Beak
Fintech platform
How Beak Eliminated Fragmented Shopping Journeys to Build a Unified Financial Platform
Beak, a UK fintech startup, set out to simplify how consumers manage spending and discover savings. However, shopping journeys remained fragmented across banking apps, merchant platforms, and discount services, preventing users from acting on financial decisions in a single flow.
Without consolidation, this fragmentation risked limiting product scalability and preventing Beak from becoming a primary financial interface.
Alty defined a unified product structure connecting spending, merchant interaction, and savings into a single decision-making layer.
The product did not proceed to launch. The scope focused on product structuring, experience design, and system validation.
About the Client
Beak is a UK fintech startup focused on improving how consumers manage their shopping and personal finances.
The company aimed to bring together spending visibility, merchant communication, and savings opportunities into one product. Instead of relying on multiple disconnected apps, Beak sought to create a single experience where users could understand their finances and act on purchasing decisions more effectively.
The Challenge
Consumers managed spending, purchases, and savings across multiple systems. Banking apps exposed financial data, merchant platforms handled transactions, and third-party services provided promotions. These systems operated independently, creating a disconnected decision environment.
This fragmentation introduced systemic risk:
Without resolving this fragmentation at the product level, Beak risked building a system that could not scale coherently or sustain long-term usage.
Key Challenges
The solution
Alty acted as a product structuring and system design partner, focusing on defining a coherent product before development.
The objective was not feature delivery, but eliminating fragmentation at the structural level and establishing a scalable product logic.
Discovery & Strategy
Alty conducted a structured analysis of the existing ecosystem, mapping how financial data, merchant interactions, and promotional systems operate independently.
Users did not lack financial data or offers, but lacked a unified decision layer to act on them. Alty defined a product model that consolidates fragmented systems into a single interaction framework. This shifted the product from a collection of tools into a structured platform capable of supporting financial decision-making.
Collaboration & Ownership
Alty led system analysis and defined the product direction, removing ambiguity and aligning the concept into a single decision framework.
Product & Experience Design
The product was structured to unify financial visibility and shopping interaction into one coherent system. Fragmented systems prevented users from acting on financial decisions within a single flow.
Fragmentation prevented financial data, merchant interaction, and savings from being connected within a single decision flow.
Design Decisions
The system enables evaluation of spending, interaction with merchants, and action on savings within a single environment.
Collaboration & Ownership
Alty defined the product architecture and interaction logic, ensuring consistency across all components.
Engineering & Integration
The platform required coordination across multiple independent systems. Financial, merchant, and promotional infrastructures operate as separate ecosystems.
Engineering Decisions
A scalable integration model that supports expansion without increasing system complexity or integration risk.
Collaboration & Ownership
Alty defined the product architecture and interaction logic, ensuring consistency across all components.
The platform required coordination across multiple independent systems. Financial, merchant, and promotional infrastructures operate as separate ecosystems.
Engineering Decisions
A scalable integration model that supports expansion without increasing system complexity or integration risk.
Alty established integration architecture and system logic before development, reducing technical ambiguity.
Product Readiness & Validation
The product was structured as a complete, decision-ready system before engineering execution. All interaction flows, integration logic, and system relationships were defined and validated.
Reduced structural risk before development and eliminated the need for rework during engineering.
Collaboration & Ownership
Alty brought the product to a development-ready state, eliminating the need for structural redefinition during engineering.
Tech Stack
The platform was built to support integration-heavy fintech operations.
Backend: Node.js, TypeScript, NestJS
Supports scalable API architecture and structured service orchestration.
Infrastructure: AWS with Terraform
Ensures reliable and scalable cloud deployment.
Database: PostgreSQL
Ensures consistency of financial and transactional data.
Messaging: AWS SQS
Enabled communication between distributed services.
Integrations
Indigo Design Award 2026 (UX/UI)
Independent validation of system clarity and product design quality
iF Design Award 2026 Winner
