top of page

Establishing UX Design at Paya

This page summarizes my nearly 3 years of experience at Paya, a FinTech company based in Dunwoody Georgia. I'll explain how I went from a marketing intern to the first UX Designer in the company's history.

Timeline of My Impact

  1. My Introduction to Paya

  2. Hired for Marketing Internship

  3. Hired as Paya's First UX Designer

  4. First Major Project

  5. Leading Design of New Utility Portal

  6. Creating Paya's First UX Internship Program

  7. Expanding the UX Team

  8. Our Current Design Process

What does Paya Do?

Paya provides integrated payment and commerce solutions for targeted verticals such as healthcare, non-profit, government, utilities, and B2B industries. Their products expedite payment processing and increase operating efficiencies.

My Intro to Paya
March 2020 --

My Introduction to Paya

While studying Interaction Design at Kennesaw State University, a professor recognized my passion for design and introduced me to Paya, where he worked as the VP of Marketing. Though Paya did not have any UX designers, they offered me a marketing internship which I gladly accepted.


We began discussions around March, but my start date was delayed until August due to to start of the COVID 19 pandemic. 

​

What I Learned:

  • Opportunities can come from passion and perseverance

  • Be patient when waiting to hear back

  • Networking is a great way to get your foot in the door

Hired for Marketing Internship
August 2020 --

Hired for Marketing Internship

  • Got offer once people adjusted to covid

  • Got to know the team and learned about the company

  • Researched the fintech industry

  • Designed company media, advertisements, and site content

  • Reviewed and improved technical and training documentation

  • Introduced and proved the value of UX Design by applying design thinking to marketing endeavors

​

Second half of internship (January 2021)

  • Conducted competitive research (PICTURES)

  • Used design thinking for flowcharts ( SCREENSHOTS)

  • Explain how the flowcharts provided tangible proof of the value of design

  • Voiced my desires for more responsibility and impact at Paya

June 2021 --

Hired as Paya’s first UX Designer

  • ​Hired by the head of product and marketing

  • Responsible for my own job description

  • Collaborated with my new boss to establish responsibilities, timeline, and deliverables

  • Began researching more about building design orgs

  • Did preliminary ui work on old systems

  • Honestly struggled at first because I was new and they were new

January 2022 --

First Major Project

  • Initiated by new CTO. Mention our 1-on-1 meeting to pitch my vision

  • Competitive research, heuristic evaluation, user interviews

  • Proof of concept for my design potential

March 2022 --

Leading Design of a New Payment Portal

  • CP/AP stuff

​

​

Creating Paya's First UX Internship Program

  • Happened in tandem with start of CP/AP

🖥️ Current Employment

I'm a UX Designer at Paya, a FinTech company near Atlanta, Georgia. I work on admin and customer-facing payment portals. This involves cross-functional collaboration, ideation, delivery of high-fidelity Figma prototypes, and thoughtful iteration on designs.

​

I'm passionate about introducing and expanding the impact at UX design at companies without a design process. Last year, I created Paya's first UX design internship program. I planned the work, secured funding, interviewed five candidates, and picked two. At the end of the year, one of the interns was hired as the second UX Designer in the company. Read more about how I established UX Design at Paya.

May 2022 --

Leading Interns in Design of the New Portal

  • Summarize internship

April 2023 --

Our Current Design Process

  • What are we doing today

bottom of page