MersonHR
HR, Payroll & Payroll-Secured Credit
All-in-one HR and payroll platform with a lending marketplace that routes repayments through payroll, de-risking credit for lenders and unlocking it for employees.
- Client: Merson Venture Studio
- Role: Sole Designer (took over from a team)
- Year: 2023, Present
- Platform: Web
- Tools: Figma, Claude Code
Background
An HR Platform With a Marketplace Attached
MersonHR is an all-in-one HR and payroll platform covering the full employee lifecycle, and going further by connecting employees to a marketplace of credit providers, with repayments deducted straight from payroll. It began as a team effort; I carried it as sole designer, owning the design direction end to end.
The Problem / Objective
Two Connected Problems
HR and payroll are inherently dense, and the goal was to make it usable for HR teams and everyday employees alike. Then there’s the financing gap, employees who need loans often can’t get them for lack of trust, and lenders risk borrowers defaulting. MersonHR bridges this by routing repayments through payroll, de-risking lending and unlocking access, a genuine win-win, and the feature that defines the product.
Research & Discovery
Redesigning What Was Half-Built
Starting from scratch meant establishing structure where none existed. When I took over solo, I audited the full build and reframed the next phase as a redesign, keeping what worked, rebuilding what didn’t, unifying a fast-grown product into one coherent system.
The Design Process
Two Sides of One Marketplace
I rebuilt the information architecture in Figma around clear hierarchy, giving the platform’s many capabilities predictable homes. The lending marketplace got particular focus: I designed both sides of the exchange, the employee journey for finding providers and applying, and the provider side for reaching pre-vetted, payroll-secured applicants. Making a multi-party financial flow feel simple and trustworthy for two very different audiences was the core challenge.
Outcomes & Impact
A Working Marketplace
MersonHR is in active use by client organisations and their staff, with the payroll-deducted marketplace connecting employees to credit providers who can lend against a repayment route they trust. What had been a half-built product with two disconnected audiences now runs as one system, and the lending side went live as a functioning exchange rather than a feature bolted onto an HR tool.