Carl Fairclough
I led product design across research, interface design and front-end delivery for an identity category with few established interaction patterns.

Could portable identity become infrastructure people would use?

I used product data and focused community experiments to move Disco from an overly broad consumer proposition towards organisation- and API-backed credential issuance.

Credentials analysed
167,737

Non-self-issued credentials

Issuer identifiers
837

Unique issuers in the analysed dataset

North-star measure
2×

Total credential issuance within four months

  1. 1Broad consumer product
  2. 2In-community tests
  3. 3Organisation issuance
  4. 4Developer platform

Product analysis · 2022–2023. The dataset excludes self-issued credentials so the product shift could be evaluated through organisation and partner activity.

Product analysis and focused community experiments gave the repositioning a measurable foundation rather than relying on a category-level vision.

Could issuance work without brittle third-party storage?

Testing showed that removing the required storage login improved completion without damaging adoption. That evidence supported a more reliable profile and issuance architecture.

Required dependency
Removed

Third-party storage no longer blocked completion

Profile model
DID:WEB

A simpler, domain-backed identity foundation

Issuance model
API

Backed by organisations rather than one consumer app

  1. 1Map the drop-off
  2. 2Remove required login
  3. 3Migrate profiles
  4. 4Open organisation API

Product and architecture migration · 2022–2023. Completion improved without an observed loss in adoption; no unsupported causal percentage is claimed.

The architecture moved from a required third-party storage dependency to DID:WEB profiles and organisation-backed API issuance.
I moved the proposition away from one universal consumer app and towards focused experiments that made portable credentials easier to understand.
The in-person connection experiment gave people one recognisable credential use case; partners subsequently built NFC experiences on the platform.

Disco.xyz work by Carl Fairclough

Research showed that people trusted credentials issued by recognised organisations more than self-attestation, shaping the business-facing issuance platform. Total issuance doubled within four months.

What changed following the architecture and API migration?

Across equal 53-day comparison windows, issuance, issuer participation, and recipient reach all increased. Campaigns, events, and interface-driven issuance also contributed.

Credential issuance
10.6×

Across equal 53-day windows

Active issuers
+49%

New issuers increased 67%

Recipient reach
4,246%

391 → 16,993 unique recipients

  1. 153 days before
  2. 2Architecture + API migration
  3. 353 days after
  4. 4Like-for-like comparison

Non-self-issued credential activity across equal-length windows. These increases followed the migration; they are not attributed to the migration alone.

Following the architecture and API migration, credential issuance, issuer participation and recipient reach increased across equal 53-day comparison windows.