In 2016, as the founding Head of Product and Design for Zelle, we set out to build the largest P2P network in America. Our vision was to lead the market with a flagship consumer app that could innovate at startup speed with the backing and trust of America's biggest banks.

In under 18 months, not only did we design the brand, the UX, and the design system for the banks, we launched the modern app for network banks to process P2P payments to over 95% of all Americans. The product did everything a consumer P2P app should do: Send, Request, and Split, while also deeply protecting our customers security with bank-grade fraud protection and identity verification. The Zelle app, often known as the “purple app,” launched with the network and in our first month we saw 7-figure user growth and never looked back.

As Zelle came to market and was scaling fast, a pattern emerged that each bank had to do custom development to integrate, maintain, innovate, and scale, costing upwards of 8-figures per year to operate and run. This model was not capital efficient for the largest of banks, let alone small regional banks. Additionally, the network was beholden to each bank to integrate new features which did not meet the speed-of-innovation.

Through this challenge, a spark emerged, and the Zelle Platform was born: a modern API and SDK that enabled any bank to have an out-of-the-box P2P experience. Banks could integrate the standard Zelle UI into their apps or craft custom interfaces while receiving new features as soon as they were network-ready. This platform became the foundation for Zelle's rapid scaling, enabling innovations to be deployed across the entire network.

When founding Zelle, we aimed to create more than just a payment network, we wanted to build a ubiquitous brand that would resonate with every bank customer in America. The name needed to embody four essential pillars: speed, trust, security, and delight. Each pillar powerful on its own, but together, they would create something transformative.

This vision gave birth to "Zelle," a name crafted to be memorable, meaningful, and inherently trustworthy. Simple enough to say, yet powerful enough to represent a new era in payments. Today, Zelle stands as America's largest P2P network by payment volume, fulfilling our founding vision of a brand that would define the future of money movement.

The Zelle UX guide transcends a typical design system, it's a comprehensive framework spanning 100+ pages of specific patterns that every bank must be certified against to join the network. Beyond enabling real-time payments, a core principle was creating a consistent user experience across all banks, building the familiarity and trust that consumers expect, regardless of where they bank.

Guided by this vision, we developed a detailed global framework that elegantly balanced individual bank branding with Zelle's unified experience. From onboarding to sending money to tracking activity, every interaction was crafted with purposeful design that could seamlessly integrate into each bank's unique environment. This comprehensive effort crystallized into our defining promise: "This is how money moves."

While we developed a comprehensive 100+ page UX certification guide, we knew success required more than just documentation. Launching a nationwide network demanded pixel-perfect consistency across every bank's implementation. The certification process ensured each partner upheld these rigorous standards as we brought the network and brand to market.

Rolling up our sleeves and working side-by-side with owner banks and early adopters, we leveraged the UX guide to certify each institution's end-to-end experience. This required deep partnership and investment from both sides, balancing Zelle's rigorous standards with tight timelines and each bank's unique technical stack. Through this collaborative approach, we successfully launched Zelle with 17 banks, delivering not just a payment network, but a unified experience that has come to define P2P payments.