From a worksheet to a wealth engine
Four moves, one scroll: the 2019 build, the 2025 product, the guidance layer, and the touchpoints that carry it.
What every screen in the app had to satisfy
These were the standards I gave design and product, and the ones I held every review to.
A category change, not a refresh
A worksheet publisher was becoming a subscription money app sold direct and through employers, credit unions and schools. Position first, then messaging, then identity — an identity cannot fix a position. The old site was organized around a search term; I repositioned it around the situations people are in when they reach for a money app, and had the team rebuild it as the top of a self-serve funnel.
A website and a brand that no longer fit the product
One position, one system, one voice — carried by every surface
Position first, then messaging, then identity. One test per asset: does it do a job on screen, and is it recognizable without the wordmark? What failed was retired outright.
Frequently asked questions
Questions I get asked about product strategy, brand, and who owned what.
Straight answers on scope, sequencing, and the decisions behind the redesign — from hiring managers, founders, and the teams I’ve handed this system to.
Who led the MoneyWellth product and brand redesign, and what did they own?
I did — Harrison Peralta, SVP of Product Marketing & AI Growth Strategy. I own positioning, brand identity, in-product voice, UX/UI direction, and the acquisition surface, and I lead both the growth team (marketing and design) and the product team. I set the direction and the standards; designers, PMs, and lifecycle marketers built against them.
What did you design yourself, and what did you direct?
I drew the identity system, the color semantics, the type hierarchy, the in-product voice rules, and the key screens shown in this case study. My design team produced the rest of the surface against those standards, and engineering handoff, lifecycle campaigns, and the web build ran through the same review. I approve anything that ships with the mark on it.
Why do product and marketing report to the same leader here?
Because I made the case to our CEO that product-led growth only works when marketing and product operate as one team. Split, marketing sells a promise the product hasn’t shipped and product ships features nobody asked for. Merged, every roadmap decision is informed by actual customer and user demand — and the brand is built inside the product, not on top of it.
What’s the difference between brand strategy and brand identity in a product company?
Strategy decides what’s true and who it’s for. Identity is the system that makes it recognizable. MoneyWellth’s strategy was to stop selling worksheets and start selling a wealth engine; the identity — one mark, five semantic colors, two typefaces with assigned roles — is what carries that claim on every screen, receipt, and benefits portal.
How do you position one product for consumers and for employers?
One product truth, two different sales. A household buys relief from a number it’s afraid of; an HR director buys a benefit that gets used and reported on. Same product and same identity, but two narratives and two sets of proof. Writing one message for both audiences makes it weak for each.
How do you measure whether brand and product design worked?
In revenue and behavior, not preference. MoneyWellth went from $250K to $17.4M ARR, 137K paid users, and CAC down 61%. The operating numbers I hold are self-serve conversion, activation to a connected account, retention past ninety days, and support volume — a design that needs explaining shows up as tickets.
How does customer demand actually decide the roadmap?
Demand signals arrive before design starts: search and paid query data, sales-call objections, support tickets, onboarding drop-off, and what people type into the app when it can’t help them. If a feature can’t be traced to one of those, it doesn’t get built. The AI assistant existed because users were already asking the app questions it couldn’t answer.
How do you redesign an app without disrupting existing users?
Sequence it, don’t relaunch it. Connected accounts came first, then the AI layer, then the visual system. Names, colors, and locations changed only where the meaning behind them changed. Users kept their data, their categories, and their mental model of where things live — so the redesign read as the app getting better, not as a new app to relearn.
When should a company not rebrand?
When the product hasn’t changed. A new identity on the same experience is a cost with no compounding return, and customers read it as a distraction. Rebrand when what you sell is genuinely different from what you sold — MoneyWellth earned it by going from worksheets to connected accounts and an AI layer.