Point to a deer and call it a horse

︎by Pete Lacey, Head of Design




Humans love to categorise things. It helps us understand the world, keep our brains organised.

Pleo often gets thrown in with the “fintech” (a mash-up of the word Finance and Technology) crowd - on the surface it makes sense, a lot of the service we provide deals with money.

But money, or buying things, in of itself – is really not that interesting. It represents a means to an end. The thing I’m buying is more interesting; what it enables me to do now I have it. In Pleo’s case, the fact I’m trusted and empowered enough to buy it myself is the gamechanger – as most people are not given this trust.

But, when it comes to design, as soon as you accept your category, you find yourself suffocated by it.

Unable to break free of a world of fintech fluff.

Faster cross border payments, reduced fees, favourable credit terms, API integrations, export logs. The tool itself becomes the sole focus of your creative work, not the power your tool unlocks. This manifests itself in shots of interfaces, buttons, abstract representations of data flows. A fine way to represent what is under the hood, but instils no excitement, no emotion, no purpose.

Pleo is about bringing power to your people. Giving them the power to buy the shit they need for work without all the hassle, and get straight to using it. That’s a great feeling. The tool will constantly evolve and change a lot. The feeling it brings people likely won’t. Focus on that feeling.

Pleo is a people product, not finance.