Designed a rewards system that drove 15% of users to complete KYC and reverse a reverse in retention decline across Nazza mobile & web trading app
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Role
Team
Platform
Date
KYC Completion Rate
9% ↑
User Retention
Active Users in Reward System
Retention Lift from Daily Login Feature
Nazza had a transactional user base. People downloaded the app, completed 1 trade, and left. Monthly active user data showed retention dropping by 15% over 3 consecutive months, not because users were unhappy, but because the app gave them no reason to return between trades. There was no hook, no progress, no reward for staying in the product.
The business needed 2 things to hit its targets: higher KYC completion rates to stay compliant, and stronger return visit frequency to prove engagement depth to investors.
The Business Goal
Reverse the 15% retention decline and push KYC completion above 70% within 6 weeks of launch.
The Constraint
No gamification infrastructure existed in the product. I had to design within the current system, scope delivery across 2 sprints, and get engineering sign-off within the first week.
The core question
How do we make completing compliance steps feel rewarding rather than a chore?
The growth team shared cohort data that told a clear story. We grouped users into 3 behavioural segments based on how they engaged with the app after sign-up.
The core insight
The opportunity was not to find new users. It was to make the step 2 to step 3 KYC cliff visible, name the missing incentive, and design it directly into the flow — while also giving Cohort A a daily reason to return that had nothing to do with trading.
I explored several directions before landing on the final system. Two ideas tested well with users but broke down under compliance and engineering review.
Scratch Card Rewards — Rejected
Users tap a card after each trade to reveal a coin or cash bonus.
Financial regulators in key Nazza markets can classify randomised cash rewards as gambling-adjacent. Legal sign-off alone would have pushed the launch by weeks.
The backend needed a probability engine, a prize pool manager, and real-time fraud detection. Too heavy for 1 sprint.
A one-time delight does not build a daily return habit. I needed users coming back every day, not just feeling good once after a lucky scratch
Spin the Wheel — Rejected
1 free daily spin landing on points, coins, or a cash prize.
Same regulatory risk as the scratch card — chance-based outcomes in a financial product flagged by legal within 24 hours.
In testing, users felt worse after losing than they felt good after winning. Wrong emotional signal inside an app where users already carry market anxiety.
The mechanic only works when users already open the app daily. Cohort A opened every 18 days. I could not use a daily habit tool to solve the problem of not having a daily habit.
I mapped all the options against the 4 criteria that mattered most to the team
I moved to a points and milestones system — deterministic, not chance-based., which meant that every reward is tied to something the user did, not something they were lucky enough to receive.
Trade-off with Stakeholders x Developers
Product and engineering pushed for Option A — a plain progress bar. Ship fast, test later.
I pulled up the cohort data. Cohort C had 4x the lifetime value, and the gap was return frequency, not just KYC.
A progress bar solves 1 problem once.
I scoped the daily login as a parallel workstream using existing infrastructure.
Engineering confirmed it in the room: 4 days, not an extra sprint.
The ask changed from "do more" to "reuse what we have." That got it into sprint 1.
The daily login feature drove 38% of the day 7 retention lift.
I moved to a points and milestones system — deterministic, not chance-based., which meant that every reward is tied to something the user did, not something they were lucky enough to receive.
Gamification Milestone Rewards
I placed the Tier 2 reward preview at step 2 of the KYC flow, not after step 5. Cohort B users were already reaching step 2 — they just could not see what finishing was worth. That single placement decision changed the frame from compliance task to progress milestone.
Daily Login Rewards
I designed daily login feature targeting Cohort A directly. This was the simplest feature to ship in sprint 1 and the one that delivered the biggest single return on the retention numbers.
KYC Achievement Reward
I replaced the old grey confirmation screen with a pop-up modal celebration state.
How to earn
Guidelines on How to earn rewards on Nazza app
