Overview
Bill.com’s mobile onboarding flow was underperforming compared to desktop. While mobile was the most accessible acquisition channel, the experience was clunky, broken on smaller screens, and failed to showcase product value quickly.
Challenges & Problems
Customer Problem
Customers couldn’t try the product fast enough within the mobile onboarding flow. The long, confusing process caused frustration and high abandonment.
Business Problem
Low conversion: Only 20% of sign-ups came from mobile, with just 3% reaching Closed Won (vs. 12% on desktop).
High acquisition cost: Desktop acquisition was ~2.5× more expensive than mobile, but mobile wasn’t converting.
Missed opportunity: High-intent small businesses were dropping out before adoption.
My Role
Lead Product Designer
• Partnered with PM, 5 engineers, and Content Designer.
• Collaborated with stakeholders across legal, marketing, and product.
• Mentored and onboarded a new Onboarding Designer.
The Goal
How might we...
…help customers try out the product sooner in the mobile flow, so they can see if it works for them?
Data Insights
Mixpanel Data revealed:
• Many customers dropped off after MFA and email verification, especially on smaller viewports.
• Customers often failed to return after adding a bank account.
• Conversion was only 1.69% overall, with the steepest drop-offs at email verification and bank add.
Key Insights
• Mobile onboarding flow was verbose, designed with desktop in mind.
• UI was not optimized for small screens or accessibility.
• Customers lacked clarity on next steps and what was required to finish.
• Signing up via mobile web vs. app was inconsistent.
Personas
We identified different customer journeys:
• Advanced customers: via direct channel, accountant, or bank partner.
• Basic customers: via existing network invites.
• Each had unique friction points (bank setup, vendor setup, unclear starting points).
Scope
In Scope
Sign-up (marketing + product side), simplified business profile, overview screen.
Not in Scope
Bank add, Plaid setup, manual bank add.
Discovery
The Previous Experience
The onboarding flow was overwhelming and lengthy, with two separate trackers giving customers a false sense of progress. After finishing one tracker, users were forced into another with additional steps. This created frustration and abandonment before setup was complete.
Concept Mapping
We mapped the entire onboarding journey, highlighting pain points, gaps, and opportunities. This informed our UX recommendations.
Key focus areas:
• Accessibility issues and viewport limitations.
• Clearer hierarchy for task ordering.
• Reducing verbosity for mobile users.
• Ensuring consistency across mobile web and app.
Design Workshop
Facilitated a cross-functional design workshop with PMs, engineers, and designers.
• Shared user research and problem framing.
• Co-created solutions through sketching and mapping sessions.
• Aligned on prioritizing simplification and early product exposure.
Final Designs
I went through many design explorations and iterations to arrive at the final onboarding flow. Our focus was on reducing friction, surfacing value earlier, and creating a consistent experience across mobile and desktop.
Key improvements included:
Streamlined sign-up flow: Removed redundant steps and delayed non-essential information collection until after account setup.
Clear progress indicators: Designed a more transparent flow that gave users confidence about how many steps remained.
Consistent cross-platform experience: Mobile and desktop onboarding were aligned to avoid confusion when users switched devices mid-flow.
Accessibility and mobile-first adjustments: Redesigned forms and input fields to better fit smaller screens and comply with accessibility standards.
The final solution simplified the onboarding journey while enabling customers to reach “aha” moments faster — improving both user satisfaction and business conversion rates.
Site Map
Phase 2: Advanced One-Stop Shop
On June 1, 2021, Bill.com acquired Divvy, an expense management and business budgeting software. As a result, we needed to create a product that integrated both Bill.com and Divvy. Incorporating both products together was an immense effort. We updated the designs and flows based on the Divvy UI, ensuring consistency across products while keeping onboarding scalable for future growth.
Milestone 1 Contributions
• Unified Divvy’s onboarding flow with Bill.com’s, aligning design patterns, navigation, and visual style.
• Created a scalable “one-stop shop” onboarding experience where users could access AP, AR, Spend, and Expense Management.
• Partnered closely with PMs and engineers across both Divvy and Bill.com to balance technical feasibility with user experience.
Impact
This integration created a single, cohesive entry point for customers across Bill.com’s expanding product suite. It reduced duplication in setup steps, simplified onboarding across AP/AR and Spend/Expense, and positioned Bill.com as a unified financial operations platform.
Milestone 2 Contributions
• Extended the integration beyond AP to include AR and Spend.
• Designed scalable “one-stop shop” onboarding where customers could access all major Bill.com + Divvy products in one entry point.
• Balanced legal, technical, and design requirements while keeping flows lightweight and scalable.
Impact
• Reduced duplication in setup steps.
• Simplified onboarding across four product areas.
• Positioned Bill.com as a unified financial operations platform for the first time.
Design Explorations
We explored multiple onboarding design concepts before landing on the final version. A key point of debate was the CTA button color.
Marketing’s Preference: They wanted to keep the orange button for brand visibility.
Design/Accessibility Decision: We pushed for consistency with our design system and ADA compliance standards. The orange button didn’t meet accessibility contrast ratios, so we switched to the system-approved blue.
Outcome
• Achieved ADA compliance, ensuring accessibility for all users.
• Maintained visual consistency with Bill.com’s design system.
• Strengthened alignment between product design decisions and long-term usability standards, even when it required pushing back on stakeholder preferences.
Impact
• Mobile Closed Won sign-ups doubled from 3% → 6% after launch.
• 25% reduction in drop-offs at email verification and bank add steps.
• Cost-per-acquisition improved due to stronger mobile conversion.
• Increased customer satisfaction with simpler, clearer onboarding.
Reflection
• Learned the importance of balancing compliance with usability in financial products.
• Early product value exposure is critical — customers convert when they can “try before they buy.”
• Running collaborative workshops aligned teams quickly and built shared ownership.