Money Canvas
I created Money Canvas’ first bilingual content system — unifying voice, translation rules, and localization patterns across the English and Spanish product experience.
Overview
Money Canvas is a three-session financial coaching program supported by a web app. When I joined, the English experience was mature, but the Spanish version was fragmented, inconsistent, and misaligned with the coaching model.
I was hired to fix that. I built Money Canvas’ first fully bilingual content system — a framework that would bring clarity, cultural resonance, and emotional safety to Spanish-speaking users across the U.S.
Over two months, I delivered an end-to-end content system that included a localization framework, translation rules, tone guidelines, UI patterns, a terminology model, quality checklists, and an AI-assistive layer using Copilot to scale consistent content across teams.
1. Problem framing
The Spanish experience had grown reactively across several teams — Product, Growth, Multicultural, and Session Experience — resulting in:
Literal translations that sounded robotic
Tone mismatches (too formal, too vague, or emotionally disconnected)
Spanish microcopy forced into English UI constraints
Inconsistent terminology
Experience Guides written in English, translated, then adapted again by coaches
Growth assets (emails, SMS, intake flow) not aligned with the coaching voice
The lack of a unified system undermined clarity, trust, cultural relevance, and the coaching experience itself.
We needed one bilingual model that could support accuracy, emotional safety, and scalability across every touchpoint.
2. Research: What we learned
1.Spanish audit (Product + Growth + Multicultural content)
I audited the existing Spanish content and found:
Literal translations: robotic, unnatural Spanish
Microcopy losing relational cues
Tone inconsistencies across sessions
Financial terminology overly formal or unclear
Labels misaligned with user emotional state (stress, uncertainty)
Fragmentation between teams creating conflicting patterns
2. Coaching team interviews
I spoke with Spanish-speaking coaches to understand how copy lands in real conversations.
Spanish-speaking users value explicit confirmation, not implied meaning
Emotional reassurance is culturally essential
Hyper-short English microcopy often can't be translated 1:1
Coaches rely on natural, spoken Spanish to maintain flow
Users respond better to gentle, relational phrasing vs. direct imperatives
3. Undercover session assessment (field validation with coach)
To validate the experience in the field, I joined undercover sessions led by one of coaches on the team.
This ensured the Spanish content system aligned not just with linguistic correctness, but with the real coaching experience Money Canvas promises: clarity, empathy, and trustworthy guidance.
What I evaluated:
How concepts are delivered verbally vs. in writing
Whether Spanish prompts support real-time conversation
How users react to visuals, labels, and explanations
Where Spanish content created confusion or emotional friction
How coaches naturally adapt phrasing when text feels literal or stiff
The moments where Spanish users need extra context to feel safe and informed
What I learned:
The coaching model is strong—but Spanish copy often lacks the warmth and clarity coaches deliver verbally
UI labels and Concept Cards must reduce cognitive load, not create it
Prompts must sound spoken and relational
Trust is built through clarity + reassurance, especially around money
Coaches instinctively "fix" the Spanish; the product shouldn't depend on improvisation
3. Cross-functional alignment
To ensure the system worked for both real users and internal teams, I worked closely with:
Coaches → validating tone, emotional resonance, and clarity
Multicultural Experience team → linguistic alignment + pan-Latam strategy
Growth team → reviewing existing brand copy and history, reviewing and defining brand voice and tone
Design & PM → UI constraints, pattern definition, content object taxonomy
Engineering → feasibility for scalable content + Copilot integration + CMS optimization
I built the system around four strategic pillars:
1. Intent → What this copy must achieve
Clear user action? Reinforcement? Teaching? Emotional grounding?
2. Emotion → How it should feel in Spanish
Warm, calm, direct but not cold; relational without excess formality.
3. Cultural Alignment → How Spanish speakers naturally express these ideas
Avoiding literalism, calques, formal drift, or regional idioms.
4. Clarity & Simplicity → Removing noise
Plain language, no jargon, no unnecessary flourishes.
This framework became the foundation for all content guidelines, translation rules, and quality standards — ensuring every team had a shared reference point for creating Spanish content that felt clear, warm, and culturally aligned.
4. Strategy: A bilingual content system
Based on my research findings, the core issue became clear: there was no single source of truth for Spanish content. Teams were working in silos, translators lacked guidance, and content decisions were being made reactively without a unified framework.
What was needed was a bilingual content system that could standardize tone, terminology, and structure across all touchpoints — while giving translators, designers, and PMs the tools to create culturally resonant Spanish content with confidence.
5. Translation & localization framework (Core output)
To operationalize the four strategic pillars, I created a hybrid translation model with three levels of adaptation:
Literal translation → only when accuracy is critical
Cultural adaptation → adjusting phrasing for clarity and emotional safety
Light transcreation → when English structure doesn't transfer meaningfully
The framework included specific guidance on:
Avoiding calques and "English-shaped Spanish"
Detecting formality drift
Restoring natural grammar and cadence
Choosing relational phrasing appropriately
When not to translate (Do-Not-Translate list)
6. Content guidelines by type
I documented tone and structure expectations for each content type in the Money Canvas ecosystem:
Session UI labels — Prioritize clarity over brevity. Use verbs that match coaching intent. Avoid ambiguity or English-shaped nouns.
Concept cards — Plain language. Step-by-step teaching. Remove filler transitions.
Coaching prompts — Clear, guiding, emotionally supportive. Use relational phrasing validated by coaches. Avoid overly formal constructions.
Experience guides / script body — Natural spoken Spanish. Consistent emotional grounding. Align with coaching milestones.
Instruction notes — Procedural, concise, direct.
Growth touchpoints (intake form, email, landing) — Accessible. relational and encouraging. Clear next steps.
7. Terminology system & quality standards
I built a pan-Latam glossary with standardized financial terms, plain-language definitions, and guidance for translators and non-native writers. The Do-Not-Translate list clarified which product-specific terms should remain in English for consistency.
To support teams in maintaining quality at scale, I created practical tools: localization checklists, tone consistency rubrics, translator guidelines, common mistakes lists, and calque detection frameworks. Product, Growth, and Multicultural Experience teams could now self-review content without waiting for centralized approval.
8. AI-assistive layer: Scaling with Copilot
I designed an AI layer that sits on top of the bilingual framework, ensuring consistency even as teams scaled content production.
The deliverables included:
Prompts to generate Spanish drafts aligned with the framework
Prompts to detect tone, clarity, or cultural resonance mismatches
Prompts to identify literalism or calques
Content patterns for UI labels, concept cards, prompts, scripts, and messages
A review workflow for AI-generated content before publishing
This approach meant non-native speakers could create quality Spanish content, rework cycles shortened, and designers, PMs, and translators had a shared reference for decision-making. The AI layer became part of Thrivent's ongoing content operations.
9. Before & after: Seeing the transformation
Web app session
Original English version
❌ Literal Spanish. The translation feels robotic and unnatural.
✅ Culturally adapted translation.
Booking confirmation
Original English version
Translated version adapted to meet user expectations and needs
Session prompt
Original English version
Warm, relational, aligned with coaching voice
10. Impact
Though the project wrapped before long-term metrics were available, early signals showed the system was working—and more importantly, it was working for the people who needed it most.
For bilingual coaches:
Coaches reported feeling supported again. The resources they'd been asking for finally existed.
For users:
Spanish UI and scripts felt clearer and warmer. Coaches reported smoother delivery and fewer moments where they had to clarify or "fix" translations mid-session.
For teams:
The Growth team saw improved readability and alignment in conversion touchpoints. The Multicultural Experience team adopted the framework as their reference standard. Internal teams started using Copilot prompts to create consistent drafts faster, reducing the need for manual rewrites and tone corrections.
Thrivent now had a durable foundation for scaling Spanish content across new features, new markets, and future AI-assisted workflows.
11. Reflection & what's next
Content localization isn't just about translation. It requires cultural nuance, clarity, emotional safety, and scalable operations. But most importantly, it’s about creating systems that work for the people using them.
What this project taught me
Content design can shift organizational culture
When I started, Spanish content was treated as a product design task. By the time I left, it had become a cross-functional strategic function—adopted by Coaches, Multicultural Experience, and Growth teams.
Frameworks multiply impact beyond individual contributions.
I didn't write every piece of Spanish content. I built the system that let teams create quality content independently. That's what scales.
AI-assistive layers enable non-experts to do expert work.
The Copilot prompts I created meant designers and PMs could generate culturally resonant Spanish content without waiting for translators. That's operational leverage.
If the work had continued, I would have:
Expanded the glossary into a multilingual database
Integrated Copilot deeper into content creation workflows
Built UI patterns specifically optimized for Spanish text expansion
Run comprehension testing with Spanish-speaking users
Created training modules for internal teams