GradRight Inc (Fintech / B2C / Mobile / Web) - 2026
Leading 0 - 1 Product Design for GradRight Superapp
Team Lead & Individual Contributor
Design for AI experience
User research
Wireframing
Motion
Prototyping
A/B testing
Visual Design
ROLE
Lead Product Designer
TEAM
4 Product Designers
2 Product Managers
TIMELINE
3 Months
GradRight SuperApp
An AI powered tool for finding the right university course, education loan, financing and refinancing for those who aspire to study masters abroad.
Its a one-stop solution, a SuperApp for all things Master's.
AI Native
Fintech
Proprietary AI suggestions
Ed tech
BACKGROUND
Mission of GradRight is to help aspiring students to find the right course and university for their higher education abroad, and assists them to secure education loan at lowest interest rates by pitching the student against the education loan lending partners. Being an early stage startup, the product verticals functioned separately, which felt and appeared disconnected from one another. The product needed to build trust through familiarity that facilitated through an ecosystem that flowed between verticals seamlessly. This is where the idea of converging multiple product verticals into a one-stop solution, a SuperApp for all things Master's began. Learn what GradRight does.
MY ROLE
As Lead Product Designer at GradRight, I led a team of four designers; splitting my responsibilities evenly between hands-on design and design team leadership. I partnered closely with Strategy, Engineering, and Product to translate ambiguous business goals into clear design direction by articulating decisions to stakeholders, helping shape the product pipeline, and cultivating a design culture built on collaboration.
"I joined GradRight as a Lead Product Designer in the company, where I mentored and led a team of 4 product designers and an intern. Our team was responsible to drive design initiatives across the verticals of the product."
Product
Design Lead
Setting the design philosophy, vision and approach of the verticals along with nurturing critique friendly environment for junior designers.
Individual Contribution
Worked on key modules of the product experience, set product vision to help tie up all the verticals the rest of design team made.
Conduit for Product Team
Played a crucial role in communicating User aligned Design Goals and Vision with Product Managers, VP Engineering, Tech leads, and the CEO.
Creating a Design System
Created a new AI ready design system from scratch that was made with cohesion, and an intent to connect our product with our audience.
0-1 execution in three months
This fast paced project required converting ambiguity to actionable goals, converging to one vision shared by all the stakeholders.
OUTCOMES
Some of the notable metrics of the SuperApp v1.0.
~2x
Increment in users completing the onboarding experience.
A jump from 24.6% to 51.3%
0.4%
14%
Improvement in aspirants submitting KYC document.
KYC documents are required for an education loan.
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Scalable design system ensured the product verticals felt cohesive, trendy and part of the same brand identity.
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Streamlined the UI to reduce cognitive load, establishing a contextual visual hierarchy to highlight high-priority elements and implementing context-aware content prioritization.
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Refined app architecture to establish logical task flows, resulting in fewer navigation errors during usability testing and overwhelmingly positive user feedback on ease of use.
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Interconnected verticals ensuring a seamless and cohesive product experience.
TIMELINE
Overview of how the design x development was planned
Discovery
Brainstorming
Wireframe Demo
Foundation of GRiDS Design System
Motion Graphics
AI Mascot Design
Building GRiDS Design System on the go
Designing for different Verticals
Month 01
Month 02
Month 03
PROBLEM STATEMENT
GradRight envisioned itself as a one-stop solution for anyone planning for their higher studies abroad. However, the product verticals themselves didn't reflect the same, as there were challenges
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Different verticals resulted in inefficient resource management.
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Low Onboarding Conversion of aspirants, with a 76% drop-off.
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Verticals didn't talk to one another; they worked as separate entities.
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AI projection through onboarding and suggestion was low.
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No singular identity amongst the verticals, due to poor design system approach.
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Not being able to funnel aspirants to the next vertical within the product.
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Disconnected with the target audience GenZ in terms of copy, visual design approach.
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Completely dependent on Web-App in an age of Mobile First Design for B2C domain.
"Unlike a typical B2C setup, the stakes are very high per user. Meaning studying abroad is a long term expensive investment which is accompanied by a well thought-out career plan. Therefore, it is important for AI to take the role of an assistant instead of replacing the human touch, the Customer Sales Team"
GOAL
Discussions with stakeholders and aligning with the vision of the company resulted in setting up of measurable goals.
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A new Design System which is modern, AI ready and designed to be relatable to GenZ.
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Unifying product verticals in one SuperApp, with flawless Information Architecture.
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Improving Onboarding Conversion, with progressive load.
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Improving the funneling experience for aspirants, easing them onto their next step.
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Creating a Community Forum for User to discuss universities, courses and other topics.
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Achieve a version scalable for Mobile App and WebApp both.
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Improve user satisfaction scores via post-launch surveys.
WHAT GOT DELIVERED
Creating a Full fledged Design system with an elaborate set of components; with logic, clarity, and control built in.
WHAT WASN'T WORKING
01
Product Verticals felt separate and disconnected to one another.
02
Lack of a common Design System and theme that felt connected to GenZ.
03
Lack of AI's visibility at the product front, despite being a USP.
04
Only web based platform in a Mobile-First age and target audience.
New Design System
Created a new design system that had a modern approach. It was joyous, playful but confident to build connection and trust amongst our target audience of GenZ.
AI that communicates
A playful AI bot Graddie, that guides you through your onboarding, making the experience conversational and engaging.
A new Home for the family of verticals
Pun intended. The SuperApp project presented an opportunity to unify the verticals (SelectRight, FundRight, InsureRight, Accomodation, Events, Refinance etc.) under one home, a SuperApp with a navigation designed around discoverability of services.
REFLECTION
What leading a design team for a 0-1 project taught me.
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When you build from scratch, there is ambiguity in play. Every detail is a decision, and alignment of design team to the vision of the product becomes ever-so crucial.
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The thing I got better at was holding two levels at once. Zooming into a single field on the application form, then zooming out to ask whether the whole roadmap still made sense.
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I learned that consistency matters. You build it in early, through a system and a shared understanding, so the team moves fast without drifting apart. This also makes it easier to iterate quickly.
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If there is one line that sums up the job, it is this; My work was about the balance between creation and decision.
