Kiva | josiah davis

Introduction

Product Design Intern @ Kiva

From Summer 2024 to Winter 2025, I had the opportunity to join Kiva's Product & Design Team as a Product Design Intern. During my time at Kiva, I worked closely with multiple members of the design team to shadow and conduct user research, design a high-fidelity prototype for the redemption process of Kiva Cards, Kiva's unique version of gift cards, and create visually appealing promotional designs that were ultimately used by Kiva! My time at Kiva was invaluable, and helped me to growth both personally and professionally.

Outcomes

Enhanced the Gift Card Redemption Process for B2B Users

Working closely with engineering for technical constraints.

Helped improve how Kiva users make loans

By conducting usability tests and user interviews to gain insight on current pain points.

Shipped new faceplate designs for Kiva Cards

With one currently being featured on Kiva's website!

My Time @ Kiva

Making a Difference Through Design

Over six months, I worked closely with product managers, engineers, and fellow designers on both the B2B and B2C ends of the design team to design and develop the user experience for Kiva users seeking to redeem a Kiva gift card. Additionally, I conducted user research, competitive research, and created designs that I'm grateful to have seen live on Kiva's website.

Contributions

1. Competitive Research

Conducted competitive analysis to brainstorm potential gift card designs by seeing what creative and visually appealing designs they made, at how Kiva could incorporate some design choices to make their cards equally appealing.

2. User Research

Shadowed and conducted usability tests regarding new designs for Kiva's loan page. Later on, I synthesized information from the usability tests and highlighted common pleasure points, pain points, and objectives from Kiva users using Confluence.

3. User Experience Design

Spearheaded the redemption process of Kiva gift cards alongside another product design intern to address and fix existing and potential pain points via the creation of wireframes, and ultimately low and high-fidelity prototypes. Designs were iterated upon throughout the entire process based on feedback given by cross-functional teams.

4. Visual Design

Created email design templates as well as digital faceplate designs for Kiva's gift cards. In fact, one of my faceplate designs made it on Kiva's official website! You can see it below or here.

Additional Works @ Kiva

Reflection

Key takeaways as a design leader 💡

Previously, I had no experience working for non-profits, so working at Kiva

Ask. Questions. And don't be afraid to do so! Speaking up and asking questions is the best way to gain context and learn the full scope of your problem, especially in a professional environment.
Design is iteration, iteration is design. Throughout my time at Kiva, I was responsible for creating designs to solve complex problems, but my designs would not always quite hit the mark. Getting constant feedback from Kiva's cross-functional design team helped me to iterate my designs and address both business and customer needs.
Getting to know your coworkers through coffee chats is a great way to expand your connections and build rapport!

Feel free to email me if you are interested in learning more about my experience at Kiva!

kuro.

UI Design Summer School

Design Systems