Clement
Timeline
June 2025 (1 week sprint)
Members
Sole Product Designer & Researcher
The TL;DR
In five days, I created Clement, a budgeting companion for Canadians living pay-to-paycheque as a response to Bree Technology (YC21)'s recruitment design challenge. Working solo, I mined secondary sources (industry reports, Reddit budgeting forums, competitor analysis) to surface key pain points, then prototyped 3 high-fidelity screens that reduces time-to-insight from roughly 45s to ~10 s compared with mainstream budgeting apps.
🔎 The Challenge
Traditional budgeting apps feel overwhelming or judgmental to people who live pay cheque to pay cheque, so many users avoid them and stay in a cycle of "reactive" money management.
Design a mobile budgeting experience that helps people who live paycheque to paycheque quickly see:
Where their money went in this pay period.
How much is left until next payday.
Small steps they can take to stay on track.
The solution must be low‑friction, non‑judgmental, and visually polished in Figma.
Deconstructing the brief
The moment I received the challenge, I distilled it into design principles and acceptance criteria that would guide every future step from first sketch to final pixel.
Diving into the root causes through secondary research
Why does traditional budgeting apps feel overwhelming or judgmental?
The average person faces more than 35,000 conscious and unconscious decisions per day…
This leads many users to “decision fatigue”, meaning they avoid any decisions they find difficult or draining.
Thus, while these apps offers a wide range of features, which can be overwhelming and distracting, making it harder to focus on the core task of managing finances.
To probe further into the problem space, I captured every user quote, pain point notes, and teardown insight from mainstream budgeting apps onto stickies, then clustered them in an affinity map. Seeing the same stress triggers surface across both user feedback and app audits crystallised my synthesis.
Understanding the user persona
Monica constantly juggles limited income, tight timelines, and caregiving duties, stretching every dollar (and minute) to keep her household afloat until the next paycheque.
Problem statement
Users living pay-to-paycheque need a clear, real-time sense of how many days their money will last and actionable guidance to avoid running out before the next payday.
Ideation
Using an impact-effort matrix, I prioritized features that solve the core problem first within real constraints. Each of these requirements addressed the users' pain points, whether directly or indirectly.
Crazy 8s and lofi wireframes
After three iterations, I realized I was solving the wrong problem. Instead of optimizing for one mental model or the other, I needed to design an interface that seamlessly supported both.
Creating delight & empathy through visual choices
To find a palette that felt supportive rather than sterile, I ran four quick colour studies.
Financial apps typically prioritize data delivery over user experience, overlooking how the journey itself shapes engagement.
I developed these weather-based illustrations ☁️☀️💦 that metaphorically represent users' financial states, creating a non-judgmental and non-intrusive way to communicate financial wellness.
Introducing Clement
Wake up to clear sky forecasts for every dollar you own
Quick Financial Reality Check:
6 days until payday, $2000 remaining. The circular runway makes time tangible. Not just numbers, but actual days to stretch money. The green "On track" status gives users confidence.
When Life Happens
Instead of judgment, Clement shows understanding: "Life happened - You've tried your best" with gentle rain clouds. The weather shifts from sunny to stormy, offering immediate next steps to recover.
Friendly Guidance, Not Lectures
Monica's spending categories get gentle nudges. Using zero-based budgeting, she knows exactly where to focus without overwhelming charts.
Conscious Spending Decisions
Three taps to log an expense, and Clement gives a heads-up how much runway it would cost.
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Key Takeaways
💝 Building strategic experiences towards love and care
Weather metaphors and gentle language transform stressful budget notifications into intuitive, non-judgmental feedback. By acknowledging that “life happens,” and showing that "we've got your back", the interface invites users back in rather than pushing them away. Every detail, from word choice to color palette, works together to create frictionless
🤔 Adapting when there's no direct user data
When outreach to the Head Engineer and Lead Designer produced no logs or interviews, I pivoted. I tapped community forums, public product reviews, and competitor case studies to surface genuine pain points. This secondary research kept momentum high and ensured design decisions were still evidence-based.
💥The macro power of micro-interactions
Instant, contextual cues like "this cuts your runway by 0.5 days" enables conscious spending without being preachy. When users understand the true cost of bite-size decisions decisions, they make better choices naturally.
