credify
Every year, thousands of students migrate to Canada for higher studies. While this opens the door to better opportunities, the financial burden is often overwhelming.
A Montreal-based startup approached me with a clear vision: to design a simple yet impactful MVP for a personal finance platform aimed at empowering newcomer students in Canada to take control of their finances. The primary goal was to create a prototype that could demonstrate its potential to investors during a funding round.
identifying the problem
Newcomer students typically lack access to reliable financial tools tailored to their unique needs. Existing solutions like budgeting apps and google spreadsheets fail to provide personalized guidance, while professional financial advice is often too expensive for students.
To address this gap, the platform aimed to:
- Help students track their expenses and savings.
- Offer tailored insights into investment opportunities for small budgets.
- Simplify loan repayment planning.
- Provide accessible financial education to build good money habits.
Crediy is a personal finance platform empowering newcomer students in Canada to manage their finances, achieve goals, and build financial confidence.
insights
When the client came to me, they had an idea and initial concept but needed professional help with UI/UX design. As well, Credify’s team completed detailed user research on their own, which showed that the main wishes of the target audience are:
- Learn budgeting, saving, investing
- Freedom from education loans
- Quick, actionable financial insights
Therefore, at the discovery phase, I focused mainly on competitor analysis and benchmark research on existing tools like Mint, Wealthsimple, and YNAB. Here are some insights we got from the research:
- Most budgeting and money management apps, such as Mint, Simplifi by Quicken, Emma, and Money Dashboard, focus primarily on short-term financial planning, typically not exceeding a year.
- Apps that support long-term financial objectives often specialize in specific areas—for instance, Pension Bee focuses on pension savings, while Personal Capital and Wealthfront emphasize investments.
feature prioritization
The primary goal of the MVP is to develop a product that provides real value to students while helping product owners gather essential insights to manage risks and refine the solution, saving both time and resources.
To prioritize features, I applied the MoSCoW analysis. I listed all potential features for the financial planning app and categorized them into four groups: must-have, should-have, could-have, and won’t-have. Since we were focusing on the MVP, I concentrated on the “must-have” and “should-have” features, specifically long-term financial forecasting and the ability to track educational loan progress.
credify core features
As the result we created a working prototype with the following features:
1. Loan repayment insights
Using input data, the app provides tailored strategies to accelerate loan repayment, such as increasing monthly payments to achieve goals earlier. It also offers clear estimates on total payments, interest rates, and loan-to-value ratios, empowering users to make informed financial decisions.
2. Savings account options
The platform help students find the best savings account tailored to their needs by considering factors like saving purpose, risk level, residency status, and term. It provides a clear comparison of current savings and other available options, including interest rates, risk levels, withdrawal flexibility, and savings terms, enabling users to make informed decisions to reach their financial goals effectively.
3. Comprehensive Investment Dashboard
This dashboard provides a complete overview of your investment journey, showcasing total investment value, growth trends, monthly contributions, returns, and risk levels, all visualized through intuitive graphs for easy analysis. Quick links offer access to detailed insights for deeper portfolio management.
collaboration with the client
To ensure seamless communication and keep the project on track, we held bi-weekly video calls with the client to discuss the design progress and results. Additionally, we used Slack for quick and efficient communication, allowing us to clarify any ongoing questions in real time.
result
Our goal was to design a platform that simplifies the complex process of managing personal finances for newcomer students and immigrants in Canada. By focusing on user-friendly design and financial education, we created a solution that helps users quickly and easily navigate their financial journey, from budgeting to saving for long-term goals.
The MVP I designed is now being used by the client to raise its first investment round, showcasing the platform’s potential to investors and further improving its reach within the target market.
