Nathan Thomas

I make document-heavy software make sense.

Senior product designer for lending, compliance, and operations teams. I turn messy, high-stakes workflows into something a small team can build and a nervous user can trust.

Available fractionally, for teams that need a senior designer before they can hire one full-time. Top 3% on Toptal.

What I do

Most of my work is the same job in a different industry. There's a workflow buried in documents and steps. People lose time, miss things, and don't trust the status. I map how the work actually happens, then turn it into one clear surface.

I've done this for loan origination, portfolio monitoring, construction lending, and clinical assessment. Anywhere a missed document or an unclear status costs real money or real harm, that's the work I'm good at.

I work best as the senior design voice in a small room: direct access to the people deciding, a mandate to fix the system, and room to push past the brief to the actual problem.

Featured work

Current · Fractional design lead, via Toptal

A construction-fintech platform: AI document analysis

Fractional design lead on a 0-to-1 product that reads construction-loan draw packages and surfaces what a reviewer needs to act. I own the core workflows end to end: I bring one or two directions with a recommendation, not a wall of options. Launching soon; full case study to follow.

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Provide / Fifth Third · shipped 2021, still in use

The side drawer

Loan agents lost about 30 seconds every time they opened a document, 20 to 40 times a day. I removed the navigation entirely and put the documents in a drawer beside the work. It shipped in 2021, spread across the platform, and the team still uses it every day. The PM calls it a legacy.

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How an engagement works

  1. Audit. I map your workflow and tell you where the friction actually is and what to fix first. Days, not weeks.
  2. Zero-to-one build. I design the product or feature from scratch, through to a buildable, documented handoff.
  3. Embedded fractional lead. I join your team as the senior designer: standups, reviews, decisions. The model my current client has used past their MVP into a second year.

The first two weeks: I learn the domain and watch how the work really happens before I touch a screen. You get a written read of where the problems are and a recommended first move. No big reveal at the end of a black box.

What people say

"Truly a game changer in the efficiency users have realized."

Manager, Provide (written performance review)

"Working with someone that cares is infectious and makes work easier."

Danny Oh, Product