Mostafa Esmaeili
Product Design Director
Mostafa22esm@gmail.com | +1 831 272 2679 | Portfolio | LinkedIn | Medium
10+ years in FinTech, Banking, and Web3 design experience, leading design transformation from 0→1 launches to multi-squad organizations. I combine Jobs-to-be-Done thinking, progressive-disclosure UX, and bold visual craft to translate complex financial systems into intuitive, human-centred experiences.
Saman banking app redesigns have driven a 40% uplift in user engagement and a 30% reduction in feature development time.
Professional Experience
wallet.com • Product Design Director
Mar 2024 – Present | Full-time, Remote
Defined product vision, design strategy, and growth roadmap for a self-custodial crypto wallet from day one.
Led 0→1 product launch end-to-end: applied a Jobs-to-be-Done framework to surface users' core hiring criteria, then used an Opportunity Solution Tree to ruthlessly prioritize features for the MVP — shipping on schedule with a Day-30 retention rate of 41%, exceeding the 35% target set for the initial release.
Designed a first-of-its-kind multi-network token-merge system using progressive-disclosure principles; A/B tested two information architectures and shipped the variant that reduced task- completion errors by 34%.
Redefined crypto lending UX from scratch, applying HIG and Material Design 3 guidelines to ensure gesture coherence on iOS and Android; usability testing showed a 28% drop in support tickets related to borrowing flows.
Integrated AI capabilities across the wallet using a context-aware decision layer; validated via tests that AI-assisted swap suggestions increased swap conversion rate by 22% vs. control.
Built a seedless passkey-auth onboarding flow; the cinematic, step-by-step narrative UI cut new- user drop-off by 19%.
blu Bank • Product Design Leader
Jan 2023 - Mar 2024 | Full-time, In-house
Led design across 20-person team serving six business lines (Blu Junior, Blu Personal, Blu Business, + three new ventures).
Architected a unified, token-based design system (inspired by Material Design 3 and tailored to HIG for the iOS-first banking app) that reduced design-to-dev handoff time by 30% and enforced visual consistency across six product lines.
Applied the Kano Model and OKR-aligned design planning to prioritize the Blu Business MVP feature set; the launch achieved an NPS of +52 and a 62% Week-2 activation rate, both surpassing pre-launch benchmarks within the first month.
Ran a series of customer-centric discovery sprints (including empathy mapping, contextual inquiry, and Jobs-to-be-Done interviews) to define the Blu Tourism super-app proposition, surfacing three unmet needs that shaped the roadmap.
Designed efficiently under constraints: reused 80% of existing components, created a bold, geometric icon system in-house to replace third-party illustration spend, and delivered Blu Junior end-to-end in 6 weeks without compromising visual quality or UX coherence.
Initiated and architected a unified, scalable design system serving multiple business models—accelerating product development and improving UI/UX consistency.
Designed the organizational design ladder for the 20-person team, defining roles, career paths, and leadership progression across core and distributed squads.
Modeled and implemented team feedback and emotional health processes, improving internal team dynamics and individual growth across all design roles.
Developed a strategic communication structure between the design team and cross-functional departments (product, tech, ops, C-level), increasing alignment and design visibility.
Planned to launch a high-performing MVP for Blu Business, Blu Tourism & Blu supper app with strong user satisfaction and positive early engagement metrics.
Saman Bank • Product Design Leader
Feb 2021 - Jan 2023 | Full-time, In-house
Lead product designer for four banking products simultaneously, balancing speed, quality, and team growth.
Structured and scaled the design team from the ground up; introduced the Un-Fix squad model and Design Ops rituals (weekly design reviews, async feedback loops..).
Redesigned the Personal Financial Management dashboard; the winning variant drove a 40% increase in feature engagement.
Designed Split Bills and Contact Transfer using a customer-centric story-mapping process (user personas + JTBD + emotional journey maps), resulting in a 20% increase in monthly active users.
Revitalized the Gift Card feature with a visually bold, motion-forward redesign; cinematic onboarding animation tested via preference testing outperformed the static control by 3:1 and lifted registrations by 5%.
Scaled the design function from 2 to 8 designers using the Un-Fix model; introduced design crits, friction logs, and knowledge-sharing rituals that cut design rework by 25%.
Implemented HIG-compliant accessibility patterns (color contrast, dynamic type, touch targets) across all four products, reducing accessibility-related bug reports by 40%.
Developed a design team roadmap ladder and role positioning framework from the ground up to structure and clarify responsibilities across a growing product landscape.
Scaled the design function to support emerging business lines with a lean team setup, balancing quality and speed of delivery.
Established feedback and knowledge-sharing practices within the design team and across departments, fostering a culture of learning and continuous improvement.
Saman Bank • Product Design Leader
Feb 2021 - Jan 2023 | Full-time, In-house
Lead product designer for four banking products simultaneously, balancing speed, quality, and team growth.
Structured and scaled the design team from the ground up; introduced the Un-Fix squad model and Design Ops rituals (weekly design reviews, async feedback loops..).
Redesigned the Personal Financial Management dashboard; the winning variant drove a 40% increase in feature engagement.
Designed Split Bills and Contact Transfer using a customer-centric story-mapping process (user personas + JTBD + emotional journey maps), resulting in a 20% increase in monthly active users.
Revitalized the Gift Card feature with a visually bold, motion-forward redesign; cinematic onboarding animation tested via preference testing outperformed the static control by 3:1 and lifted registrations by 5%.
Scaled the design function from 2 to 8 designers using the Un-Fix model; introduced design crits, friction logs, and knowledge-sharing rituals that cut design rework by 25%.
Implemented HIG-compliant accessibility patterns (color contrast, dynamic type, touch targets) across all four products, reducing accessibility-related bug reports by 40%.
Developed a design team roadmap ladder and role positioning framework from the ground up to structure and clarify responsibilities across a growing product landscape.
Scaled the design function to support emerging business lines with a lean team setup, balancing quality and speed of delivery.
Established feedback and knowledge-sharing practices within the design team and across departments, fostering a culture of learning and continuous improvement.
Mostafa Esmaeili
Product Design Director
Mostafa22esm@gmail.com | +1 831 272 2679 | Portfolio | LinkedIn | Medium
10+ years in FinTech, Banking, and Web3 design experience, leading design transformation from 0→1 launches to multi-squad organizations. I combine Jobs-to-be-Done thinking, progressive-disclosure UX, and bold visual craft to translate complex financial systems into intuitive, human-centred experiences.
Saman banking app redesigns have driven a 40% uplift in user engagement and a 30% reduction in feature development time.
Professional Experience
wallet.com • Product Design Director
Mar 2024 – Present | Full-time, Remote
Defined product vision, design strategy, and growth roadmap for a self-custodial crypto wallet from day one.
Led 0→1 product launch end-to-end: applied a Jobs-to-be-Done framework to surface users' core hiring criteria, then used an Opportunity Solution Tree to ruthlessly prioritize features for the MVP — shipping on schedule with a Day-30 retention rate of 41%, exceeding the 35% target set for the initial release.
Designed a first-of-its-kind multi-network token-merge system using progressive-disclosure principles; A/B tested two information architectures and shipped the variant that reduced task- completion errors by 34%.
Redefined crypto lending UX from scratch, applying HIG and Material Design 3 guidelines to ensure gesture coherence on iOS and Android; usability testing showed a 28% drop in support tickets related to borrowing flows.
Integrated AI capabilities across the wallet using a context-aware decision layer; validated via tests that AI-assisted swap suggestions increased swap conversion rate by 22% vs. control.
Built a seedless passkey-auth onboarding flow; the cinematic, step-by-step narrative UI cut new- user drop-off by 19%.
blu Bank • Product Design Leader
Jan 2023 - Mar 2024 | Full-time, In-house
Led design across 20-person team serving six business lines (Blu Junior, Blu Personal, Blu Business, + three new ventures).
Architected a unified, token-based design system (inspired by Material Design 3 and tailored to HIG for the iOS-first banking app) that reduced design-to-dev handoff time by 30% and enforced visual consistency across six product lines.
Applied the Kano Model and OKR-aligned design planning to prioritize the Blu Business MVP feature set; the launch achieved an NPS of +52 and a 62% Week-2 activation rate, both surpassing pre-launch benchmarks within the first month.
Ran a series of customer-centric discovery sprints (including empathy mapping, contextual inquiry, and Jobs-to-be-Done interviews) to define the Blu Tourism super-app proposition, surfacing three unmet needs that shaped the roadmap.
Designed efficiently under constraints: reused 80% of existing components, created a bold, geometric icon system in-house to replace third-party illustration spend, and delivered Blu Junior end-to-end in 6 weeks without compromising visual quality or UX coherence.
Initiated and architected a unified, scalable design system serving multiple business models—accelerating product development and improving UI/UX consistency.
Designed the organizational design ladder for the 20-person team, defining roles, career paths, and leadership progression across core and distributed squads.
Modeled and implemented team feedback and emotional health processes, improving internal team dynamics and individual growth across all design roles.
Developed a strategic communication structure between the design team and cross-functional departments (product, tech, ops, C-level), increasing alignment and design visibility.
Planned to launch a high-performing MVP for Blu Business, Blu Tourism & Blu supper app with strong user satisfaction and positive early engagement metrics.
Saman Bank • Product Design Leader
Feb 2021 - Jan 2023 | Full-time, In-house
Lead product designer for four banking products simultaneously, balancing speed, quality, and team growth.
Structured and scaled the design team from the ground up; introduced the Un-Fix squad model and Design Ops rituals (weekly design reviews, async feedback loops..).
Redesigned the Personal Financial Management dashboard; the winning variant drove a 40% increase in feature engagement.
Designed Split Bills and Contact Transfer using a customer-centric story-mapping process (user personas + JTBD + emotional journey maps), resulting in a 20% increase in monthly active users.
Revitalized the Gift Card feature with a visually bold, motion-forward redesign; cinematic onboarding animation tested via preference testing outperformed the static control by 3:1 and lifted registrations by 5%.
Scaled the design function from 2 to 8 designers using the Un-Fix model; introduced design crits, friction logs, and knowledge-sharing rituals that cut design rework by 25%.
Implemented HIG-compliant accessibility patterns (color contrast, dynamic type, touch targets) across all four products, reducing accessibility-related bug reports by 40%.
Developed a design team roadmap ladder and role positioning framework from the ground up to structure and clarify responsibilities across a growing product landscape.
Scaled the design function to support emerging business lines with a lean team setup, balancing quality and speed of delivery.
Established feedback and knowledge-sharing practices within the design team and across departments, fostering a culture of learning and continuous improvement.
Saman Bank • Product Design Leader
Feb 2021 - Jan 2023 | Full-time, In-house
Lead product designer for four banking products simultaneously, balancing speed, quality, and team growth.
Structured and scaled the design team from the ground up; introduced the Un-Fix squad model and Design Ops rituals (weekly design reviews, async feedback loops..).
Redesigned the Personal Financial Management dashboard; the winning variant drove a 40% increase in feature engagement.
Designed Split Bills and Contact Transfer using a customer-centric story-mapping process (user personas + JTBD + emotional journey maps), resulting in a 20% increase in monthly active users.
Revitalized the Gift Card feature with a visually bold, motion-forward redesign; cinematic onboarding animation tested via preference testing outperformed the static control by 3:1 and lifted registrations by 5%.
Scaled the design function from 2 to 8 designers using the Un-Fix model; introduced design crits, friction logs, and knowledge-sharing rituals that cut design rework by 25%.
Implemented HIG-compliant accessibility patterns (color contrast, dynamic type, touch targets) across all four products, reducing accessibility-related bug reports by 40%.
Developed a design team roadmap ladder and role positioning framework from the ground up to structure and clarify responsibilities across a growing product landscape.
Scaled the design function to support emerging business lines with a lean team setup, balancing quality and speed of delivery.
Established feedback and knowledge-sharing practices within the design team and across departments, fostering a culture of learning and continuous improvement.