Expanding cash access beyond the branch

How I transformed a third-party capability into a member-first banking experience

Role: Lead Product Designer
Platforms: iOS and Android
Scope: Discovery, product strategy, interaction design, validation, and delivery
Partners: Product, engineering, branch operations, legal and compliance, frontline employees, and a third-party technology provider

At a glance

PenFed’s six Puerto Rico branches regularly experienced long cash-deposit lines, sometimes extending outside the building. High deposit volumes also created operational challenges because branches could only hold a limited amount of cash.

PenFed partnered with a third-party provider to offer retail cash deposits. I led the design work needed to turn that technical capability into a clear, trustworthy PenFed experience.

I independently investigated member behavior, interviewed branch leaders and the Senior Vice President of Branch Operations, analyzed competing products, and worked across product, engineering, operations, and compliance to move the project from partnership to launch.

The experience launched on iOS and Android, giving eligible members a way to deposit cash at more than 90,000 participating retail locations.

My contribution

• Led product design from discovery through implementation

• Connected member needs with branch and business priorities

• Tested competing cash-deposit experiences

• Interviewed Puerto Rico branch managers and operational leadership

• Defined how members would discover and use the feature

• Advocated for transparent fees and realistic transaction limits

• Adapted the design to technical, budget, and timeline constraints

• Partnered with developers through the iOS and Android launch

Outcome

• Launched a new cash-deposit channel on both mobile platforms

• Expanded deposit access beyond PenFed’s physical branches

• Created an alternative for members facing long branch lines

• Established a foundation for measuring and reducing branch congestion

• Received early indications of member adoption and some improvement in congestion

The Business Problem

PenFed members could manage most banking activities digitally, but depositing physical cash still required access to a branch.

That was a particular problem in Puerto Rico.

PenFed operated six branches on the island, and members frequently visited them to make cash deposits. Branch leaders reported persistent lines, sometimes extending out the door. The amount of cash entering the branches also created operational pressure because each location had limits on how much cash it could hold.

The problem affected both sides of the experience:

For members, depositing cash required traveling to a branch and waiting in line.

For PenFed, routine deposits consumed branch capacity, increased cash-handling demands, and limited the value of an otherwise digital banking experience.

The business had already selected a third-party retail cash-deposit provider. My challenge was to turn that partnership into an experience members could find, understand, and trust.

Going beyond the brief

I could have started by designing the vendor’s required barcode screens. Instead, I first wanted to understand why members were using branches and whether the proposed solution matched their actual behavior.

There was no dedicated researcher assigned to the project, so I created a focused discovery plan.

I contacted PenFed’s Puerto Rico branches and interviewed branch managers who observed member behavior every day. I also interviewed the Senior Vice President of Branch Operations to understand the problem from an organizational and strategic perspective.

I asked questions including:

• How much cash does a member typically deposit?

• How often do members visit to make deposits?

• Do they make one large deposit or several smaller deposits?

• Are they depositing their own money or helping family members?

• What other activities are part of the branch visit?

• How do members manage cash outside the branch?

• What is their relationship with cash and financial institutions?

• How comfortable are they with newer banking technology?

• What limits would make a retail-deposit service genuinely useful?

I was not trying to create a demographic stereotype. I wanted a behavioral picture of the people using the service: their routines, motivations, constraints, and relationship with cash.

What I learned

Cash deposits were part of a broader routine

Members were not necessarily visiting a branch for one isolated transaction. Cash deposits could be connected to household responsibilities, family relationships, other banking needs, and established financial habits.

A successful alternative needed to fit into those routines rather than simply reproduce a branch transaction on a phone.

Trust was central to adoption

Retail cash deposit was unfamiliar to many PenFed members. It asked them to hand physical money to a third-party cashier and trust that the funds would reach their checking account.

The interface needed to make the process, costs, security, and confirmation clear. Trust could not be treated as a marketing message added at the end.

Proposed limits did not match every member’s behavior

Branch managers reported that members often deposited more cash than the limits proposed for the initial release.

This created a strategic risk: the new feature could be easier to access but still fail to replace the branch visit for members who deposited larger amounts.

Language clarity was an accessibility requirement

Many of the members most affected by the problem primarily spoke Spanish or used English as a second language.

Even within the existing language requirements, the experience needed short instructions, familiar terms, and an unmistakable next action. This was especially important because the journey moved from the app into a physical retail environment.

Learning from the market

I supplemented the operational interviews with competitive research.

I personally tested the cash-deposit experiences of two companies to understand their complete journeys. I then reviewed approximately five additional products to identify common patterns and opportunities.

I compared:

• Where members discovered the feature

• How the service was introduced

• How eligible accounts were handled

• How nearby retailers were presented

• How barcodes were generated and explained

• When fees and limits appeared

• How products communicated security

• How completion, failure, and expiration were handled

This gave me a practical view of established behavior—not just screenshots of competitors. It helped me recognize patterns that could make the PenFed experience easier to learn while identifying areas where our members needed additional guidance.

Defining the experience

The journey crossed several systems and environments:

1. A member discovers the feature in the PenFed app.

2. They open an eligible checking account.

3. They locate a participating retailer.

4. The app generates a secure, single-use barcode.

5. A cashier scans the barcode and accepts the cash.

6. The member receives confirmation.

7. The funds appear in the member’s PenFed account.

The interface itself was only one part of the product. The complete experience depended on PenFed’s app, the third-party platform, retailer systems, cashiers, account processing, and support operations.

I designed the journey around three principles:

Make it easy to find

A new feature has no value if eligible members cannot discover it.

Explain before asking for commitment

Members should understand the process, fees, and limits before generating a barcode or handing over cash.

Make every next step clear

The experience needed to guide members from a digital interface into a physical store without assuming that the cashier or member had used the service before.

Decision 1: Finding the right place for the feature

My initial concept placed check deposit and cash deposit together in a central deposit area on the app’s home screen.

This would make the new capability visible and create one destination for deposit-related activities. Members could choose the type of deposit and then select an account.

After reviewing the concept with developers and product leaders, we identified two concerns:

• Creating the central flow would require significantly more development.

• The first release supported only eligible checking accounts, making broader account selection unnecessary and potentially confusing.

I revised the architecture and placed “Deposit Cash” within the quick actions of eligible checking accounts.

This preserved visibility for the right members, eliminated unsupported account choices, reduced engineering complexity, and kept the release on schedule.

The decision showed how I work with technical constraints: I protect the member outcome while being willing to change the implementation.

Decision 2: Balancing location confidence with cost

I advocated for a map-based retailer locator.

A map would help members understand distance, compare nearby options, and feel confident that they were traveling to the correct location.

Through conversations with engineering, we learned that supporting the map would add development effort and an additional service cost. The first release had a limited budget and timeline, so we moved forward with a list-based locator.

I worked to make the addresses and location information as clear as possible and documented the map as a future improvement.

I did not allow the ideal solution to prevent us from delivering a useful one. At the same time, I made sure the compromise and its effect on members remained visible.

Decision 3: Protecting fee transparency

During the project, there was pressure to remove fee information from the barcode-generation experience while the business finalized its fee structure.

I pushed back.

Members were being asked to try a new way of handling their money. If a fee appeared unexpectedly after they had started or completed the transaction, it could undermine trust in both the feature and PenFed.

I advocated for showing applicable fees and transaction limits before a member generated the barcode.

This was not a visual-design preference. It was a product and trust decision. Members should understand the cost of a financial transaction before committing to it.

Decision 4: Representing real deposit behavior

My interviews indicated that members in Puerto Rico often deposited amounts higher than the proposed retail-deposit limits.

I recommended a higher limit based on those findings. I explained that members whose deposits exceeded the limit might have to complete multiple transactions or continue visiting a branch, weakening the feature’s ability to address the original problem.

The business chose a more conservative limit for the initial launch.

I supported the MVP decision while documenting the risk and ensuring leadership understood the potential member impact. Early post-launch observations reinforced the concern that some Puerto Rico members needed higher limits.

Strong design leadership does not mean winning every decision. It means bringing evidence into the room, explaining the consequences clearly, and helping the organization make an informed choice.

Designing onboarding and guidance

Because the interaction was new, I designed onboarding to explain:

• What retail cash deposit was

• Which accounts were eligible

• How to find a participating retailer

• What to expect at the store

• How the barcode worked

• How long it remained active

• What fees and limits applied

• When funds would become available

I wanted the initial experience to be especially supportive while becoming less intrusive as members learned the process.

Some of the onboarding improvements I proposed were reduced to meet the delivery timeline. I prioritized the information most necessary for completing the transaction safely and documented additional simplification as a post-launch opportunity.

Validation without a dedicated research team

I created multiple feedback loops rather than waiting for formal research resources.

I reviewed the experience with:

• Puerto Rico branch managers

• Frontline employees familiar with member questions

• The Senior Vice President of Branch Operations

• Product managers and directors

• Engineering leaders and developers

• Other designers

• Legal and compliance partners

• The third-party technology provider

These reviews helped me evaluate whether members could:

• Discover the feature

• Understand what it offered

• Recognize which accounts were eligible

• Find a participating retailer

• Understand the fees and limits

• Generate and use the barcode

• Recognize a successful deposit

• Recover when the expected journey failed

They also helped ensure that the experience was technically feasible, operationally supportable, and compliant.

Leading through collaboration

This project involved teams with different definitions of success.

Product leadership needed a useful new capability. Engineering needed something feasible across two mobile platforms. Branch operations wanted to relieve congestion. Legal needed accurate disclosures. The third-party provider had technical requirements. Members needed confidence that their cash would reach the correct account.

My value was connecting those perspectives and turning them into a coherent product.

I brought branch evidence into leadership conversations. I worked with developers to adjust the architecture without losing discoverability. I challenged decisions that could weaken member trust. I surfaced product risks early and helped the team distinguish what was necessary for launch from what could follow later.

That allowed us to move forward without losing sight of the problem we were trying to solve.

The outcome

We successfully launched retail cash deposit on both iOS and Android.

Eligible members could now:

• Access cash deposit from their checking account

• Find a participating retailer

• Generate a secure, single-use barcode

• Deposit cash without sharing account information with a cashier

• Receive confirmation of the transaction

• Access deposited funds within minutes

• Use more than 90,000 participating retail locations nationwide

Approximately six weeks after launch, early feedback indicated that members were adopting the feature and that it was beginning to help with branch congestion.

Because the release was still new, I treated that feedback as directional—not proof of long-term impact. The next step was to measure usage, branch volume, limit-related abandonment, and repeat behavior over a longer period.

The immediate result was clear: PenFed had established a new cash-funding channel and given members an alternative to waiting in a branch line.

What I would measure next

To evaluate whether the product fully addressed the original problem, I would track:

• Retail deposits completed by location

• Adoption among Puerto Rico members

• Repeat usage after the first deposit

• Changes in branch cash-deposit volume

• Changes in average branch wait times

• Transactions blocked or abandoned because of limits

• Barcode expiration and regeneration

• Support contacts during the deposit journey

• The percentage of members who return to branch deposits

• Differences between English- and Spanish-language usage

These measurements would help determine whether to increase transaction limits, improve onboarding, add a map, or provide additional in-store support.

What I learned

This project reinforced that a banking product does not end at the edge of the screen.

A seemingly simple barcode feature was connected to member trust, family and household routines, language accessibility, branch capacity, cash-handling risk, vendor technology, retailer behavior, and business policy.

My job as lead product designer was to make those relationships visible and turn them into decisions the team could act on.

I did not wait for perfect research conditions. I found the people closest to the problem, asked better questions, tested the market, and brought what I learned into product and executive conversations.

I did not treat technical constraints as barriers. I worked with engineering to find a feasible path that protected the most important member outcomes.

And when a decision could affect trust—such as hiding fees or introducing limits that did not reflect actual behavior—I raised the issue clearly and supported the team in making an informed choice.

Final reflection

The most meaningful outcome was not the barcode itself. It was turning a third-party business partnership into a member-first PenFed experience.

I connected member behavior, branch operations, technology, and business strategy. I helped the team decide what needed to be true for launch, what compromises we could responsibly make, and what risks needed to remain visible.

The resulting product expanded cash access beyond PenFed’s six Puerto Rico branches and created a foundation for reducing one of their most persistent operational problems.

That is the kind of work I bring to a product team: I investigate beyond the initial brief, bring the right people into the process, understand the technical and business realities, advocate for the customer, and keep the work moving toward launch.