In fintech design is delivery and finance is the product. Two decades back my mom used to trade stocks with a notebook and the television ticker on news channels. She'd watch the ticker, scribble numbers, then call her relationship manager at Sharekhan to place orders. She had no idea what was happening behind the call. The UX was a phone call to a "expert", who could just be a mere UI operator. Then Zerodha came along. Zero brokerage on equity. Twenty rupees per trade. Everyone talks about how clean Zerodha's interface was. That's not why people switched. They switched because the product changed. The interface just made a better product easier to reach. In fintech the order of impact is: 1. Product: What's the interest rate? What's the fee structure? 2. Distribution: Do I trust this brand? Did someone I know use it? 3. Experience: Is it easy to use? Designers want #3 to matter most because that's their craft. But the market doesn't care about your emotional attachment to your work. Jupiter has one of the most beautiful banking apps I've ever used. So did Fi. Both built for a problem that didn't feel urgent enough to solve. Both gorgeous. Here's what killed the neobanks narrative: they gave away their most important job. Payments happen on PhonePe, Google Pay, Paytm. When your most frequent use case lives in someone else's app, neobanks become a quarterly login. A bank manager in a village near Ranchi once told me something I think about often. People kept confusing IDFC with HDFC and IDBI. He never corrected them. He just wanted accounts. Then Amitabh Bachchan started handing out IDFC checks on Kaun Banega Crorepati. Winners on national television, holding a check with IDFC written on it. The manager told me he doesn't pitch trust anymore. Bachchan handled it. Design helps you not lose. Distribution and product help you win.