Brightside by ATB. Launching Canada’s #1 Digital Bank App.
My role: Front-end Engineer at Technisys (2018 – 2020) · App Store #1 Finance · 18 k DAU at 6 months
01 · Overview
Brightside was ATB’s mobile-only bank designed to help Canadians spend smarter and save effortlessly. The MVP shipped in under 12 months, offering chequing, goal-based“Save Buckets” and a rewards Mastercard — wrapped in a playfulbrand that stands out from legacy banks.
I joined as FE engineer #5 and owned major flows, the shared component library, and performance tuning from beta to public launch.
02 · My Responsibilities
- Mobile UI build: converted InDesign specs into high-performance React pages and components.
- Component library: co-authored reusable atoms / molecules in Storybook.
- KYC onboarding flow: implemented "less than 5 minutes" wizard with camera-OCR; iterations reduced drop-off 18 %.
- Marketing website: built a custom CMS with Next.js, Markup, and React.
- Marketing emails: built the marketing email templates.
03 · Problem
ATB needed a modern challenger bank to compete with KOHO and Tangerine. Key constraints:
- Ship MVP in < 12 months.
- Differentiated friendly visual brand.
- Maintain AAA accessibility and fintech-grade security.
04 · Process Highlights
Dual-track agile: design discovery ran one sprint ahead of dev; I participated in grooming and wrote FE tickets with estimates.
Component system:atoms→molecules→organisms model, documented in Storybook.
Onboarding optimisation — two A/B cycles on ID-scan & progress copy netted +12 % & +6 % completion respectively.
Accessibility first: semantic roles, dynamic font sizes, WCAG 2.1 AA passed on first audit.
05 · Outcome
- #1 Finance app in Canadian App Store for three weeks post launch.
- 4.6 ★ average rating (4 k reviews).