She knows every screen. I bring fresh eyes.

She knows every screen. I bring fresh eyes.

On my work as a UX designer at Captain Credit, and on where deep knowledge of a product meets design that moves it forward.

When you join the design of an existing app, you meet much more than a set of screens. You meet business decisions, edge cases, technical constraints and relationships built over time. Some stand out right away; others only surface once you start asking the right questions.

When I joined Captain Credit, the app was already live and built. My task was to fit into an existing product, bring order to the hierarchy and the way information is presented, and design new screens so they feel part of one consistent experience.

Within that process, my partnership with Shira Mistriel Elian, the former product manager (now Head of Operations at Captain Credit), was born.

I've worked with quite a few product managers, and each has their own methodology – but with Shira it's a story of its own. Shira has been with the company for many years and the Captain is truly her baby: she knows every scenario, every screen, every action and every service running behind the scenes (so much so that she's a regular guest on TV finance shows, talking about the product).

When a designer joins an existing product alongside a product manager who lives it at that level, the immediate fear is becoming just an executor. For us, the connection worked brilliantly from the first moment, because I didn't come only as a designer, but also as a curious user who lives and knows the world of finance and came with lots of questions. Together we dove straight into the deep end – into a tangled process like mortgages – and the task was to take all that complexity and make it accessible at eye level.

Entering a product with a history

Every existing screen has its own "why": an old decision that solved a specific scenario, or a technical constraint from the past. To design well, I have to understand these nuances: what still works? What needs a refresh? And where might a solution that's right for one screen create friction on the next?

This is where the product manager's depth is a real asset. Her ability to instantly connect the interface with the business needs, and to explain how a small change in one corner will affect the whole app, saves precious time.

For me, all this context isn't an obstacle, it's raw material for design that understands reality.

Two pairs of eyes, the same problem

When I look at a screen, my eyes look for flow, hierarchy and clarity: what draws the eye? What does the user need to understand right now? Is the language simple? On the product side, the focus is on the business picture, the regulatory scenarios and the technical limitations.

Our conversation rests on open dialogue. Working in an environment where it's fine to raise doubts, ask "why, actually?" and explore alternatives without fear – that's the only way to create learning and a precise product.

What we know vs. what the user understands

One of the traps in product teams is the gap between how closely the team knows the system and what the user actually understands. In design we call this a mental model gap: users arrive with their own experience and expectations, which don't always match what happens behind the scenes.

My job is to make sure the screen explains itself even to someone who doesn't know the system. Working together lets us take the product's depth and translate it into a simple interface, while keeping usability principles like consistency and familiar language.

In a financial product, a professional term must be both precise and understood on the street.

In the end, the best products are born exactly at this meeting point: when knowledge and deep familiarity built over years meet a fresh look that seeks to make the complex simple.