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RSU Settlement

Providing private RSU holders optionality in covering their tax withholding obligations

Preview of RSU Settlement experience

Preview of RSU Settlement experience

COMPANY

Carta

YEAR

2022–2023

ROLE

Product Designer

SCOPE

Equity compensation, financial workflows

OVERVIEW

Carta Liquidity is Carta's secondary market for private companies. It allows employees, shareholders, and investors to access the value of their shares without the company having to IPO. One of the newest offerings is the RSU Settlement platform. This enables private company RSU shareholders to understand and choose how they want to cover the tax withholding obligation associated with an upcoming settlement. I led the end-to-end design of the RSU Settlement platform.

Context

RSU settlements introduce significant financial and cognitive complexity for private company employees. Shareholders need to understand eligibility, tax obligations, and available options, often under time pressure and with high stakes.

The goal was to design a clear, trustworthy experience that consolidated all necessary information and enabled confident decision-making in one place.

All the information needed to decide in one view

All the information needed to decide in one view

The Work

I partnered closely with product and engineering to design a system that:

  • Surfaces eligible units and estimated value at a glance
  • Breaks down tax obligations by security
  • Visualizes total shares to be gained after settlement
  • Presents clear options to cover tax obligations
  • Handles insufficient balances with guidance and next steps
  • Supports users who choose not to actively make a decision
Cover tax obligations with shares, cash, or a mix

Cover tax obligations with shares, cash, or a mix

Key Capabilities

  • One-view summary of settlement details
  • Tax obligation coverage via shares, cash, or a mix
  • Clear comparison of outcomes across options
  • Transparent breakdown of settlement results
  • Guardrails for incomplete or no-response scenarios
Transparent breakdown of settlement outcomes

Transparent breakdown of settlement outcomes

Results

  • 2000+ participants across the first two transactions
  • 30% increase in transaction volume for an enterprise customer
  • Customer feedback: "Very helpful tool. Delivered a ton of value, and the UX was intuitive."

This is a preview of the project. For a more detailed walkthrough, please feel free to contact me.