Episode 176 | June 23, 2025
Designing products people trust—Robinhood’s UX playbook
Robinhood's Dheerja Kaur shares how intuitive design, experimentation, and customer-first thinking drive innovation in fintech.
Unlocking intuitive product design: Lessons from Robinhood’s Dheerja Kaur
Intuitive design is like scaffolding for your first time inside a complex system, it supports you just enough, then fades away. That’s exactly the type of experience Dheerja Kaur, VP of Product Management, is striving to build at Robinhood.
"Designing for the customer shouldn’t be a trade-off—it should be your north star" she said in this episode of Insights Unlocked. She shares how customer-first innovation, experimentation, and inclusive leadership are redefining product development in one of the most tightly regulated industries: finance.
This blog post explores the key takeaways from that conversation, offering product leaders, designers, and customer experience professionals a playbook for creating digital tools that are not just functional—but transformative.
Building products that feel like second nature
“People should learn by doing—we guide them through the experience, step by step,” Kaur explained, referencing Robinhood’s approach to easing users into the world of investing.
Robinhood’s products are designed for users who may be completely new to finance. This calls for interfaces that not only perform but also teach, gently guiding users from first interaction to full fluency without ever feeling overwhelming. It's intuitive product design at its best: no instruction manual needed, just thoughtful flow and timely nudges.
“We don’t just build tools,” Dheerja said. “We build experiences that educate.”
Robinhood's onboarding process turns financial literacy into a progressive journey. From the congratulatory moment when a user becomes a shareholder to embedded micro-learning modules in more complex tools like options trading, every step is deliberate.
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The myth of regulation vs. creativity
Product teams in fintech often assume that design and compliance are opposing forces. But according to Dheerja, this is a false dichotomy.
“Regulation and great design are not at odds with each other at all,” she said. “Regulators care most about customer education and making sure customers understand what they're doing. That’s what we care about, too.”
This alignment of goals allows Robinhood’s product team to innovate within boundaries without compromising user clarity. In fact, the boundaries serve as a creative challenge, how do you simplify without oversimplifying? How do you hide complexity under the hood while keeping users informed and in control?
Creating a culture of experimentation
At the heart of customer-first innovation is a willingness to try, fail, and learn.
“If you're willing to be ambitious, to take swings, you will fail. That’s literally how that works,” she said, laughing. But behind the humor is a serious strategy.
Robinhood encourages teams to include big bets in their roadmaps—experiments with a 30–50% chance of failure. These aren't reckless risks, but informed leaps that stretch creativity and possibility. When aligned with product intuition, this approach creates a portfolio of experiments that blend short-term wins with long-term bets.
“You can't optimize your way into transformation,” Dheerja said.
To fuel this innovation engine, Robinhood invests heavily in customer insights from multiple channels:
- In-product experimentation through a robust testing platform
- UX research to explore behavioral motivations
- Support feedback as a frontline pulse check
- Real-time survey data to detect sentiment shifts
This triangulation ensures that intuition is never divorced from data.
Managing product managers in the gray area
Dheerja compares leading PMs to developing a “Spidey sense.” It’s a metaphor that speaks volumes: intuitive, reactive, always alert to signals.
Managing product managers is especially challenging, she said, because their work often lacks tangible artifacts. Unlike engineering or design, where output is more visible, PMs operate in ambiguity, aligning stakeholders and driving outcomes from the background.
“You have to get comfortable with managing and communicating in the gray area,” she said. “That means learning how to lean into signals before you have all the data.”
Dheerja encourages leaders to coach by intent, not oversight. Identify growth opportunities—whether it’s deepening a PM’s understanding of data and experimentation, or helping them find their voice in strategic decisions—and go deep on those.
Designing with AI and the future of UX
We couldn’t talk product design in 2025 without touching on AI. Dheerja likens the current moment to the early days of mobile.
“When mobile first came out, the companies that succeeded were the ones who didn’t just adapt their websites—they thought from first principles,” she said. The same holds true for AI.
Robinhood recently announced Robinhood Cortex, an AI-driven experience designed to help users navigate markets and make informed decisions. “We started from scratch,” she said. “We asked, ‘If this new technology was your starting point, what would you create?’”
It’s a bold bet, but entirely consistent with the company's innovation culture—and it signals how AI in product design is quickly shifting from novelty to necessity.
Gamifying finance: a new frontier in learning
While “gamification” is sometimes seen as a gimmick, Robinhood uses it to deepen engagement in meaningful ways.
A recent example? The company hosted a live crypto trivia contest, inviting users to compete in real time and learn market concepts along the way. The experience merged play with education, reinforcing the brand’s belief in learning by doing.
“The things that are most engaging are the things that are most effective,” Dheerja emphasized. “Fun isn’t a distraction—it’s a delivery method.”
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Inclusive leadership starts with self-awareness
For Dheerja, empowering underrepresented voices in tech isn’t a side project—it’s personal. She openly discussed her own experiences with imposter syndrome, noting, “It wasn’t just early in my career,” she said. “I still have moments today where I ask myself, ‘Am I really qualified to be doing this?’”
That self-awareness fuels how she leads. She intentionally builds environments where team members, especially women and marginalized individuals, feel seen, heard, and encouraged to take risks.
“I try to spot the things in others that I had to overcome myself, and help them push through,” she said.
“It’s not just about having a seat at the table. It’s about helping others pull up a chair, too.” – Dheerja Kaur
Why this matters
When digital tools increasingly define our lives, intuitive product design is no longer optional—it’s a competitive edge. And as Robinhood’s journey shows, being customer-first doesn’t mean playing it safe. It means pushing boundaries with purpose, listening deeply to users, and creating systems where learning, experimentation, and empathy drive results.
“We don’t just want users to use our products,” Dheerja said. “We want them to feel empowered by them.”
Episode links:
- Dheerja on LinkedIn
- Robinhood careers website
- Dheerja’s website
- Bobby on LinkedIn
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