In the fall of 2019, Sayena Majlesein walked into a Seattle bank with her retired parents to help set them up with a direct deposit account for her mother’s new part-time retail job. For the first time since they had immigrated from Iran in 2010 when she was a teenager, Majlesein felt confident in her ability to care for two people who had sacrificed so much for her success. She had just landed a job as a product designer at Remitly — an app for immigrants to send money to their families abroad — and secured an apartment for her parents to live with her.
“I can finally take care of my family. This was my American dream,” Majlesein wrote in her Medium blog.
But that feeling of stability would last for only one day after Majlesein and her parents walked out of the bank. The teller called her during a meeting at work to inform her that the bank was closing her parents’ account because their proof of address and identification were not acceptable.
“Being an immigrant can feel like building a solid house on unsolid ground,” Majlesein wrote. “One must always be ready for unpredictable change.”
Serendipitously, Majlesein’s job at Remitly gave her the opportunity to be part of a change for the better — making the ground a little more solid for immigrants, at least financially.
“Remitly’s core values and mission align very well with how I want to tackle challenges as an Iranian product designer in the U.S.,” she recently told Built In Seattle. “By focusing on a crucial aspect of immigrants’ lives — their financial interactions — we’re addressing a piece of the unsolid ground they have to deal with.”
The very first financial solution Majlesein helped build for the Remitly app was launched in February: Passbook, a bank account designed to eliminate barriers for immigrants by accepting a number of official forms of identification common to the community.
“We created a bank that understands the journey of immigrants like my parents,” she wrote on Medium.
That understanding comes from both Majlesein’s own observations of her parents’ struggles as well as Remitly’s human-centered design process, which emphasizes interviews with various immigrant communities to learn their pain points and continuous user-testing sessions. Drawing upon her own immigrant experience is an asset in building rapport with customers, and she said she relishes the opportunity to hear stories and perspectives often overlooked by political news coverage.
“Although the pandemic has made the process a lot harder, I still try my best to design experiences ‘with’ our customers by actively reaching out to them and getting feedback,” Majlesein told Built In.
Oftentimes, that feedback is unsolicited from her parents, who are now both Passbook customers. “They’re always requesting new features!” Majlesein said. “They really want Passbook in Farsi.”
According to Majlesein, Passbook is “an inclusive experience that empowers our customers” because Remitly encourages its employees to address immigrants’ needs in creative and meaningful ways. Customers can even express pride in their heritage by customizing their debit cards with the national flag of their choice.
Her work on Passbook at Remitly has also changed her definition of the American dream.
“I can be part of a positive change — while doing my job,” she said, adding that one of her personal goals is built right into Remitly’s mission: “Transform the lives of immigrants and their families by providing the most trusted financial service products on the planet.”
Few people, let alone immigrants, get the opportunity to work on improving the future for their own community. What do you love about Remitly as a company and your role as product designer on Passbook?
Remitly’s core values and mission align very well with how I want to tackle challenges as an Iranian product designer in the U.S. The company encourages employees to address immigrants’ needs in creative and meaningful ways. Passbook, the bank account for multinationals, is one example of how we did this. I love that we aim for the stars and we’re not afraid to fail because we believe in the impact of our work.
The focus on immigrants and diversity provides a unique opportunity for Remitly employees to learn about other cultures and issues affecting immigrants. You can see our world from different perspectives and hear stories that are often overlooked under layers of political news and events.
Being able to make positive contributions in the world is a true blessing, on both a personal and professional level.
I love that we aim for the stars and we’re not afraid to fail because we believe in the impact of our work.”
How is your immigrant experience an asset to your job?
As an Iranian immigrant myself who has also observed my parents’ struggles navigating the U.S., I can see problems and solutions from multiple perspectives.
It’s also easy for me to communicate with the international students and other immigrants who are our customers because of our shared experiences. That’s a huge advantage for me, as a customer-centered designer.
Continuous communication with our customers is one of the core values of our design process. When I joined the Passbook team, we started working on visual identity and customer experiences in the app by conducting interviews and testing sessions with different groups of immigrants.
Although the pandemic has made the process a lot harder, I still try my best to design experiences “with” our customers by actively reaching out to them and getting feedback.
What’s an example of a financial need or pain point for immigrants that you translated into an inclusive, creative and meaningful design decision?
Our customers told us about the number and types of documents they needed to open a bank account just because they didn’t have a Social Security Number (SSN). Our team determined that not having an SSN made signing up for online banking extremely complicated, sometimes impossible, even for legal immigrants in the U.S.
So we designed Passbook to be an inclusive experience that empowers our customers by allowing them to upload a photo of their passport, visa, Mexican matrícula consular or other identification. Passbook eliminates existing barriers to access a trusted banking service by accepting these various forms of identification common to immigrants. There are no monthly fees, no overdraft fees and we offer special pricing when customers use Remitly to transfer money.
We also encourage customers to be proud of their backgrounds by allowing them to customize their debit card with a national flag of their choice.
How has your definition of the “American Dream” changed through your work at Remitly?
I finally understand that I can be part of a positive change in the world, while doing my job. Working at Remitly has definitely empowered that idea. Our company mission aims for bigger change: Transform the lives of immigrants and their families by providing the most trusted financial service products on the planet. By focusing on a crucial aspect of immigrants’ lives — their financial interactions — we’re addressing a piece of the unsolid ground they have to deal with. We still have a long way to build more solid ground for immigrants in the U.S., but I’m grateful to be part of this process.
