Atheva
A marketplace where buyers and sellers can transact and transfer climate tax credits.
Timeline
Dec 2022 - Feb 2023
Role
Contract Product Designer
Company
Atheva
Challenge: Design a marketplace for an emerging industry where buyers and sellers feel confident in their transactions of climate tax credits.
1. Context
In the summer of 2022, the Inflation Reduction Act allowed certain federal income climate tax credits to be directly transferred, creating a significant opportunity. Experts projected annual tax equity transfers to exceed $60 billion. Atheva aimed to launch a tax credit marketplace before tax season, and I joined the team in December 2022, with under three months to deliver the project.
2. Problem
Atheva was a new company formed with the goal of creating a tax credit marketplace. As a startup, we needed foundational elements like branding. I quickly iterated on designs, and the team settled on a logo and color scheme.
Product
The next challenge was creating an online tax credit marketplace in this nascent industry. Climate tax credits are intangible and based on complex calculations for sustainable energy projects, which posed a unique challenge.
Challenges for Sellers
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Calculating the number of credits they could claim.
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Determining whether they could use those credits to lower their taxes.
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Selling the credits if they could not use them.
Challenges for Buyers
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Finding willing sellers.
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Obtaining sufficient documentation and proof of the validity of the tax credits.
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Working with lawyers, tax advisors, and others to transfer the credits.
I needed to design a marketplace where buyers and sellers felt confident in their transactions of tax credits.
3. Process
Constraints
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Condensed timeline.
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Unclear end-users.
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Lack of detailed government guidance at the time.
Research
This area was new to me, so I needed to quickly understand climate tax credits and our capabilities. The founders conducted interviews with potential buyers and sellers and attended conferences. From their outreach, I learned what buyers and sellers might want to see and how they operate. We were aiming to release an MVP product, with only a hypothesis of buyer and seller profiles.
Key Learnings
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Validation and Transferability:
Buyers needed assurance that the tax credits were both valid and transferable, necessitating robust verification mechanisms within the marketplace. -
Legal Sales Agreement:
A legal sales agreement was essential for both buyers and sellers to ensure secure and binding transactions. -
Corporate Participants:
The primary users of the marketplace were companies rather than individuals, requiring a focus on B2B user experience and professional-grade transaction workflows.
Workflows
Through collaboration with the co-founders, we made key decisions on the mechanics and processes for creating listings, placing bids, and conducting auctions. These workflows were crucial to the marketplace product. As this was an MVP, we opted to test certain theories manually before building automation. For example, closing an auction required manual review and email triggering because we were unsure how users would react.
With the workflows established, I proceeded to design the screens.
4. Visual design
Given the short timeline, I leveraged an existing design system, Ant Design, to expedite the design of individual screens.
The co-founders initially assumed that buyers and sellers would prefer an interface similar to accounting software, with information displayed in table formats. They wanted to avoid illustrations but allowed some business-related photography.
I presented crucial information in tables where appropriate, such as on buyer and seller homepages, while balancing simplicity and visual interest elsewhere.
5. Outcome
We successfully released the MVP marketplace in time for tax season and began attracting interest. As we onboarded sellers and engaged with more buyers, we identified new pain points and requests that the product needed to address. This led to the design and development of new features. I continue to help refine and enhance the product based on user feedback and evolving needs.
