Project background
We connect homeowners with service professionals. Pros sign up to receive paid job leads and control their preferences—service areas, job types, and lead spending limits.
The Sign Up Problem
The initial sign up process was lengthy and fragmented, and relied on sales assistance to complete.
Business & user pain points
11 days: The average amount of days it took for users to become active from first visit to website.
45% drop off rate when users were asked to schedule calls. 25% after initial sales conversation.
$847 average cost of account manager set up and sales time.
Initial sign up flow required talking with sales.
The challenge:
Design a comprehensive, self-service sign-up flow that guides users through the essential steps to start receiving leads.
The solution:
A multi-step sign up flow that reduced operating costs, decreased time to sign up and improved sign up completion.
Design process and approach
How did we arrive at the solution? I followed a design process that involved collaborating with product managers and stakeholders, conducting research and prototype testing with users.
Project goals
High level goals & success metrics
Increase user activation. Streamline a sign up process where users can become active and start receiving leads quickly.
Reduce operating costs. Decrease dependency on sales personnel to sign up users.
Improve user satisfaction retention. Eliminate the current frustrating and fragmented sign up process.
User research
Understanding user needs, wants, and pain points.
I needed to conduct research to understand the users needs and pain points. Not only did I interview service providers, I also interviewed our sales and account managers who speak with users daily.
Interview insights
“Scheduling calls during my work hours is nearly impossible”
-Home Service Professional
“I need to understand exactly what I'm signing up for before committing time”
-Home Service Professional
“The most common question pros ask is about how job leads work and what they pay for”
-Account team member
More research findings
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Abandonment Points: 45% dropped off when asked to schedule calls, 25% after initial sales conversation
Completion Time: Average 11 days from first visit to active status
Cost Analysis: $340 in sales time + $507 in account management setup = $847 per signup
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80% of sales calls were basic information gathering, not true selling
Most common questions were about pricing, service areas, and lead quality
Professionals often came to calls unprepared or with unrealistic expectations
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I conducted an in-depth competitive analysis. Since many of our users have used or currently use our competitors, it was important to learn what our competitors offer and their strengths and weaknesses.
Additionally, to create a usable feature we want to use language and processes the user is already familiar with.
Findings:
Most competitors use a multi-step sign up process.
Have the option to save and finish later for flexibility.
Competitors show value by giving users a preview of the product and leads.
Key insights
Simplify steps
Rather than overwhelm users with a lengthy sign up process, I narrowed down the 3 things a user needed to complete to become active.
Be flexible
Allow users to complete sign up at their own pace. Our users are have busy schedules.
Show value
It might seem obvious, but in order to reassure and motivate users to complete sign up, we needed to highlight the value of our product. Our product’s pricing model and free sign up were two features that appeal to our users.
Educate & inform the user
Based on feedback from our account managers, users were often confused about how our product pricing and how it works.
Discovery & Strategy
Keeping it Simple
I collaborated with a product manager to analyze research and ideate user flows.
We presented research findings and initial sketches to stakeholders. Stakeholders expressed concerns about the scope of the project.
We narrowed down our design and focused on the key steps a user needed to complete in order to become active.
“Make it work”
My initial sign up experience was out of engineering scope. I was inspired by Tim Gunn and his famous words of wisdom, “Make it work”.
To supplement the experience, I found a low-code onboarding tool to provide context and education for our users. After exploring various tools I decided to use UserPilot. The tool allowed us to supplement onboarding by create tooltips, guide users through onboarding and track metrics and goals without replying of engineer support.
Prototype & Test
I conducted usability tests with a diverse group of users to identify potential issues and gather feedback.
After testing and stakeholder feedback, I iterated on the design based on test results to enhance usability and clarity.
Changes that were made based on feedback was the order of onboarding steps, and a preference for including a visual of the map.
Results: Final Designs
A Complete sign up
Before Users were required to talk to a sales team member on the phone to sign up and become active.
After redesign Users can complete sign up and become an active user without sales assistance.
Research-informed design decisions
Educating users
During the sign up process, we included screens educating the user. Later in the process, we explain how the product works.
Showing value
To encourage sign ups, we highlighted the value of our product. Showing leads and the availability of jobs appeal to our users.
Results
Sign up success and user satisfaction
We released the new sign up feature to all users. Self sign up has proven to be a successful project and has received positive feedback from internal teams and users. Metrics and KPIs have reflected this success.
The sign up time for users reduced significantly. Previously, completing user sign up took an average of 7-14 days to get their first lead. With Self Sign Up a user can complete sign up in minutes.
The redesigned sign up flow has resulted in $2.1M Annual Cost Savings by reducing sales and account management overhead.
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+270% lift in sign up completion
With more robust onboarding educaton and efficient sign up, users were able to gain value from the product faster.
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Reduced sign up time
Previously, completing user sign up took on average 11 days to become active. With the new sign up flow a user can become active on the platform in minutes.
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Lower operating costs.
$847 → $340 (-60% reduction) in operating costs since users were no longer required to speak with a member of our sales team.
Learnings
This project provided a valuable opportunity for me to lead the entire design process, from ideation and research to the implementation of the final design.
On a personal level, I frequently reminded myself to be flexible and not become too attached to my designs.
Working in a small team necessitated creative solutions, such as finding a no-code tool to assist with onboarding, which enabled us to launch the product faster. Maintaining a simple onboarding process proved highly effective. Our users successfullly completed sign up in a timely manner and our support team were able to focus on customer-support tasks.