Itaú Unibanco · 2021

Alavancagem (Leverage)

Designing a gamified cashback experience to drive card primacy in Brazil's most competitive fintech landscape.

RoleSenior Product Designer
ScopeEnd-to-end UX/UI
SquadCredit Card Cross-sell Squad
Credit CardBankingProduct Design UX ResearchGamificationUX/UI
30%
Portfolio growth YoY

Significant scaling of digital active users compared to end of fiscal 2020.

9.3%
Service revenue growth

Reaching BRL 43.3B, driven heavily by newly deployed consumer engagement initiatives.

App screen explaining how invoice cashback works
Context

Despite market leadership, the real challenge to Itaú was different: becoming the card customers choose to use first, amid high competition with three other cards — Nubank, Inter, C6.

Problem

Itaú customers held the card but didn't use it as their primary one. Transaction volume was being diluted by competitors. Card issuance was growing, but card primacy wasn't keeping pace.

  • Low spending concentration across multiple cards in the same wallet
  • No behavioral incentive or gamified progression mechanisms in the app
  • Competitors offering simple, instant and direct cashback propositions
  • Underutilized cross-sell opportunity with already highly engaged digital customers
Solution

Spending missions + cashback rewards

A gamified mechanic where customers receive spending missions tied directly to card use. Upon reaching their personalized target, cashback is instantly credited to their upcoming invoice — turning dormant accounts into highly active payment nodes.

Gamifying, rewarding and leveraging card primacy in the credit card segment

Credicard app home screen with a cashback banner
App home with Credicard card and invoice credit banner Cashback target progress screen, goal not yet reached Mission complete screen with cashback released Screen explaining how invoice cashback works
Hand holding a smartphone and card showing the Credicard app home
Cashback target progress screen, goal not yet reached
Mission complete screen with cashback released
/my role

End-to-end ownership

As Senior Product Designer for the credit card cross-sell squad, I led the design of this project from the initial spark of strategy to production handoff.

Discovery & research

Co-led user interview cycles and mapped payment journeys.

Gamification strategy

Designed progress-based triggers and visual rewards mechanisms.

Experience architecture

Structured screen flows, edge cases and fail-safes.

Cross-functional collaboration

Aligned with Product Managers, Data Scientists and Eng Leads daily.

Usability validation

Tested concept comprehension with real-world cardholders.

System continuity

Ensured pixel-perfect alignment with Itaú's design system tokens.

/my process

From benchmark to build

01

Discovery & strategy

Mapped customer spending journeys and analyzed behavior gamification benchmarks from global fintech leaders.

02

Design & prototyping

Crafted high-fidelity flows for mission target updates, progress monitoring dials and explicit cashback confirmation.

03

Testing & validation

Ran quantitative and qualitative comprehension loops of the progress mechanic with 40+ active app users.

04

Implementation

Collaborated in sprint refinement with the engineering architecture team to validate real-time transaction tracking rules.

/results

The results

Screen explaining how invoice cashback works
30%
Portfolio growth YoY

Significant scaling of digital active users compared to end of fiscal 2020.

9.3%
Service revenue growth

Reaching BRL 43.3B, driven heavily by newly deployed consumer engagement initiatives.

Up next
Itaú — Home Equity Funnel Redesign & Growth
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