Content design for product onboarding in IT management and procurement SaaS
PROBLEM
During product onboarding, many clients were skipping steps and leaving their company information and preferences incomplete. This created a challenge for account managers and the operations team, as they had to reach out to clients for to provide the missing information, leading to delays in accessing our product and services.
ROLE
Content designer and Researcher
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Using key research findings, I determined the changes needed in the overall information architecture of the onboarding flow.
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In collaboration with the lead designer, we redesigned the onboarding flow to improve our client’s first-time product experience with stakeholder needs in mind.
STAKEHOLDERS
Operations department and account managers
RESEARCH
To understand the most valuable information gathered from the onboarding flow, I conducted interviews with account managers and operations managers, focussing on the following questions:
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What are the most important details clients should provide when completing their company profile?
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Which details are less critical for your team during onboarding?
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Which details are frequently left incomplete by clients?
Additionally, I researched best practices for onboarding content design, focusing on:
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Crafting clear and concise instructions that avoid unnecessary complexity.
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Using conversational UX writing to create a more engaging experience throughout each step.
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Emphasizing the value of completing each step to keep users motivated.
CONTENT AUDIT
I conducted a content audit on the existing onboarding flow to determine areas of improvement with considerations from stakeholder input and content design best practices for onboarding and forms. Notable opportunities included:
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Simplifying the onboarding flow by reducing the number of steps and creating a smaller progress indicator
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Indicating required fields within forms to guide users efficiently
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Providing clearer instruction or descriptions of desired information
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Providing context and guidance by utilizing placeholder fields
The following mockup is the first page out of an eight-part onboarding flow:
THE USER
In the onboarding flow, the account owner—who may be a CEO, IT manager, or another role—completes the initial setup. Recognizing that the owner's role may vary, most fields should be optional, allowing flexibility if they don’t have all information readily available. Owners can invite manager roles to complete any remaining company details later. Having flexibility allows for a smoother initial onboarding process without delays.
REWRITE AND REDESIGN
Using insights from the user profile and stakeholders, we identified which pieces of information were essential for clients to provide during onboarding and prioritized them accordingly. We also pinpointed fields that were frequently left incomplete, leading to drop-offs, and removed these from the initial onboarding flow to reduce friction.
We redesigned the flow from 8 pages with one or two question per page to 3 pages, each containing a short form. Working closely with the lead designer, I categorized the required information into these three forms, one for company, employee, and device information, ensuring a more efficient and user-friendly onboarding process.
The following mockup is of the first page of the three page onboarding with the following content design updates:
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RESULTS
The operations department and account managers reported that newly onboarded accounts have provided important information during the onboarding process. As more clients have been onboarded, the operations team now spends less time reaching out to account managers to communicate with the clients for missing information, and are now able to start fulfilling the clients’ first orders faster.