---
type: case
slug: xerpay
title: Xerpay
tagline: "Design to speed up design itself."
company: Xerpay
role: "Product Design Lead"
period: "2020-2022"
category: "Design & Discovery"
order: 5
featured: false
status: archived
updated: "2026-07-11"
lang: en
summary: >
  Product Design Lead at a salary advance fintech, 45 companies and 60
  thousand users. I transformed the discovery process and cut the user
  testing cycle from 1 month to under 1 week. Acquired by Betterfly in 2021.
metrics:
  - label: "Testing cycle"
    value: "1 month to under 1 week"
  - label: "Scale"
    value: "45 companies, 60 thousand users"
  - label: "XerpayControle"
    value: "+45% in billings paid via Xerpay"
tags: [fintech, discovery, atomic-research, plg]
---

# Xerpay

The design team couldn't test hypotheses with speed. One testing cycle took a month: manual recruitment, finance and legal with no automation, no tester base, no async testing tool.

A product in category creation, salary advance was a new concept in Brazil. The PM was prioritizing delivery, with no room to validate.

## Impact first

User testing cycle from 1 month to under 1 week. A tripling of validation speed, later presented in a talk at Product Stars. Discovery process documented and standardized from scratch.

## How I transformed it

I mapped the existing process step by step and found the bottlenecks. I documented and standardized the testing process. I automated the finance and legal flows to pay participants. I built a base of recurring testers. I standardized documentation and insight sharing with Atomic Research. And I migrated the stack to Figma and Maze, with async testing and automatic results.

I brought method to the team: Opportunity Solution Tree to map opportunity before solving, System Usability Scores to measure flow effectiveness, and Double Diamond as a formal process separating discovery from delivery.

## What I shipped in product

A product rebranding, and new flows for withdrawal via PIX, KYC and payment scheduling. And XerpayControle, a personal finance management product integrated into the ecosystem, with a monthly dashboard, contextual savings suggestions, a virtual card and financial health scoring. Result: +10% in monthly active users, +45% in billings paid via Xerpay and -15% in employees stressed about finances.

## Reflection

The most representative case of what I think about process: I used design to optimize design itself. That was the literal title of the talk. When the bottleneck is the speed of learning, the work isn't to design more screens, it's to redesign the system that produces the screens. Betterfly acquired Xerpay in 2021, and it was through that door that I entered global leadership.