Alelo Pod - Flexible Employee Benefits
Situation
By late 2022, the flexible benefits market in Brazil was growing rapidly, driven by competitors offering open-network benefit cards accepted across any establishment. Alelo, despite being one of Brazil's largest benefits companies serving 8 million B2C consumers and 150,000 B2B companies, had no competitive product in this segment. Its existing network operated as a closed arrangement (Arranjo Fechado), restricted to PAT (Programa de Alimentação do Trabalhador) cards, limiting usage to a credentialed network and preventing balance transfers between benefit categories. To compete, Alelo needed a 0-to-1 product: a flexible benefit card operating on an open network under the Elo flag, accepted across millions of establishments.
Task
As Product Designer, join the Alelo Pod project in its final and most critical phase, validate the MVP delivered by an external partner and lead the full reconstruction of the product experience for both B2B (HR) and B2C (employee) audiences, delivering a market-ready product in time for its official launch in August 2023.
Action
Validated the external partner's MVP with 35 internal participants across administrative and senior leadership teams, identifying critical experience failures: misaligned brand identity, poor usability, partner-specific jargon and acronyms unfamiliar to Alelo's customers, and a confusing service flow;
Led the full reconstruction, not a redesign, of the product experience after internalizing the operation, taking full ownership of the interface and aligning it with Alelo's brand, language, and usability standards;
Led a cross-functional design team of 3 designers: 1 UX Researcher, 1 Service Designer, and 1 UX Designer, working in close collaboration with Product, PM, PO, Technology, and Development teams;
Used existing Meu Alelo app research, market intelligence benchmarks, and user stories and requirements gathered by the product team as the foundation for design decisions;
Designed the balance management system across six benefit categories, Food, Meal, Pharmacy, Leisure, Education, and Fuel, navigating a critical regulatory constraint imposed by the Ministry of Labor, which restricted balance transfers to preserve the intended use of each benefit type;
Delivered 5 critical UX flows and 8 complementary flows, covering the full B2B (HR) and B2C (employee) experience from onboarding to day-to-day benefit management.
Results
Alelo Pod launched officially on August 23, 2023, backed by a major national advertising campaign: "Você Pod com Alelo", signaling Alelo's strategic commitment to the flexible benefits market. The product introduced a new paradigm for the brand: a single card combining up to six benefit categories (Meal, Food, Home Office, Education, Entertainment, and Health) fully compliant with PAT regulations and accepted across millions of establishments via the Elo credit network.
In its first month of commercial operation, the platform onboarded 50 corporate clients, generating R$400,000 in revenue. By 2026, Alelo Pod has become one of Alelo's flagship products, particularly among companies seeking to attract and retain talent through customizable benefits packages.