Design Chit-Chat vol.11 – Pallavi Verma

What is Design Chit-Chat?

PayPay has become a national service with 50 million users, and one thing that is indispensable in its development is the presence of product members with rich personalities from more than 50 countries around the world. The process of understanding the “differences” and “commonalities” in each other’s thinking one by one has transformed us into a team capable of creating ideas, approaches, and outputs that have never existed before.

In this Design Chit-Chat, we would like to present a series of member’s voices to give you as direct a picture as possible of the PayPay Design Team and its atmosphere of craftsmanship.
This time, we would like to introduce Pallavi Verma from the design team.

What is your team and what does it do?

When I joined PayPay I worked in the Merchant team. I was the 3rd Designer to join the team and was responsible for the redesign of merchant-app. After that, I took a 1 year break for childcare and came back to the office joining the consumer-side team.

I’m currently working with the O2O team – our goal is to connect the merchant to the user. We have 4 products under the O2O pipeline – Map Search, Coupons, Stamp Card and Flyers. I worked on Flyers and now I am working on Map search.

What made you become a designer?

My grandparents come from the countryside, and I often visited them during summer breaks when I was young. I remember seeing village communities that make bamboo baskets and terracotta art locally. India is rich in culture and art, and it inspired me from a young age to create beautiful things, and I just wanted to make beautiful things too. So, I started studying art and painting in school. I remember painting my grandparent’s walls when I was 9 or 10, and I still do when I get a chance to visit them.

I always knew I would do something artistic when I grew up, and I decided to do my Bachelor’s in Design. While studying, I became interested in ethnographic research. So I decided to finish my master’s in communication design and became a UX Designer. At PayPay, I got to work on the products as a Product Designer.

What are some recent projects you are working on?

I am working on 2 projects right now. We launched PayPay Flyer this year. My latest project is Map Search. I am working on redesigning the map experience on PayPay App.

Apart from the core projects, I am part of UX-Bestie which is a side research project for PayPay’s design team. I also participated and won the annual Hackathon last year.

How do you come up with ideas?

As a UX researcher in my previous job, I am very comfortable with Guerrilla research. I can shamelessly disturb people and ask them to share their experience using PayPay app, and I will ask them if they like other apps and why. I also do a lot of desk research and make user scenarios. This process gives me a lot of raw data for quick ideations. Then I make quick draft designs and discuss them with the team to exchange ideas for improvement. I make sure to align business goals with user goals.

At PayPay, we have diverse designers from all paths of life. At PayPay, we focus on finding T- Type designers. We are usually good at everything but masters of at least one craft. There are people I can contact if I need feedback, especially for UI or animation or even making funny presentations. It is constructive because everyone has something unique to add to the table.

We also discuss each other’s projects in team review meeting weekly to discuss design solutions and exchange ideas.

What do you prioritize when creating a product at PayPay?

PayPay has become a payment giant quickly, which is a huge responsibility. That means we focus significantly on speed and quality. In my process, I focus on three things:- Understanding the business goals, aligning my design decisions with the user goals, and ensuring that the user experience aligns with the overall business strategy. We achieve this by collaborating closely with the product team, measuring the design’s impact, and making data-driven decisions for future iterations.

What sort of challenges do you want to take on in PayPay?

At PayPay, we’re always working very fast; we usually only get a little time to dive deep into user qualitative research. I want to make user interviews and group discussions a part of the standard development process. For this, we are pushing for the UX-Bestie research project. Once we have successfully finished it, I’m sure PayPay will be the most user-friendly product in Japan.

A message to aspiring PayPay employees

Looking for an exciting opportunity to work with an awesome team from all corners of the world? Want to work from anywhere in Japan? Look no further! PayPay is on the hunt for creative and talented people to join our team. We’re a fun-loving bunch who value collaboration and inclusivity.

We’ve got team members from all over the world, bringing diverse perspectives and unique experiences to the table. We believe that working together as a team is the best way to create truly amazing products. And the best part? You can work from anywhere in Japan! Just you, your laptop, and your passion.

So, if you’re ready to join a fun-loving team, we want to hear from you. Apply today and let’s create some awesome products together. Cheers,

*The recruitment status is current at the time of the interview.

Author: Pallavi / Supervisor: YAGI / Editor: Mina
*Employees’ affiliations are as of the time of the interview.