Mastercard Labs — Case Study

The challenge

At Mastercard Labs, the mandate was to drive data-driven product innovation through rigorous research. I used a wide range of qualitative and quantitative methods to understand user behaviour and needs, building user personas, journey maps and design strategies that aligned with both user expectations and business goals.

User journey map — 5-stage emotional arc with touchpoints and pain points across Awareness, Onboarding, First Use, Habit Formation, Advocacy — FIG. 01 — User journey map: 5-stage emotional arc with touchpoints, pain points, and opportunity areas across the full product lifecycle

Closing usability gaps

I led the design and execution of usability tests that surfaced critical user experience gaps in the product. Fixing those gaps led to a 20% increase in user engagement and improved product satisfaction scores.

Aligning teams faster

Research is only useful if it changes decisions, so I facilitated workshops bringing developers, designers and business stakeholders into the same room around the same evidence. That alignment accelerated the product development cycle by 15%.

Cross-functional alignment workshop — user personas, key insights, and recommendations across three columns — FIG. 02 — Cross-functional alignment workshop: personas, research insights, and product recommendations synthesised for engineering, design, and business stakeholders

Finding signal in the data

Beyond qualitative work, I used advanced data analysis to identify emerging market trends, guiding product adjustments that contributed to a 10% uplift in new-user acquisition.

+20%

user engagement

+15%

faster dev cycle

+10%

new user acquisition

Outcome

A research programme that didn't just describe user problems but visibly changed how fast the team shipped and how well the product performed once it shipped.