New Year's Promo
Product Design · Monetization · Mobile + Web
$83M revenue in 2025 (+45.6 YoY) · $57M revenue in 2024 (+43 YoY)
Lead designer for Duolingo's largest monetization event, two years in a row.
Context
I led design across subscription messaging and purchase flows during Duolingo’s highest-traffic moment of the year, balancing urgency, brand personality, and long-term user trust at massive scale.
Timeframe
6 months (July - Dec 2025)
Project structure
2 months
Design and Ideation
3 months
Building and QA
2 weeks
Run A/B tests
Dec 27
Launch winners
Modular ad variety
Using our world characters in 12 rotating promo variants reduced fatigue and drove Duolingo’s largest NYP experiment win.
Outcomes
$6M incremental revenue
Largest NYP win ever (3X prior best)
Family plan made prominent
Utilizing New Year’s association with family and friends, we gave more visibility to Family Plan instead of hiding it under “View all plans.”
Outcomes
Family plan was a major win
2027 to focus heavily on Family plan
Live Activity urgency
In the final hours of the promo, we tested a Live Activity with a persistent countdown to reinforce urgency near the deadline.
Outcomes
$3.6M incremental revenue
Sunset after App Store guidelines update
Where we pulled back?
Not to use excessive urgency
Protected sacred surfaces
Prioritized clarity over novelty
