Get Marlow

Elevating Onboarding

A B2B SaaS redesign ushered into a new era of trust and performance

The Problem Space

Get Marlow is a B2B SaaS company sought to optimize their onboarding process and assess the effectiveness of their marketing page and dashboard.

The goal

I needed to address key questions to inform improvements in the user experience, focusing on inspiration, engagement, and support.

I formulated the following questions to guide the process:

- How can Marlow Coaching inspire and captivate new and prospective members?

- How can Marlow Coaching encourage new members to fully engage during their first month?

- How can Marlow Coaching delight members and generate enthusiastic support for the platform in pilot locations?

By exploring these questions, I gathered valuable insights that informed targeted improvements to the user experience, ultimately enhancing member engagement and satisfaction.

Deliverables

Redesigned onboarding from sign-up to dashboard

- Captures the essence of the project (redesigning the onboarding process)

- Specifies the scope (from sign-up to dashboard)

- Implies the benefit (streamlining the user journey)

- Is more dynamic and action-oriented

Humanized the marketing landing page with new assets.

MEtrics

- Onboarding and sign-up rate

​ - Understanding the journey from sign-up to the first coaching session

my role

I led the redesign of the onboarding experience, streamlining the registration and sign-up process to create a seamless user journey. Crafted user-friendly flows, conducted stakeholder reviews, and validated designs through usability testing and customer interviews. 

My design process

Qualitative research​

Gather context from wide-ranging sources including:

- Marlow coaches

- Human resource decision-makers

- Competitors and current site

Interview professionals about key topics including: 

- How they define success

- What gets in their way

- How they approach growth

User voices

Listening:
Three current members, two prospective members, one former member
​
In 30 minute-interview with each participant, I asked similar questions to get a sense of how users describe their career goals and challenges. And how they view coaching as it relates to career development.

Synthesis

By grouping and sorting user goals, needs, motivations, and pain points I was able to see themes and opportunities.

Personas build empathy

I needed to enhance the understanding of members’ needs and motivations to improve the onboarding process.

My goal was to create personas that would provide clarity on members’ concerns and motivations, refining the approach to onboarding.

I developed personas that represent a blend of goals, motivations, needs, and pain points identified through research, each centered around a common career scenario. These personas helped to highlight themes and segments, which allowed for more efficient onboarding segmentation.

By using these personas, I was able to streamline the onboarding process and improve our understanding of the sign-up journey, leading to a more targeted and effective approach.

user journey shows context

Rachel is adjusting to her new role as a manager of four employees while also contributing individually to her team’s projects. To support her development, her manager encourages her to enroll in a coaching program. Although the start was somewhat challenging, Rachel quickly began to recognize the value of the coaching program.

High-level themes:

It’s exciting to uncover the issues and opportunities within the current user journey.

Several of these can be thoughtfully addressed through design. Three high-level themes are already emerging:

- Simplify and reduce friction

- Enhance clarity

- Increase opportunities for engagement to reinforce coaching and build momentum

The problem statement

Professionals taking on new challenges and opportunities need structured support to build on their strengths, further their skills and achieve their goals.

Design principles

  • Meaningful

    My investments of time and energy contribute to a larger vision. Every moment matters, and my experience with the product reaffirms this.

  • Rewarding

    I see my professional progress as a result of my engagement with Diamond. I know my efforts are visible to my company.

  • Structured

    I can see what I’m doing, what my status is, and what’s next. I trust there’s a clear structure underpinning every aspect of my experience.

Objectives

Gain insight from current onboarding experience:​

- Does the onboarding flow effectively help new users understand the values and features of Marlow?

- Does the onboarding experience motivate the new users to begin their coaching journey with Marlow?

- Does the onboarding experience help create the necessary information for the coach and the member to hit the ground running?

Process

Specific tasks and qualitative questions

Observe and listen to testers while they perform specific tasks:

- Create an account

- Answer onboarding questions

- Complete web app tour

- Use messenger 

Ask an open-ended question before, during, and after the tasks: 

- What do you think about this question and the options?

- What do you think about the onboarding sign-up experience?

- What do you think about the web app?

- Can you tell me what Marlow offers?

Opportunities

- Users need clarity on the onboarding process

- In its zero state, the dashboard is confusing and not very useful

- Coach mark tour at zero state is not as useful and sensible. Consider the best time for coach mark activation

Recommendations

Create an account

Pain point:

“It will be nice to see what you are signing up for when I am directed through a link.”

Proposed optimization:

- Add value prop

- Add terms and privacy link

- State clearly the program and rate

Onboarding list

Pain points:

“I would want to schedule a call now if the call is needed to start the coaching process.”

“Not clear which action I should do next?”

Proposed optimization:
After the tour, bring new users to the onboarding checklist to provide a clear view of the next steps in the onboarding process.

Research shows opportunity to revamp website

The comprehensive user research uncovered significant opportunities to improve the website's effectiveness. Key findings indicated that users struggled with clarity and felt a lack of personal connection. In response, I undertook a thorough revamp of the website, focusing on two primary areas:

Improved Clarity:

Restructured content and navigation to make information more accessible and understandable. This included simplifying complex language, creating more intuitive menu structures, and implementing clearer call-to-action elements.

Enhanced Humanization:

To address the lack of personal connection, I incorporated more relatable imagery, a video, and conversational tone in copy. I also introduced features that personalize the user experience based on individual needs and preferences.

Reflection

Key learnings from project:

- Value and trust are crucial from the start of user onboarding.

- Understand user needs and expectations before designing.

- Align product strategy with valuable features throughout the process.

- Segmentation during onboarding helps tailor the experience to different use cases.

- Focus on eliminating friction and maximizing simplicity.

Guiding Principle: Less is more - prioritize providing clear value at each step.