AI Growth Tools · Dashboard
SurgeFX
Issuer growth teams were running on SQL pulls and gut feel. SurgeFX replaced that with a real-time portfolio cockpit - AI-assisted, validated with 8 usability sessions, endorsed by C-suite.
Overview
SurgeFX is Falcon's AI growth layer - a unified issuer cockpit that replaces ad-hoc SQL pulls and Excel cohorts with real-time portfolio signals, campaign simulation, and AI-assisted decision-making. SurgeFX is deployed at KVB and expanding to all Falcon clients.
The problem
Issuer growth teams were stitching together raw SQL pulls, Excel cohorts, and gut feel. There was no single surface to see portfolio health, simulate a campaign, or act on it without engineering tickets.
Approach
- 01
Map the lifecycle
Interviewed 6 issuer growth managers across card, prepaid, and CLOU verticals. The product needed to be where the decision happens, not a reporting layer downstream from it.
- 02
A modular cockpit
Designed a dashboard pattern that scales from a 5-tile portfolio health view to a deep simulator without forking layouts.
- 03
AI Copilot, grounded
Co-designed natural-language prompts grounded in portfolio data with editable, auditable outputs - never a black box.
- 04
Validate, iterate, ship
8 moderated sessions with growth managers. Iterated on density, decision flow, and the speed of the most common path.
Highlights
Decisions and tradeoffs
- •Put the tool where the decision happens rather than building a reporting layer downstream of it.
- •One modular cockpit that scales from a five-tile health view to a deep simulator, instead of separate dashboards per use case.
- •AI outputs kept editable and auditable - a grounded assistant, never an unexplained recommendation.
- •Tradeoff: higher information density than a general-purpose dashboard, tuned for daily users rather than first-time visitors.
What I got wrong
The first Copilot concept answered in prose. Growth managers wanted the cohort, not the paragraph. I moved the answer into an editable cohort object with the reasoning underneath, and usage in testing shifted from reading to acting.
Measurable impact
Business outcomes
- •Shipped as Falcon's flagship AI product, live in production at KVB
- •Expansion to all Falcon clients underway
- •Presented at Global Fintech Fest 2025 as a live product, not a concept
Design outcomes
- •8 moderated sessions with issuer growth managers
- •6 interviews mapping the growth decision lifecycle
- •One cockpit pattern serving six verticals without forking layouts
Outcome
Shipped as Falcon's flagship AI product. Live in production at KVB with expansion to all clients underway. Presented at Global Fintech Fest 2025 to 80,000+ attendees as a live product, not a concept.