I led the design of the reward system that gave users a genuine reason to stay engaged beyond their first few transactions. The goal was to build something that felt worth caring about, not just a points counter nobody would ever check.
Role
Team
Platform
Date
Active Users in Reward System
Retention Lift
The Problem
Nazza had a one-and-done problem. Users came in, completed a transaction, and disappeared. Retention had dropped 15% across 3 consecutive months, and the data was clear: nothing was pulling people back once they had done what they came to do. No hook, no reason to return, no sense of progress inside the product.
The business needed 2 things to hit its targets: KYC completion above 70% to stay compliant, and return visit frequency strong enough to show real engagement 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 a sprint and get engineering sign-off within the first week.
The core question
How do we make returning to the app feel worth it, not just for power users, but for everyone?
What the Data Showed
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 data pointed to 1 root cause: the app had nothing to offer users between actions.
1. Cohort A, which was 62% of all users, averaged an 18 day gap between sessions and never returned.
2. Cohort B started KYC but stopped at step 3, where motivation ran out before the finish line.
3. Cohort C, the 14% who completed KYC and traded regularly, showed 4x higher lifetime value than the other 2 groups put together.
The reward system was designed to move users from A and B into that 14%.
The Trade-off (What Didn't Work & How I Pushed Back)
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.
Regulators could flag random cash rewards as gambling, pushing launch by weeks.
Backend needed a probability engine and fraud detection, too heavy for 1 sprint.
A one-time delight does not build a daily return habit.
The lesson learnt
Engaging in isolation is not the same as engaging in context. Both ideas worked on retail apps, but on Nazza app, they sent the wrong signal entirely.
Spin the Wheel (Rejected)
1 free daily spin landing on points, coins, or a cash prize.
Same regulatory risk as the scratch card, flagged by legal.
In testing, users felt worse after losing than good after winning, wrong signal in a finance app.
Cohort A opened every 18 days. A daily spin tool cannot fix a missing daily habit.
I mapped all the options against the 4 criteria that mattered most to the team
Product and engineering pushed for a plain progress bar, ship fast, test later.
From the cohort data, the gap was return frequency, not just KYC.
A progress bar solves 1 problem once.
I scoped daily login as a parallel workstream using existing infrastructure.
Engineering confirmed 4 days, not an extra sprint. That got it into sprint
I moved to a points and milestones system, which meant that every reward is tied to something the user did, not something they were lucky enough to receive.
Gamification Milestone Rewards
Cohort B users were already reaching step 2 of KYC but dropping off after.
I placed the Tier 2 reward preview at step 2, not after step 5.
They could now see what finishing was worth before giving up.
One placement decision shifted 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
I designed the "How to Earn Rewards" educational experience, using illustration led storytelling and contextual explanations that translated complex earning rules into clear, engaging guidance to help simplify reward mechanics and help users understand how to participate and earn points.
