Vic de Aranzeta
NCX
Carbon-credit marketplace MVP
Design Lead
Climate, Finance
Bringing data visualization to carbon credit markets.
When I joined NCX in 2022, it was a natural capital marketplace connecting landowners selling carbon credits to corporate buyers who have net-zero goals.
As the design lead and solo designer on this project— I worked with a cross disciplinary team over 6 weeks — from PM and Engineers to Marketing Strategist and General Counsel with the goal to design an order book and data-driven MVP for our existing carbon marketplace.
Reduced risk
by millions per project cycle by pivoting to an order book model
4x growth
in carbon supply on the platform
20%
reduction in landowner support tickets related to market confusion
Opportunity
NCX's original marketplace model put the company in a position as intermediary between buyers and sellers, creating an unsustainable business model at scale. The transition to an order book model was an opportunity to remove risk and give users access to live market data for the first time. This would create a transparent market, remove NCX from the middle of transactions, and give landowners more control over their carbon credit sales.
Challenge
Landowners were making anxious, uninformed financial decisions due to a confusing product experience that lacked market visibility and data transparency. Through customer support tickets, interviews, and surveys, we discovered users didn't understand how to price their credits or trust the system. The challenge was translating complex financial market concepts into an intuitive experience for non-technical landowners, while working within tight tech constraints and a 5-week delivery timeline.
Results
Redesigned how NCX matched forested landowners with carbon credit buyers for a project by implementing an Order Book (standard in financial markets) to balance supply and demand in the marketplace, reducing NCX revenue risk by millions per project cycle.
The order book MVP successfully reduced business risk by millions per project cycle and led to 4x growth in supply on the platform. By structuring the experience around landowners' actual questions, implementing progressive disclosure of market data, and creating a transparent side-by-side market view, we significantly lowered support tickets related to market confusion by 20%. The solution launched on time through close collaboration with engineering and daily design reviews.