Launching Carta's RSU Settlement Platform

At a glance

• Designed Carta's first RSU settlement experience from scratch (previously manual and ops-driven)
• Consolidated high-stakes tax decisions into a single decision surface
• Enabled structured optionality (Shares, Cash, Mix) with clear outcomes
• Reduced operational hours and enabled 3 Liquidity Services Associates to support high-volume events
• Became the standardized RSU settlement path across Carta Liquidity (internally dogfooded)

The problem

Before this project, RSU settlements were coordinated manually across email and spreadsheets with heavy operational support. Employees faced high-stakes tax decisions with little clarity on outcomes. The process did not scale as RSU volume increased.

What I did

• Led end-to-end product design for a 0 to 1 settlement experience (sole designer)
• Mapped the full workflow across election states and edge cases
• Designed a unified decision framework that reduces cognitive load
• Partnered with product, engineering, and stakeholders to align on constraints and ship
• Supported implementation with design QA

Key decisions

Impact

• 2,000+ participants across the first two settlement events
• 30% increase in transaction volume for an enterprise customer
• Reduced operational hours and replaced manual coordination
• Standardized workflow used for RSU settlements across Carta Liquidity