Meritize partnered with Pivotal Labs to address the skilled-labor gap by helping more people discover vocational training programs and access merit-based funding. Through deep research and iterative design, we built a responsive experience that supports users earlier in their journey, giving them the tools to compare programs, understand location tradeoffs, and confidently move forward. The result: higher enrollment, stronger loan conversion, and a shift to a push-based acquisition model.

Focus

Lead Product Designer

Research and problem definition

Context

The U.S. faces a widening skilled-labor shortage, with millions of vocational jobs projected to go unfilled due to lack of awareness, access, and financing. Meritize partnered with Pivotal Labs to build a responsive web app that helps skill-seekers discover training programs – welding, diesel mechanics, medical tech, and more – and secure merit-based funding. Over 4 weeks of research, we uncovered how Meritize was reaching students too late in their journey, and designed a platform that supports them earlier with clearer discovery, location context, and transparent financing options.

The result: increased program enrollment, higher loan conversion, and a shift from a pull to a push customer acquisition model.

Goals

Business Goals

• Increase enrollment in vocational training programs

• Increase the volume of loan applications

• Reach skill-seekers earlier to drive stronger top-of-funnel acquisition

Product Goals

• Make it easier to explore programs aligned with specific interests, skills, and location needs

• Connect skill-seekers to relevant programs and funding options at the right moment

• Create a responsive experience that feels consistent across devices

User research

We spent 4 weeks conducting stakeholder interviews, user interviews, and collecting data on existing engagement to understand the landscape of this problem, the business, and opportunities for impact. I worked with my PMs to prioritize the problems we discovered based on how often we heard the problem and how painful we perceived it to be for our users. We set out to understand:

1. When skill-seekers begin researching programs

2. What motivates or discourages them

3. What causes them to abandon the process

4. Where Meritize was appearing too late in their journey

Key insights

03

Program selection always came before financing.

Pushing loan applications early eroded trust and didn’t match user intent.

Opportunity

By supporting discovery earlier, before users committed to a single school, Meritize could:

1. Help users find the right program, not just the closest referral

2. Increase trust and transparency around funding

3. Grow the top of funnel for program enrollment and loans

4. Shift from a referral-based “pull” model to a direct “push” model

Design

Location-forward discovery

Skill-seekers consistently asked: “How far is this from me?” Distance often determined program feasibility, so we integrated Google Maps to give users spatial context and a more intuitive way to compare programs.

Key Interaction Challenges Solved

1. Tapping a map pin reveals all programs offered at that location

2. Clear mobile translation without gesture conflicts (scroll vs pan)

3. Handling programs that share the same physical address

4. Providing both map and list views depending on user preference

This gave users the geographic awareness they needed without overwhelming the experience.

Mobile experience

Because many users browse vocational programs on their phones, the mobile experience needed to be just as strong — but not a compressed version of desktop.

Key design cecisions:

1. Maps became an optional toggle to reduce gesture ambiguity

2. Programs were displayed as a mileage-ordered list for quick scanning

3. Shared components across breakpoints reduced engineering effort and improved familiarity

The result is a mobile flow that feels intentional and native to the device.

Growth design

Stakeholders initially pushed for a persistent “Apply for a Loan” CTA in the global header.
In testing, users found this aggressive and misaligned — financing wasn’t their next step after browsing programs. I addressed this tension by doing the following:

1. Moved the financing CTA to the program details page

2. Reframed the CTA to “Get Your Rate,” matching user mental models

3. Ensured the funnel supported natural user flow without sacrificing business goals

This both improved trust and supported stronger conversion.

Outcomes

76 loan applications submitted in the first two weeks post-launch

1. 62.3% conversion rate

2. Increased enrollment in vocational training programs

3. Increased access to merit-based funding

4. Fundamental shift from a pull model (school referrals) to a push model (direct acquisition)

Retro

This project reinforced the power of aligning business outcomes with real user behavior. By meeting skill-seekers earlier in their journey and designing around how they naturally evaluate programs we helped Meritize unlock clarity, trust, and a far more effective customer acquisition strategy.