T—J is a platform where experts and regular people share knowledge about money
Personal finance requires attention when mistakes cost a lot. There was no universal source of truth about how to deal with money, taxes, law etc. We built one and it has grown to 30 million MAU by 2024.
Founding Designer → Head of Design (2016–2021):
I joined the team at the beginning to launch the service from scratch.
Created all kinds of design: product design (consumer side and CRM), art direction, branding & communication.
Engaged dozens of artists, photographers, and illustrators to create original content design.
Built and grew up two design teams of 8 people for product design and art direction. I successfully delegated design function in 2021 and accepted a Head of Product role.
T—J is a platform where experts and regular people share knowledge about money
Personal finance requires attention when mistakes cost a lot. There was no universal source of truth about how to deal with money, taxes, law etc. We built one and it has grown to 30 million MAU by 2024.
Founding Designer → Head of Design (2016–2021):
I joined the team at the beginning to launch the service from scratch.
Created all kinds of design: product design (consumer side and CRM), art direction, branding & communication.
Engaged dozens of artists, photographers, and illustrators to create original content design.
Built and grew up two design teams of 8 people for product design and art direction. I successfully delegated design function in 2021 and accepted a Head of Product role.
T—J is a platform where experts and regular people share knowledge about money
Personal finance requires attention when mistakes cost a lot. There was no universal source of truth about how to deal with money, taxes, law etc. We built one and it has grown to 30 million MAU by 2024.
Founding Designer → Head of Design (2016–2021):
I joined the team at the beginning to launch the service from scratch.
Created all kinds of design: product design (consumer side and CRM), art direction, branding & communication.
Engaged dozens of artists, photographers, and illustrators to create original content design.
Built and grew up two design teams of 8 people for product design and art direction. I successfully delegated design function in 2021 and accepted a Head of Product role.
Key facts
Key facts
Business goals
T—J was launched to become a part of T-Bank ecosystem to build awearnes about financial products among young professionals and build brand as universal source of truth about finance.
Acquire young adopters and best experts to create high quality and vibrant content.
Scale and build multimillion audience.
Grow retention within audience and create power users' segment to drive T-Bank's user acquisition.
Key contributions
Publishing System. CRM and article design system visited by 30 mln (2024).
Community platform. A sandbox for non professional creators. Increased average MAU by 30% with users generated content and built power segment with ×4 2nd month retention rate.
Interactive design for 150+ calculators that were used 10 mln+ times to pay off lawns, start investing or became an individual entrepreneurs.
Platform features. Authorisation, user profile & settings, notification patterns (web, email, apps) etc.
Branding and art direction that made the service stand out and stay top of mind.
Communication design. 16 social media accounts for 4 sub-brands.
Publishing System. CRM and article design system visited by 30 mln (2024).
Community platform. A sandbox for non professional creators. Increased average MAU by 30% with users generated content and built power segment with ×4 2nd month retention rate.
Interactive design for 150+ calculators that were used 10 mln+ times to pay off lawns, start investing or became an individual entrepreneurs.
Platform features. Authorisation, user profile & settings, notification patterns (web, email, apps) etc.
Branding and art direction that made the service stand out and stay top of mind.
Communication design. 16 social media accounts for 4 sub-brands.
We made articles to be loved by experts for their information design and style
Expert driven media
Expert driven media
Why it looks and works this way:
The visual style is created with no respect to the seriousness of this topics, to speak on the same language as the target audience (young professionals).
The information design is built around a principle: don’t read if you don’t need to. It lets users to find what they want as quickly as possible.
T—J's content
Are you ready to become an individual entrepreneur (ИП)? quiz
We treated text as an interface for faster scanning and navigation
Pseudonymous authors
Ranking of our most popular experts
Experts approach readers to contribute their experience in the comments
Turning readers to contributors
Expert articles are expensive and have low-frequency usage pattern. Thus we involved readers in posting to increase retention and get more posts for lower price. I defined the architecture and UX behind posting and designed the moderation and curation pipelines.
In two years after the launch:
The UGC content drove average MAU by 30%.
The mechanics created a 1M-user loyal audience with 4× higher 2-month retention — from 2% to 8%.
Turning readers to contributors
Expert articles are expensive and have low-frequency usage pattern. Thus we involved readers in posting to increase retention and get more posts for lower price. I defined the architecture and UX behind posting and designed the moderation and curation pipelines.
In two years after the launch:
The UGC content drove average MAU by 30%.
The mechanics created a 1M-user loyal audience with 4× higher 2-month retention — from 2% to 8%.
Turning readers to contributors
Expert articles are expensive and have low-frequency usage pattern. Thus we involved readers in posting to increase retention and get more posts for lower price. I defined the architecture and UX behind posting and designed the moderation and curation pipelines.
In two years after the launch:
The UGC content drove average MAU by 30%.
The mechanics created a 1M-user loyal audience with 4× higher 2-month retention — from 2% to 8%.
The Community page is a sandbox for non-expert authors to post and experiment
Each topic is led by subject-matter experts who shapes the conversation, and help UGC authors grow
Each topic is led by subject-matter experts who shapes the conversation, and help UGC authors grow
“My Life in Reykjavik” user post
A picture from “My Life in Reykjavik” user post
The posting interface
Within two years, user-generated posts drove up to 50% of all site visits
Financial activation with 150+ microservices
To drive awearnes about financial instruments we launched interactive articles every week covering all major areas of knowledge and helping people to make their first steps in investments, mortgage, deposits etc We built a design process that made it possible to produce these experiences at scale.
The calculators were used 10 mln+ times. The process increased the total conversion rate within our audience to the T-Bank's product openings for +5%.
Financial activation with 150+ microservices
To drive awearnes about financial instruments we launched interactive articles every week covering all major areas of knowledge and helping people to make their first steps in investments, mortgage, deposits etc We built a design process that made it possible to produce these experiences at scale.
The calculators were used 10 mln+ times. The process increased the total conversion rate within our audience to the T-Bank's product openings for +5%.
Financial activation with 150+ microservices
To drive awearnes about financial instruments we launched interactive articles every week covering all major areas of knowledge and helping people to make their first steps in investments, mortgage, deposits etc We built a design process that made it possible to produce these experiences at scale.
The calculators were used 10 mln+ times. The process increased the total conversion rate within our audience to the T-Bank's product openings for +5%.
Each interactive experience guides users through a specific financial decision
Ask a clear question → Collect inputs → Answer with one sentence
We made the expert content to grab attention with bold visuals and have clean article design to make reading effortless
We made the expert content to grab attention with bold visuals and have clean article design to make reading effortless
“What Car Can You Afford?” calculator
“What Car Can You Afford?” calculator
We were building our own App Store — except ours helped people save money instead of spend it
Art direction
Our target audience (young professionals, 18-45) mostly hadn't read about finance regularly due to specialised/professional aura of financial media in 2016. We built our style to be the opposite of how the business and investments media looked at a time.
We started with very few constraints, prioritizing vivid imagery and our favorite visual obsessions — like gold — over consistency, as if we were building our own visual lore.
Art direction
Our target audience (young professionals, 18-45) mostly hadn't read about finance regularly due to specialised/professional aura of financial media in 2016. We built our style to be the opposite of how the business and investments media looked at a time.
We started with very few constraints, prioritizing vivid imagery and our favorite visual obsessions — like gold — over consistency, as if we were building our own visual lore.
Art direction
Our target audience (young professionals, 18-45) mostly hadn't read about finance regularly due to specialised/professional aura of financial media in 2016. We built our style to be the opposite of how the business and investments media looked at a time.
We started with very few constraints, prioritizing vivid imagery and our favorite visual obsessions — like gold — over consistency, as if we were building our own visual lore.
As we scaled, we assigned specific styles, colors, and artists to specific themes. This helped us design thematic social media accounts.
As we scaled, we assigned specific styles, colors, and artists to specific themes. This helped us design thematic social media accounts.
As we scaled, we assigned specific styles, colors, and artists to specific themes. This helped us design thematic social media accounts.
"How to correct errors in your credit history" article cover
"How to get a tax deduction for an apartment" article cover
"How to file a police report" article cover
"How to fill out a tax return for medical treatment" article cover
"How to correct errors in your credit history" article cover
"How to get a tax deduction for an apartment" article cover
"How to file a police report" article cover
"How to fill out a tax return for medical treatment" article cover
"How to correct errors in your credit history" article cover
"How to get a tax deduction for an apartment" article cover
"How to file a police report" article cover
"How to fill out a tax return for medical treatment" article cover
"How I copy mutual fund strategies" article cover
Section logo
"How to Invest in Real Estate" article cover
"How to Manage a Lazy Portfolio" article cover
"How I copy mutual fund strategies" article cover
Section logo
"How to Invest in Real Estate" article cover
"How to Manage a Lazy Portfolio" article cover
"How I copy mutual fund strategies" article cover
Section logo
"How to Invest in Real Estate" article cover
"How to Manage a Lazy Portfolio" article cover
"How to travel during COVID" course cover
"How to travel during COVID"
course cover
Section logo
A map for "How to travel to Baikal" article
"How to travel during COVID" course cover
"How to travel during COVID"
course cover
Section logo
A map for "How to travel to Baikal" article
"How to travel during COVID" course cover
"How to travel during COVID"
course cover
Section logo
A map for "How to travel to Baikal" article
Outcomes
T—J helped millions of people become wealthier and in control of their lives. Early on, I helped to make first impression and win over its early adopters. Later, I let the readers to become active contributors.
Key impacts:
0 → 30 mln MAU.
+30% average MAU by launching UGC.
x4 growth of 2-month retention rate for 1 mln power users segment.
35% of the T-Bank's new clients were introduced to the ecosystem through T—J for the first time.
Outcomes
T—J helped millions of people become wealthier and in control of their lives. Early on, I helped to make first impression and win over its early adopters. Later, I let the readers to become active contributors.
Key impacts:
0 → 30 mln MAU.
+30% average MAU by launching UGC.
x4 growth of 2-month retention rate for 1 mln power users segment.
35% of the T-Bank's new clients were introduced to the ecosystem through T—J for the first time.
Outcomes
T—J helped millions of people become wealthier and in control of their lives. Early on, I helped to make first impression and win over its early adopters. Later, I let the readers to become active contributors.
Key impacts:
0 → 30 mln MAU.
+30% average MAU by launching UGC.
x4 growth of 2-month retention rate for 1 mln power users segment.
35% of the T-Bank's new clients were introduced to the ecosystem through T—J for the first time.
People I had the privilege of working with:
Maxim Smelov — Product Design Lead
Anastasia Kruglova — Product Designer
Anna Marushkina — Content Designer
Ekaterina Molchanova — Art Director
Alexander Rai — CEO, until 2020
Mikhail Kafanov — CEO, 2020–2022
Lena Glubko — Interactive Content Lead
Maria Dolgopolova — Head of Community Management
What matters to me personally is that along the way, my team worked with dozens of some of the best artists and illustrators of the time — helping a mass-market product used by millions feel like a work of art.
People I had the privilege of working with:
Maxim Smelov — Product Design Lead
Anastasia Kruglova — Product Designer
Anna Marushkina — Content Designer
Ekaterina Molchanova — Art Director
Alexander Rai — CEO, until 2020
Mikhail Kafanov — CEO, 2020–2022
Lena Glubko — Interactive Content Lead
Maria Dolgopolova — Head of Community Management
What matters to me personally is that along the way, my team worked with dozens of some of the best artists and illustrators of the time — helping a mass-market product used by millions feel like a work of art.
People I had the privilege of working with:
Maxim Smelov — Product Design Lead
Anastasia Kruglova — Product Designer
Anna Marushkina — Content Designer
Ekaterina Molchanova — Art Director
Alexander Rai — CEO, until 2020
Mikhail Kafanov — CEO, 2020–2022
Lena Glubko — Interactive Content Lead
Maria Dolgopolova — Head of Community Management
What matters to me personally is that along the way, my team worked with dozens of some of the best artists and illustrators of the time — helping a mass-market product used by millions feel like a work of art.