About Copper Banking
Copper Banking is a bold fintech startup on a mission to empower families with a teen-first digital banking app. By making financial literacy, allowance management, and safe spending fun and accessible, Copper laid a strong foundation in banking and savings. With these building blocks in place, the next adventure was clear: introducing investing.
Challenge
Money sparks excitement for teens, fueling dreams of new gadgets and shiny bikes. Yet, cash is rarely within reach, and parents are not always ready to fund every wish. Many teens found it tough to see why saving mattered or how to make progress. Despite Copper Banking’s 300,000-strong user base, fewer than 30% set active savings goals, and just 15% reached them.
Solution
We set out to spark a savings mindset among teens, boost goal-setting and completion, and encourage more peer-to-peer transfers between parents and their kids. Through in-depth research and real conversations with teens, I crafted a gamified goal-setting journey. Teens could dive into the Savings Challenge, a series of quick, interactive lessons and quizzes about saving. The final step guided them in setting up their very first goal. As a reward, completing the Savings Challenge unlocked $5.00 toward that goal. In just the first month, our users created over 92,000 new goals.
Contribution
As Lead Designer, I steered the entire journey of Copper’s Savings Challenge, from uncovering the core problem to launching and measuring success. I shaped the research strategy and led engaging interviews and usability tests with teens and parents, uncovering what truly motivates, educates, and inspires goal-setting.
I collaborated with product, engineering, compliance, and marketing teams to transform behavioral insights into a dynamic, gamified education flow that balanced fun, financial accuracy, and regulatory needs.
I led cross-functional workshops to prioritize features, championed accessibility and age-appropriate UX, and guided the solution from concept to launch.
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Market research
Many teens earned money from their parents by doing chores, and a few enjoyed the steady rhythm of a weekly allowance. One teen, however, set their sights sky-high, dreaming up goals that stretched far beyond what most could achieve in the short term. For years, this teen diligently saved every dollar, determined to buy a car at 16. As the deadline approached, the dream felt out of reach, and hopelessness crept in. What they truly needed was to begin with smaller, more manageable goals and discover the satisfaction of achieving them, one step at a time.Key insights
After surveying 100 teens, the consensus was that saving money wasn't important.
Copper Banking was doing a poor job of providing savings education, and most of it was time-consuming.
Teens were creating too large goals, which created a negative feeling around saving money.
Teens wanted more incentives across the product experience. If we educated them, they wanted to earn it in some fashion.
Design principles
Educate teens at the right moment.
Create moments of delight and encouragement.
Empower teens to act on their learnings.
Final designs
At first, I tried offering a series of money-saving courses where teens could earn cash after each lesson. But after some testing, I saw that this approach would quickly lose their interest. Inspired by the bite-sized style of Coinbase quizzes, I shifted gears and created an engaging Savings Challenge. This challenge featured four quick, interactive lessons: why saving matters, how to plan ahead, and how to prepare for the unexpected. The final lesson guided teens as they set their very first savings goal. To kickstart their journey, we contributed $5.00 to their new goal. When a teen reached their target, we celebrated their achievement by sending a notification and an email to their parent.
Outcomes
The Savings Goals experience sparked remarkable momentum throughout our engagement funnel. Goal creation soared by 70%, outpacing our plan by 20%, while goal completion surged 80%, surpassing expectations by 23%. These results highlight not just adoption, but real, lasting user commitment. Connections between parents and teens flourished as well, with card transfers from parents to teens jumping 60% and parent contributions to Copper accounts climbing 32%, both well above target. These gains reflect a deeper level of financial engagement and vibrant family participation.
Learnings
A key insight from this project was just how much teens value instant rewards over educational content. Many hurried through lessons, eager to unlock earning or savings milestones, often missing the deeper learning. This exposed a gap between finishing content and truly understanding it. To address this, we added knowledge-check quizzes to each learning section, ensuring teens demonstrated real understanding before moving forward. This change turned education from a passive step into an active, engaging moment, blending motivation with mastery and elevating the integrity of the financial learning journey.