Rubicon Carbon
Designing a Carbon Marketplace & Portfolio Platform for Enterprise Buyers
A unified workflow for evaluating, assembling, and managing carbon projects.
Role: Founding Product Designer (UX/UI)
Team: PM, BE + FE Engineers, QA, Data Analyst
Timeline: Ongoing • 2023-2025
Platforms: Enterprise SaaS, Customer Portal, Marketplace, Admin Tools
Special Notes: This is a high-level overview, as some components are proprietary.
Project Overview
Rubicon Carbon set out to build one of the first enterprise-ready carbon credit portfolio platforms—combining climate science, financial modeling, project transparency, and structured transactions into a single product.
When I joined as the first in-house designer, the product was still in stealth mode. McKinsey had started producing an early MVP, but its structure resembled a consulting prototype more than a scalable digital platform.
My Role
*Exhales* Joining the company, by job was to:
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Stabilize and refine the MVP for launch.
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Redesign the information architecture to scale beyond launch.
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Modernize and extend both customer and admin-facing surfaces.
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Create a dual design system used across dense, data-heavy admin workflows and visually rich customer storytelling.
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Design net-new products including Build Your Own RCT (BYORCT), project risk attributes, updated project detail pages, and full trading + inventory tooling for internal teams.
Rubicon’s customer platform later gained industry attention, and one enterprise buyer ByteDance, the parent company of TikTok, publicly praised the experience and purchased 100,000+ carbon credits through the platform.
Video demo of one of the solutions I designed - Build Your Own RCT
Core Problems
The Platform Needed to Scale — But Was Fragmented
1. Buyers lacked clarity and confidence in carbon project quality.
Project pages were dense, inconsistent, and lacked the transparency enterprise sustainability teams needed to evaluate climate impact, risk, and regional relevance.
2. The MVP was not scalable for real users or real workflows.
The inherited designs lacked hierarchy, reusability, and structural logic. Key components (tables, filters, attributes) did not exist, and the navigation collapsed under expanding features.
3. Portfolio construction required guided decision-making.
Sustainability teams needed to build portfolios aligned with their climate goals, but the platform offered no comparative tooling, no risk adjustment model, and no transparent attribute system.
4. Competitive pressure demanded rapid iteration and credibility.
The carbon market was evolving quickly. To win major buyers, we needed a polished, trustworthy platform, not a deck-turned-app.
Project Goals
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Transform the MVP into a truly productized ecosystem
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Enable buyers to evaluate projects with clarity, transparency, and trust
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Reduce operational complexity with a robust admin platform
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Build a scalable design system for two distinct product surfaces
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Accelerate product delivery as features expanded across the organization
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Support trading, sales, and science teams with workflows that reduced risk and dependency
Users & Their Needs
I divided the core users into two groups to shape the IA and workflows:
Enterprise Buyers
(Sustainability Leaders, Procurement Teams)
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Understand project climate impact, risk, and geography
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Build aligned, comparable portfolios
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Gain confidence through science-backed data
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Purchase and retire credits with accuracy and transparency
Internal Teams
(Trading, Science, Marketing, Operations)
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Manage inventory and project metadata
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Evaluate market conditions and execute trades
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Prepare quotes and forward contracts
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Reconcile inventory without engineering intervention
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Publish accurate content for customer-facing pages
Constraints
Rubicon Carbon operated within a fast-moving climate and financial landscape. Several key constraints shaped the direction of the product and the decisions I made as the first in-house designer:
1. Rapidly evolving product requirements
New scientific attributes, portfolio methods, and market expectations were emerging weekly. The platform needed to support continuous iteration without major rework.
2. A fragmented MVP inherited from consulting partners
The initial designs from McKinsey were conceptual and presentation-oriented, not built for usability, scalability, or cohesive product patterns.
3. Parallel development across two ecosystems
The customer portal and admin platform were being built simultaneously. Decisions in one system directly affected workflows, data structures, and UI patterns in the other.
4. High stakes for credibility in a competitive market
The platform was being evaluated by enterprise buyers making six- and seven-figure sustainability investments. Every interaction needed to convey trust, transparency, and scientific rigor.
5. Cross-functional coordination with specialized teams
Trading, climate science, marketing, engineering, and sales each brought unique requirements and domain complexity, requiring systems flexible enough to support technical and non-technical users alike.
These constraints demanded intentional decision-making, a flexible design system, and an architecture that could evolve without breaking.
Design Principles
To bring structure and consistency to a rapidly expanding platform, I established a set of design principles that guided both customer-facing and internal workflows:
1. Lead with clarity and transparency
Buyers needed immediate access to the why behind carbon projects. Every redesign pushed toward removing ambiguity, surfacing meaningful data, and elevating scientific context.
2. Build systems, not screens
Rubicon’s pace required patterns that scaled. I focused on reusable components, extensible layouts, and standardized workflows that reduced decision-making for both design and engineering.
3. Make complex information approachable
Climate impact, risk scoring, market data, and portfolio modeling are inherently dense. I designed for scannability—structured sections, visual hierarchy, and intuitive grouping—to help users make confident decisions.
4. Support operational autonomy
Internal teams needed to move independently from engineering. Admin tools prioritized clarity, safety, and batch workflows to reduce bottlenecks and improve day-to-day operations.
5. Design for dual environments
Customer transparency and internal operational efficiency are fundamentally different UX problems. The design system adopted shared foundations with distinct component families tailored to each environment.
Multi-Phase Approach
Rubicon Carbon’s platform evolved quickly, driven by market pressures, scientific advancements, and the needs of enterprise buyers. As the first in-house designer, I approached the work in three deliberate phases, stabilizing what existed, modernizing the system, and designing net-new capabilities.
Phase 01
MVP Stabilization (Pre-Launch)
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Refined inherited McKinsey designs
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Established baseline usability and IA
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Updated project pages and portfolio logic
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Closed gaps needed for enterprise onboarding
Phase 02
Post-Launch Modernization
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Rebuilt outdated PDPs
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Introduced risk attributes and project metadata structure
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Redesigned navigation (horizontal → scalable left sidebar)
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Implemented consistent component patterns
Phase 03
New Product Innovation
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Designed the Build Your Own RCT tool
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Expanded portfolio transparency
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Added wishlist and retirements
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Built trading + inventory systems internally
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Introduced market news (AI-driven + CMS tools)
Design System Architecture — Unified Foundations, Divergent Patterns
To support both a customer-facing climate product and a dense operational admin platform, I created a two-tier design system:
Shared Foundations
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Typography scale and hierarchy
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Spacing, grid, and density rules
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Semantic color system for climate impact & financial status
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Iconography + micro-interactions
Customer Portal Components
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Risk attribute badges
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Project cards
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Portfolio cards
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PDP attribute sections
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Map modules
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Definition tooltips
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Modal & comparison components
Admin Portal Components
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Advanced table system
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Filtering + query patterns
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Multi-step form framework
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Status chips and tags
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Left navigation with expandable groups
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Reconciliation workflows
Impact
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Reduced engineering rework
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Enabled faster iteration across both portals
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Ensured scalable product architecture as features grew rapidly
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Made it possible to ship new tools (inventory, trading, BYORCT) without reinventing UI
Information Architecture
Rubicon Carbon ultimately became a two-sided platform with distinct but interconnected user environments. I redesigned the information architecture to support transparency for enterprise buyers while enabling internal teams to manage a complex operational engine behind the scenes.
Customer Portal IA
A streamlined, buyer-focused experience organized around evaluating carbon projects, constructing portfolios, and managing transactions.
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Portfolio Overview
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Explore Projects
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Project Detail Pages (PDP)
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Build Your Own RCT
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Purchases & Retirements
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Wishlist
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Organization & Account Management
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Document Center
Admin Platform IA
A high-density operational environment supporting trading, science, marketing, and operations teams with tools for managing projects, inventory, customers, and market insights.
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Market Operations
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Market data
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Pricing & transaction tools
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Portfolio & Inventory Controls
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Portfolio oversight
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Inventory updates
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Content & Asset Management
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Adding/organizing carbon project content
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Customer & Organization Management
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Accounts, permissions, team structure
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Insights & Communications
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Internal news & updates
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Notifications & System Settings
Key Product Workflows
Designing for two audiences: Rubicon Carbon required both a polished customer-facing platform and a robust internal admin system to support trading, inventory management, and compliance. While the customer portal focused on discovery, purchasing, and portfolio construction, the admin platform was designed for precision, auditing, and operational scale.
Below are the core workflows I designed across both systems, highlighting how complex carbon market data was made usable for different audiences without compromising accuracy or control.
Customer Portal — Enabling confident carbon purchasing and retirement
The customer portal was designed to support enterprise buyers navigating a complex and high-stakes carbon market. The focus was on clarity, trust, and decision-making — helping customers understand what they’re buying, track transactions, and confidently retire credits with full documentation.
1. Project Pages — Bringing Clarity to Complex Climate Data
Understanding carbon projects requires translating scientific, regional, and financial data into something buyers can actually act on. I redesigned the project pages to create trust, transparency, and decision support.
Previous UI of the product & project detail pages.
A redesigned project overview that surfaces essential climate attributes, regional impact, and quality indicators at a glance.
2. Build Your Own RCT (BYORCT) — Portfolio Construction Made Intuitive
BYORCT was Rubicon’s first-of-its-kind portfolio builder, enabling buyers to create custom carbon portfolios aligned with their goals, risk tolerance, and sustainability strategy. I led the UX/UI design of the entire experience.
Problem
Customers could not build mission-aligned portfolios or compare project combinations.
Design Decisions
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Guided portfolio construction flow
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Left-hand selection with attribute comparison
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Real-time adjustments
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Transparent risk scoring
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Modular architecture enabling future risk factors
Outcome
BYORCT was featured in the news, and enterprise clients praised the clarity and usability of the tool.
Users explore eligible climate projects and add them to a custom portfolio using a guided, structured selection interface.
3. Transactions: Purchases & Retirements
The transactions workflow provides customers with a complete, auditable record of purchases and retirements across the platform.
Problem: Purchasing and retiring carbon credits are high-stakes actions. Customers needed: Clear transaction status and history, easy access to supporting documentation, verifiable retirement records for ESG reporting and audits. Fragmentation or opacity would undermine trust.
Design Decisions
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Designed a unified transactions table surfacing:
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Purchases and retirements in one view
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Status, quantity, pricing, and completion state
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Created a transaction detail view consolidating:
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Product breakdowns
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Risk adjustment context
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Downloadable documents (agreements, receipts)
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Designed a dedicated retirements view focused on:
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Registry source and project identifiers
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Retirement dates and quantities
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Direct registry verification links
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Outcome
Customers gained end-to-end transparency across purchases and retirements, reinforcing Rubicon’s credibility as an enterprise-grade marketplace.
Transactions table provides a complete, searchable record of purchases and retirements. Retirements table provides registry-linked verification and historical traceability.
Admin Platform — Operating a high-volume carbon marketplace
The internal platform supported Rubicon Carbon’s trading, inventory, compliance, and customer operations. Rather than a single dashboard, the admin experience was designed around task-based navigation, with data-dense tables, inline actions, and safeguards to prevent costly errors across inventory, portfolios, and transaction
1. Portfolio & Inventory Oversight
As Rubicon Carbon’s inventory and product offerings expanded, internal teams needed a scalable way to manage portfolio composition, pricing, and inventory health, without risking data integrity or slowing down customer-facing operations.
Problem: Internal teams lacked a centralized, flexible interface to manage complex portfolio inventory while enforcing pricing rules, allocation policies, and auditability at scale.
Design Decisions
To support operational scale and accuracy, I focused on a layered information model:
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Portfolio list views act as the system entry point, enabling quick comparison across portfolios.
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Portfolio detail pages surface critical metrics (pricing, buffers, holdings) while preserving access to deeper breakdowns.
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Table-first composition editing allows admins to add, remove, or rebalance project vintages with full visibility into cost basis, allocation, and policy compliance.
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Inline alerts and warnings (e.g., policy violations) immediately surface risk without blocking workflows.
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Consistent table patterns and controls reinforce predictability across inventory management, reducing cognitive load for power users.
These decisions favored clarity and trust over visual abstraction, ensuring admins could confidently manage sensitive inventory data.
Outcome
This approach enabled internal teams to confidently manage large, evolving portfolios while maintaining pricing accuracy, policy compliance, and operational efficiency, without requiring engineering intervention for routine updates.
Portfolio and inventory management tools provide detailed visibility into holdings, pricing, allocation, and policy compliance, enabling internal teams to manage complex portfolios at scale.
2. Trade Execution & Status Tracking
Trading required a workflow that mirrored real-world execution while remaining auditable and controlled.
Problem
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Trades involve multiple states, dependencies, and counterparties
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Status ambiguity could cause financial risk or operational delays
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Admin users needed fast edits without losing historical context
Design Decisions
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Centralized trade activity in a single table view for monitoring
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Used a side panel for detailed trade management to preserve context
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Made trade status explicit through step-based progress indicators
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Prioritized clarity over abstraction in financial inputs and outputs
Outcome
Trades could be placed, tracked, and reconciled with minimal friction — supporting both speed and accountability.
Trades are managed from a single table, with detailed execution and settlement information accessible via an in-context side panel to preserve workflow continuity.
3. Market News & Content Management
The market news workflow enables internal teams to curate and manage industry intelligence surfaced across the platform.
Problem
Rubicon needed to:
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Surface credible, timely market intelligence
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Associate news with specific projects or themes
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Control visibility across internal and customer-facing surfaces
Design Decisions
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Designed a market news management table with:
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Review states and source attribution
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Tagging for customer vs. internal visibility
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Created a structured edit flow supporting:
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Project associations
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Manual and AI-assisted curation
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Ensured content could be reused across the platform without duplication
Outcome
Market intelligence became a first-class product surface, reinforcing Rubicon’s authority and supporting customer education.
Admin tools enable internal teams to curate and manage market intelligence surfaced across the platform.
Solution Summary
Across customer-facing and internal platforms, I transformed Rubicon Carbon’s early MVP into a scalable, trusted enterprise system. By rethinking the information architecture, modernizing project and portfolio experiences, and building a dual design system with extensible component patterns, I supported the rapid evolution of a climate fintech ecosystem operating in a highly competitive market.
Outcomes
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Customer platform publicly praised by major enterprise buyers
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Used to support the purchase of 100,000+ carbon credits
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BYORCT featured in press coverage
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Internal workflows scaled from manual engineering tasks → structured operational tools
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Trading team gained full visibility into market + inventory
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Sales team gained the ability to prototype portfolios safely
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Science + marketing teams could publish structured project information
Reflection
This project taught me how to:
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Balance design clarity with scientific and financial complexity
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Move from consultant-led prototypes → scalable product systems
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Design two interconnected ecosystems simultaneously
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Build a design system that unifies brand and function across densities
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Make product decisions under tight timelines and shifting requirements
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Partner closely with engineering, trading, science, and operations
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Identify opportunities for product-level improvements rather than screen-level fixes
Rubicon Carbon remains one of the most complex and rewarding ecosystems I’ve designed via shaping an entire platform that helps organizations make transparent, impactful carbon purchasing decisions.
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