Setlary App – Early Wage Access (EWA)

Overview

Setlary is an Early Wage Access (EWA) platform that allows employees to withdraw a portion of their earned salary before payday , helping them manage urgent financial needs without relying on debt or payday loans.

As the product designer, I led research, strategy, and design using a 5-day Design Sprint to move fast and validate real user needs.

Problem Section

The Problem: Locked Wages, Rising Financial Stress

In Indonesia, workers earn wages daily but often receive their salary only at the end of the month. This delay causes serious stress when emergencies happen.

“I needed money for my kid’s medicine, but payday was still 10 days away.”
– Retail Worker, Tangerang

Key Stats:

• 63% of workers run out of money before payday (Jakpat, 2023)

• Only 36% have emergency savings (World Bank, 2022)

• Rising use of payday loans and informal borrowing (OJK, 2022)

At the same time, employers fear offering early wage access due to concerns about misuse, payroll disruption, and compliance.

Process Section

Process: A 5-Day Design Sprint for Clarity and Control

To move quickly and reduce risk, we ran a focused Design Sprint. The goal was to validate whether workers would trust and use an EWA tool, and whether employers could implement it easily.

Design Sprint

DAY 1 – Understand

Goal: Align the team on the real problem and define the long-term vision.

Activities:

• Mapped the journey of both employees and HR admins

• Reviewed existing EWA competitors and employer workflows

• Identified risks, constraints, and business goals

• Defined our Sprint goal:

“Design a fast, safe, and transparent way for workers to access earned wages, without disrupting HR or payroll systems.”

Outcome:
A shared understanding of what success looks like for users and the business.

DAY 2 – Sketch

Goal: Explore possible solutions individually, inspired by trusted UI patterns.

Activities:

• Lightning Demos: Researched local EWA apps (Wagely and Mekari) for trust-building strategies

• Crazy 8s: Sketched 8 versions of key screens in 8 minutes

• Concept Sketching: Created full flows from onboarding to wage access request and repayment

Key Concepts Explored:

• Visual wage progress bar (earned vs. withdrawn)

• Daily limit logic (instead of free-form entry)

• Repayment preview (amount and timing)

• Admin controls with exportable data

Outcome:
A library of strong UI ideas grounded in local mental models and real user pain points.

DAY 3 – Decide

Goal: Choose the best ideas and define a single user flow to prototype.

Activities:

• Dot voting to prioritize most promising screens

• Decision matrix: Value vs. Feasibility

• Storyboarding: Mapped a detailed end-to-end flow

Chosen Flow:

1. Onboarding with visual explainer

2. Real-time earned wage balance

3. Request screen with fixed daily limit

4. Repayment preview before confirmation

5. Confirmation screen with repayment timing

6. HR dashboard with caps, usage logs, and CSV export

Outcome:
A clear, testable flow that addresses core user anxieties and employer needs.

DAY 4 – Prototype

Goal: Build a realistic, high-fidelity prototype to test with users.

Activities:

• Designed mobile interface in Figma

• Created interactive flow:

  • Wage balance display

  • Wage request with smart limit

  • Transparent repayment timeline

• Designed employer-side dashboard:

  • View employee usage

  • Set caps and frequency

  • Export usage logs

Outcome:
A clickable prototype that looked and felt like a real app, ready for validation.

DAY 5 – Test

Goal: Validate the concept with real users and gather honest feedback.

Activities:

• Conducted 1-on-1 usability tests with 5 employees and 2 HR managers

• Asked users to complete the key flow: login → request → repay

• Observed confusion points, emotional reactions, and comprehension

Key Results:

✅ All users completed the flow without assistance

💬 4 of 5 employees said they’d use it regularly

📊 HR found the admin dashboard intuitive and easy to monitor