Umair Yahya
All work

I designed Zaam so a bank, a telco and a retailer could each sell the same subscription their own way.

Zaam, by Zension, 2024 to now. People pay monthly for a phone or a laptop instead of buying it, through a bank, a telco or a store they already use. Each partner needed its own way in, and every country its own identity and credit checks. I designed one subscription with slots each partner fills.

zaamEmirates NBD

    What Emirates NBD sets

    The steps stay the same. Only these change.

    What the happy path doesn’t show

    • Mixed basketZaam bills the device. The partner keeps the plan or the case.
    • No UAE PASSThe only way to sign up, so the screen asks why.
    • Basket in checkoutStore staff can’t change it while the customer pays.
    • Card not acceptedOutside the program, or mada in Saudi Arabia, with a reason and a next step.
    • Card already in useA card on another account can’t be added twice.
    • Link expiredBack to the partner for a fresh basket.

    Every branch from the partner’s way in to the first payment, mapped before any screen.

    Check a card, sign up and pay, then switch the way in. The screens use the real copy from the design files; names, cards and prices are the files’ sample data.

    Role
    Principal Product Designer, from March 2024, in Dubai. The design owner for Zaam across the UAE and Saudi Arabia.
    Worked with
    The Head of Product and the Chief Growth Officer on each program, product managers day to day, and the marketing and engineering teams.
    Shipped
    Programs launched with Emirates NBD, Noon, Virgin Mobile, iStyle and Jarir, in the UAE and Saudi Arabia.
    Company
    Zension raised a $30M Series A in January 2025, led by Wa’ed Ventures, per public reports.

    Every partner wanted Zaam to fit its own checkout.

    A bank wanted its card holders to find Zaam through their card. A telco wanted a phone and a mobile plan in one cart, with the plan staying on its own bill. A retailer wanted its staff to build the basket at the counter and hand the phone over in the store.

    Countries changed the rest. In the UAE people sign up with UAE PASS and are checked with AECB; in Saudi Arabia it is Nafath and SIMAH, and mada debit cards cannot carry a subscription.

    The easy answer was a new product for every partner. It is the fastest way to launch the first one, and it means every fix after that is made once per partner, and every partner drifts a little further from the others.

    I mapped the subscription once, before any partner screen.

    Eligibility, sign-up, checkout, the payment plan, failed payments and cancellation, with every check and its failure drawn as a branch. Partner programs were then designed as answers to the same map, not as new maps.

    The UAE flow board: yellow notes are the checks, from phone number and residency to card, risk check and payment, each with its failure route.

    Six decisions that kept it one product.

    Each says what I chose and what I turned down, and each has a working piece beside it. I made them with the Head of Product and the Chief Growth Officer, working with product managers, marketing and engineering.

    A partner is configuration, not a fork

    Chose
    One subscription flow with named slots each partner fills: the way in, identity, the credit bureau, the card rules, who bills what, the branding and where it ends. A new partner starts as a list of answers.
    Instead of
    A separate flow per partner. Faster for the first launch, and every later fix made once per partner.

    A model of the slots, filled in from each program’s design files.

    The bank’s way in: the card check ends on this screen, in Zaam’s own look, with the bank named in the offer.

    Eligibility is a decision map, not a form error

    Chose
    Every check gets its own question, its own order and its own screen. UAE nationals skip the visa check; a visitor, an expired residency, a card in use and a declined risk check each end on a screen that says why and what to do.
    Instead of
    One “you are not eligible” message at the end of a long form, which leaves people guessing which answer failed and support explaining it.

    Walk the real checks from the UAE map. The outcome text is the copy from the design files.

    Sign-up on a phone. The middle screens are handled by UAE PASS; Zaam asks only for what UAE PASS does not hold.

    A partner’s basket is not a Zaam basket

    Chose
    The cart arrives from the partner as it is, then splits into three groups by who bills what: subscription items billed monthly by Zaam, the partner’s own monthly services, and items paid once. When two subscription items go over the credit limit, the person chooses which one to subscribe to and pays the other in full.
    Instead of
    Forcing everything into the subscription, or refusing any cart with an item Zaam cannot subscribe. The first breaks the partner’s billing; the second breaks the partner’s checkout.

    Add the Mac to see the credit limit at work. Items and prices are the design file’s samples.

    In store, staff and customer share one basket

    Chose
    Staff build the basket on a tablet and send it to the customer’s phone. The moment the customer starts checkout, the basket locks on the staff side, and the screen says why. After checkout, staff print the voucher for the counter.
    Instead of
    Letting staff fill in checkout on the customer’s behalf. Faster at the counter, and it puts the customer’s identity and consent in someone else’s hands.

    A model of the Jarir in-store journey. The staff screen copy is from the design files.

    The staff tablet after a trade-in: discount and cashback in the summary, and the basket goes to the customer’s phone, not into staff hands.

    Money states are designed as carefully as the checkout

    Chose
    A failed payment puts a banner on every page of the account with the fix inside it, and the subscription stays active while there is time to act. If the balance is still unpaid at the end, the subscription is cancelled, the device is bought out, and the payment plan shows every charge.
    Instead of
    Leaving collections to emails and support calls. The account would say “active” while the money said otherwise.

    The states from the late-payment designs. Amounts are the design file’s samples.

    From the cancellation notice to a payment plan that shows what was paid, what failed and what was cancelled.

    One component set for every partner and every width

    Chose
    I built Zaam’s design system with partner-aware components. The handover cart, the header that says where a cart came from, is one component with the partner’s name and logo as properties and a layout for each width.
    Instead of
    Restyling screens per partner. Quick for one, and a design system that stops matching the product after the third.

    A model of the handover cart component. The partner marks are placeholders.

    The same system, past the checkout.

    A program is more than its screens. The partner’s staff, its store and its support team all meet the subscription somewhere.

    The iStyle activation kit: the landing page and the printed pieces for the store, in the same voice as the product.
    The device claims dashboard for Noon’s team. The numbers are sample data in the design file, not results.

    What the work shows, and where my evidence stops.

    • VerifiedZension raised a $30M Series A in January 2025, led by Wa’ed Ventures, per public reports. The funding is the company’s, not a result of my design.
    • VerifiedZaam is public at zaam.life.
    • VerifiedPrograms launched with Emirates NBD, Noon, Virgin Mobile, iStyle and Jarir.

    What I can claim

    The design of the subscription system and its partner programs, from eligibility to cancellation, and the design system it runs on. Not the partnerships, the funding, or any approval, conversion or revenue figure; those belong to Zension and are not mine to publish.

    What I would do differently

    Write the slots down as a document each partner signs off before the first screen, so a new program starts from the list rather than from the last partner’s files. And measure each program’s drop-off by slot, so the data says which slot costs people the most.

    What it taught me

    A partnership product is a set of agreements about who owns each moment: who checks the card, who bills the plan, who hands over the phone. The design work is making those agreements visible on the screen, at the moment they matter.

    Verified on the record: a live product, a public page or a project document. Internal test measured by me or the team, outside production. Reported someone told me; I have not seen the data.

    Building something harder than it looks?

    Open to Principal and Lead Product Design roles, in Dubai or remote.

    umairyahya48@gmail.com

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