Zipcar Rewards
Designed and iterated Zipcar’s first-ever Rewards ecosystem that rewards members’ loyalty and good community behavior.
Role
Design lead
Results
Revenue: +31%
Reservations: +25%
Partners
PM, Engineering, Marketing, Legal, Accounting
Overview
Member research and reviews revealed a clear gap: loyal Zipcar drivers didn’t feel recognized. We built a rewarding and motivating program that could also move EBITDA—more trips, lower churn, and happier members.
Our June 2025 MVP quickly lifted revenue and reservations, scored high on usability, and led us to end the A/B test early and release to all members. I continued monitoring behavior and partnered with UX Research to refine the experience with clearer progress cues, thoughtful animation, and evidence-based updates.
Building Rewards from the ground up
Rewards was both a huge opportunity and a real challenge because it was completely new to Zipcar. There was no existing program, data, or patterns to build on. We had to design the experience and define the underlying rule, and mechanics from the ground up, which meant every decision carried long-term implications. On the product and engineering side, that required new services, logic, and edge-case handling that didn’t exist before. On the design side, we had to create clear, intuitive ways to explain a brand-new value proposition to members while keeping the experience simple and consistent with the rest of the app.
Balancing Promos and Rewards on a shared platform
Promotions already existed in Talon.one, so we had to use existing logic and make sure new Rewards rules didn’t break existing promo behavior (and vice versa). From a member’s perspective, the distinction between promos and rewards doesn’t matter—they just care about saving money in a simple, predictable way.
We configured nuanced rules where needed for each program within the same so they could share infrastructure but behave differently where it mattered. We also improved redemption error handling to give clearer, more actionable messages when something went wrong.
Designing a cohesive multi-platform experience
Designing Rewards for mobile, web, and internal tools meant solving for very different platforms while still delivering a cohesive, end-to-end experience. I had to align a wide range of stakeholders and ensure the agent tooling reflected the same rules, language, and mental models as the member-facing experience. This required constant collaboration and careful orchestration so that what members saw and what agents used to support them stayed tightly in sync.
Project challenges
Points to dollars pivot
Late in the project, Accounting required a shift from a points model to a cash model to better manage the balance sheet. I led a rapid pivot that preserved our launch while de-risking scope: we deferred challenges from the MVP and redesigned earning, redemption, history, language, and progress tracking around dollars.
I ran focused design sprints with Product and Engineering to align on the new mental model ($1 spent = $1 toward Rewards for transparent “spend-to-reward” math) in addition to unmoderated UXR to pressure test ideas.
Iterations based on data
After launching Rewards, I closely watched behavior in Fullstory and Looker. I noticed some behavior that raised questions about comprehension. We dug deeper:
Ran an unmoderated study of the in-production experience to capture the “why”.
Iterated on the design and followed up with moderated research to test comprehension.
Changes included:
Tooltip when member has $0 to redeem to inform/educate.
Incremental progress bar markers help cement Reward structure comprehension + pending trip indicator.
Progress bar and Redeem button animation to aid understanding and delight.
Redeemed Reward card in Rewards home keeps it visible and nudges members to take a trip. Redeemed Rewards are attached to roughly $130–$175 of usage revenue per trip.
My role & impact
Led with vision
Framed the MVP around user value and business growth—keeping design grounded in purpose, not just features.
Defined a “minimum lovable product” by including challenges to incentivize key behaviors and putting Rewards in primary navigation space
Integrated UXR findings into product direction ensuring members could “save up” and redeem on their timeline
Aligned the team
Created momentum through structured collaboration and clear decision-making.
Facilitated multiple cross-functional workshops and design sprints
Summarized findings to guide alignment across teams
Defined priorities with PMs, UXR, Marketing, and Engineering
Navigated change
Turned ambiguity into action during the points-to-dollars pivot, keeping teams aligned and confident.
Translated a parent-company business decision into a phased plan, sequencing discovery, scope, and rollout.
Converted every impact—design patterns, flows, content, earn + spend logic, engineering interfaces, and member communications—into a cross-functional change plan.
Designed for scale
Built a rewards experience that balances business needs with long-term UX vision.
Designed with future promo integration in mind
Updated system components (e.g., modal bottom sheet)
Collaborated with Creative on a Rewards asset ecosystem for use across web, mobile, emails, etc.