Introducing onboarding earlier in the user journey to personalise the experience sooner, guide users toward relevant employers, and drive a significant uplift in employer follows.
Role Lead Product Designer
Year 2025
Tools Figma · Hotjar · Jira
Overview
The challenge
This project centred on designing the onboarding experience for new account creation, with a clear objective: double monthly employer follows. Previously, sign-up prompts only appeared at high-intent moments, which led to low awareness of the benefits of following employers, slower personalisation, and weaker repeat engagement.
Research
Two critical blockers
Through early research, I discovered two critical blockers hurting WORK180's growth. These weren't just UX issues, they were business problems directly impacting follower growth.
Blocker 1
No onboarding
Our business goal was to increase followers, but research made it clear how confusing that journey was. Users were prompted to log in at high-intent moments, with no guidance or context, leaving users with low awareness of the value of following employers and no path to personalisation.
Blocker 2
No explanation of value
There was no real explanation of what following an employer would do, or how WORK180 differs from a regular jobs board. Introducing onboarding would let us guide users and give them a clear understanding of how to get the most from their account and also prompt them to start following employers that matched what they we're looking for.
Process
How I approached it
As the Lead Designer, I led the redesign from discovery through to implementation, collaborating closely with Product, Engineering, Marketing, and our DEI advisory team.
Discovery
Used insights from Hotjar recordings, surveys, past research, and support data to identify why users weren't following employers earlier in their journey.
Design Workshops
Facilitated cross-functional sessions to identify opportunities and define high-impact, low-effort solutions.
User Flows & Wireframes
Mapped simplified journeys that introduced onboarding earlier and guided users toward following relevant employers.
UI Design
Created a clean, accessible, responsive design using WORK180's design system, highlighting employer recommendations and reinforcing the value of following.
Collaboration & QA
Worked closely with engineering to ensure smooth implementation, QA, and launch readiness.
Content Review
Refined onboarding copy to clearly communicate the benefits of follows and drive action.
Onboarding components
Scroll to explore
Outcome and impact
What I delivered
The onboarding experience directly delivered against its primary goal. Employer follows per month doubled immediately after launch and have continued to grow over time. Users are now engaging earlier in their journey and following employers that match their needs.
↑ Up from 323
0
Avg employer follows per month post-launch
Before onboarding: 323/month
↑ Up from 78
0
Avg new unique employer follows per month
Before onboarding: 78/month
↑ Growth
0x
Increase in monthly employer follows
Doubled immediately after launch
Next steps
Continuous iteration
Using ongoing behavioural data and user feedback to further improve follow conversion rates, while refining the mobile onboarding experience to reduce friction and drive stronger engagement.
