank, and one offered by the installer during the site visit. They pressed hard on underwriting and on who would absorb card fees. It was a multi-billion-dollar opportunity, and they tested it like one. After the reorg, the team kept pushing the concept forward alongside their new roles.

Visa Energize pre-approval offer for $30,000 in solar financing, with an Apply Now button — Visa Energize—a concept combining solar financing with integrated rebates, tax credits, and net-metering rewards.

Pricing details for an 18.2 kW solar install: $20,000 total, $13,750 after a solar income tax credit and a utilities green energy credit — Visa Energize—a concept combining solar financing with integrated rebates, tax credits, and net-metering rewards.

Storyboard for Experience A: a bank advertises a solar financing card, the homeowner applies digitally, pays the installer, and adjusts repayment online — The two versions the team tested with advisors: a solar card offered by the homeowner’s bank, and one offered by the installer during the site visit.

Storyboard for Experience B: a solar installer checks eligibility, submits the card application on a tablet during the site visit, and the homeowner starts earning rewards — The two versions the team tested with advisors: a solar card offered by the homeowner’s bank, and one offered by the installer during the site visit.

Concept 4 of 4

Digital identity

OutcomeA white paper on using digital identity to accelerate fraud detection, which changed how Visa approached identity

I coached the team through an ask to explore Visa’s role in digital identity and a proposed identity hub. Before designing anything, the team interviewed seven leaders across corporate strategy and product who had worked on identity at Visa. The findings reframed the ask. Earlier identity efforts hadn’t stuck, and there was no shared definition yet of what the hub should do or who it belonged to. The problem needed alignment before it needed a product.

The team recommended aligning on the problem before building the product, and proposed a small internal proof of concept around mobile driver’s licenses to test Visa’s technical role. The team delivered the work to North America innovation leadership as a white paper, which I gave input on and edited, and Visa’s digital identity team has carried it forward.