Google Pay — Scaling a Payments Platform to 150 Million Users
Co-created Google Tez from concept to launch. The product became Google Pay, reaching 150mn+ monthly active users across India and global markets.
Outcome
150mn+
Monthly active users
The Challenge
In 2017, India was on the cusp of a digital payments revolution following demonetisation. Google saw an opportunity to build a first-party payments product for India — built on the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) infrastructure — for a population of hundreds of millions of smartphone users, many of whom were transacting digitally for the first time.
The design challenge was not just to build a payments app, but to build one that first-time digital payment users could understand and trust immediately — across diverse languages, literacy levels, and device capabilities.
Approach
As Founding Designer on Google Tez, I was involved from the earliest product discussions through to launch and the years of iteration that followed. This meant working directly with product, engineering, and business leadership to define what Tez would be — not just how it would look.
Over time, I transitioned into a Design Manager role, building and leading a globally distributed design team responsible for Google Pay and the Next Billion Users design work across Google.
Results
- 150mn+Monthly active users — scaled from zero at launch
- GlobalGoogle Tez rebranded as Google Pay and expanded globally
- TeamBuilt and led a globally distributed design team across markets and time zones