From forced pivot to acquisition: Open Banking platform design for financial institutions
- Role:
- Lead Product Designer (sole designer, end to end)
- Scope:
- Product strategy, information architecture, UX/UI, design system, branding, pitch assets
- Team:
- Worked directly with the CTO and engineering team
- Business Impact:
- My prototype helped secure funding for the pivot. Used by Toyota Bank, Tesco Bank and telecom companies. Acquired by BKN301 in November 2025.
- Status:
- Technology being integrated into BKN301's Orchestrator. I'm now designing Planky 2.0 in Figma and building its demo with Claude.
When a regulatory change made social media scoring obsolete overnight, the company faced an existential threat. The only way forward was a pivot to Open Banking (AISP/PISP), and the backend was still in early development.
I designed the whole product from scratch, including a functional prototype. It became the core asset in investor demos, and the investors backed the pivot. After the funding I turned that concept into a working platform: modular reports, a visual rules engine, the FinCast forecasting module and consumer consent flows. Toyota Bank, Tesco Bank and telecom companies used it, and BKN301 acquired the company in November 2025.
The work continues. The technology is being integrated into BKN301's Orchestrator, and I'm designing Planky 2.0, in Figma and as a working demo built with Claude.
Onboarding & Consent Flow
Two audiences: consumers who must trust it, and companies that must pass KYC
Planky served two very different groups. End consumers needed a reason to share their bank data. Companies using Planky had to get through heavy legal verification.
Consumer flow: white-label consentThe user gets an SMS or email linking to a page with the client's logo and message. It explains why the data is needed, then sends them to choose their bank and log in there.
Business flow: progressive KYCI split verification into 7 steps, including 25%+ beneficiary checks and director registration, so companies were not hit with everything at once. Inline validation catches formal errors as they happen.
Testing flow: sandboxBusiness clients can try the analytics engine on synthetic data before committing to full KYC.
Decision: automate paymentsNot every client is a bank. Small credit brokers and property rental firms want to add a card and start. I pushed to automate payments and similar steps, because without that those clients would not use the product at all.
Core Platform Modules
The analytical and operational dashboard
The dashboard combines bank data analytics with tools for configuring risk processes and managing the organization.
Decision: separately priced modulesI insisted on splitting the product into modules, each sold and priced on its own. There was pushback inside Planky, and I had to argue for it. BKN301 took the idea over and is continuing it.
Predictive Analytics
FinCast: Forecasting liquidity and proving the forecast is right
FinCast is a white-label module that forecasts balance and cash flow from fixed obligations and a personal safety buffer. The hard part was showing financial institutions that the machine learning models could be trusted.
Safety buffer simulationA slider sets a minimum reserve and instantly recalculates the Safe-to-Spend figure.
Obligation calendarRecurring fees are detected automatically and shown on a timeline, with alerts when liquidity is at risk.
Validation mode (backtesting)A toggle runs the algorithm on past data and overlays the forecast on what actually happened, so clients can check its accuracy themselves.
Brand Identity
A brand hero in a conservative industry
Enterprise FinTech tends to look the same: sterile and corporate. I gave Planky a proprietary character to make it approachable and easy to remember. It became a fixture of our trade show presence.
Design System & Outcome
The design system, and what happened next
To handle dense financial data, I built a design system around strict typography, optimized transaction tables and clear risk status coding. It let us adapt the platform quickly to banks' audit requirements.
Client feedbackWe had Hotjar fully connected for a while, but the financial data was so sensitive that most clients wouldn't allow it. So we relied on direct client feedback after each change, and the large majority of it was positive.
After the acquisitionBKN301 bought Planky in November 2025 and is integrating the technology into its platform. The modular model carried over, and I'm now working on Planky 2.0, this time with a working demo alongside the Figma work.