Reimagining the Loyalty Program strategy.

NuCoin

Sep/24 → Now

The new NuCoin was fundamentally reborn as a loyalty program focused on Nubank's Brazilian Mass Market, a segment representing a massive 87% of our total user base. Our objective was to deliver the most entertaining and engaging relationship program in the financial sector for this segment.

This project demanded overcoming two core challenges: designing a financially viable loyalty model from the ground up, while simultaneously rebuilding a complex legacy product that originated as a cryptocurrency token.

Nucoin 2.0 loyalty program dashboard Random NuCoin screens showing different dynamics

(I)

Strategic Problem & Cost Barrier

The initiative was driven by a critical business need to stabilize customer engagement (NPS and PBR) despite the inability to offer substantial financial rewards.

The core problem was the insufficient financial reward. When budgeting the loyalty program based on customer contribution, the resulting average monthly benefit was insufficient to drive perceived loyalty or stabilize customer relationships.

The Brazilian Mass Market is a segment highly motivated by the "Pursuit of the Best Deals," with an Average Income often below the official minimum wage. Consequently, the loyalty solution needed to resonate deeply with this value-conscious audience without relying on large cash incentives.

At the same time, the product inherited a 16 million-user base from NuCoin 1.0 , a tradeable crypto-asset program coupled with inherent blockchain constraints. This presented the dual challenge of designing a new iteration that effectively shifted the program's focus from the existing base of crypto power users to the vast Mass Market segment, requiring a complete technical and product identity pivot.

[Fig 1] Dashboard structure and cards

[Fig 2] Redemption Hub

[Fig 3] Quiz flow

[Fig 4] Surprise Chest opening

[Fig 5] Surprise Chest, design evolution

[Fig 6] Level Up screen

[Fig 7] Level progress tracker

(II)

NuCoin 2.0: Macro Design & Vision

My design work was crucial during the definition of the initial strategy, aligning the vision and securing approvals for critical trade-offs with C-level leadership to create a viable MVP. Given these constraints, the strategic goal became maximizing perceived value through: non-financial, gamified experience, social elements, and luck-based mechanics. mechanics.

Once the high-level strategy was set, I initiated the design of the macro experience and core elements, defining the entire "Gamified Loyalty" concept and high-level structure. This scope included the creation of the main user flows, layouts, core components, and visuals. This phase required alignment with both the Design System and Marketing teams to ensure consistency.

(III)

Designing Mechanics and MVP Launch

After the core experience was established and validated, the work shifted to the detailed definition of mechanics and specific in-app flows. This involved executing the complex, high-engagement features to fully realize the gamified vision. Key design deliverables included:

✎ Thematic Quizzes: Designed the high-stakes, time-based quiz component that drives engagement through competition. This included the design of the real-time Leaderboard and the win condition, where the top 100 users win a special prize.

✎ Surprise Chest: Created a robust, componentized design system allowing for distinct chest designs corresponding to different user loyalty levels. This system also supported merchant-specific visual branding and featured interactive animations built using Rive.

✎ Tickets & Coupons Exchange: Detailed the end-to-end redemption flows where users exchange NuCoins for high-value rewards, like entertainment tickets (e.g., museums, exhibitions) and external merchant discounts.

(IV)

Product Evolution

Following the successful MVP launch, our focus immediately shifted to data-driven evolution and optimization. My work in this phase is centered on evolving the product based on customer data to iterate on core mechanics, improving usability and retention, and designing new mechanics based on feedback and business needs.

In parallel, I've been helping scale Rive across the entire Nubank application, transforming our animation capabilities and elevating the user experience beyond the NuCoin project.

Stay tuned for more updates as we rapidly evolve the product toward a full market launch.

Interested in knowing more? Send me a message on LKDN or drop me an EMAIL