SquadStack helps large businesses manage their call centres. We provide trained telecallers who work from home, making it easy for companies to handle customer calls.
This means telecallers can earn money working remotely. But, our old onboarding process was confusing and made people quit before they even started. We even had to rely on giving them money for each step they completed, just to get them through it!
To fix this, we redesigned the entire experience. This case study shows how we used a human-centred approach to make onboarding smoother and more engaging, which helped build trust, lower costs, and get more telecallers to join our platform. I'll explain the steps we took, the challenges we faced, and what we learned along the way.
I led the end-to-end redesign of the onboarding flow. I identified key user pain points, conducted user research, and synthesized insights to drive impactful design solutions. I collaborated closely with product, development, and marketing teams to ensure a cohesive, user-centred experience from concept to launch.
The primary objectives of the onboarding revamp were to create a streamlined, engaging, and trustworthy experience that encourages telecallers to complete the process with confidence and clarity. The goals were as follows:
Check out the Detailed Design process here
We focused on identifying key user pain points to inform the redesign. Starting with a heuristic evaluation, I noted usability issues and then conducted user research with participants from our target demographic: Tier 2 and Tier 3 individuals seeking remote work, like work-from-home moms and telecallers.
Using affinity mapping, we synthesized insights and uncovered six major pain points:
These insights shaped a redesign aimed at making onboarding simpler, more trustworthy, and engaging.
The ideation process involved brainstorming sessions, using mind mapping and sketching techniques. Key concepts explored included:
In the Ideation and Concept Development phase, we focused on creating solutions to address the identified pain points. We conducted a competitor analysis of direct and indirect players in the gig economy, like Zomato and Uber, which inspired several ideas to enhance user experience.
Using the Crazy Eight brainstorming method, our team sketched innovative concepts, including:
Video-Based Guidance: A tutorial video to clarify the onboarding process.
Progressive Disclosure: A step-by-step guide to simplify the user journey.
These ideas were translated into initial wireframes. Given our tight timeline, design and development occurred simultaneously. I delivered UI assets in stages, allowing developers to start working while I finished other segments. This approach helped us maintain momentum and significantly reduced our time to market. Meanwhile, the marketing team prepared user-facing videos and campaign materials to support the revamped onboarding process.
In this section, we will explore the key challenges faced during the onboarding process and the tailored solutions we implemented. Each challenge is paired with design decisions that not only address user pain points but also leverage psychological principles to enhance user engagement and retention. By aligning our design rationale with these insights, we aimed to create a seamless experience that resonates with users and encourages them to complete the onboarding journey.
⚠️ Original Issue: The initial onboarding lacked clarity and engagement, leaving users uncertain about the app’s purpose and value, with no clear visual or verbal guidance.
💡 Changes Made: Redesigned onboarding screens introduced the platform as a trusted tele-sales opportunity, with a relatable Indian telecaller image. Top brand logos and testimonials added credibility. An introductory video followed, explaining each onboarding step before asking for a phone number, setting expectations transparently.
🧠 Rationale: The aim was to build trust, communicate the app’s value, and reduce drop-off. The friendly visuals, clear messaging, and introductory video created a welcoming, trustworthy experience.
🧘 Psychological Principles leveraged:
1. Aesthetic Usability: Appealing visuals and familiar brands improved first impressions.
2. Priming: Brand logos and testimonials built positive associations from the start.
3. Social Proof: User testimonials provided validation and reduced skepticism.
4.Curiosity Gap: The video engaged users by addressing questions before moving forward.
5. Singularity Effect: A single narrator in the video created a personal, memorable feel, as if guiding each user individually.
🚀 Outcomes: These improvements led to fewer drop-offs, with users reporting a clearer, more reassuring onboarding experience that made them feel confident in continuing.
⚠️ Original Issue: The initial profile creation relied on a JotForm-based interface, which was clunky and had numerous usability issues. This setup frustrated users, increasing drop-off rates as they found the interface cumbersome and disengaging.
💡 Changes Made: I advocated moving away from JotForm, persuading leadership and developers to build a native profile creation flow within the app. This allowed for a cleaner design with larger input fields, better alignment, and smoother interactions.
🧠 Rationale: By moving the process in-house, we achieved greater control over the interface's aesthetics and usability, making it more intuitive and visually engaging. This helped minimize cognitive friction and improved the overall user experience.
🧘 Psychological Principles leveraged:
1. Goal Gradient Effect: Progress indicators motivated users as they approached completion, encouraging them to finish.
2. Aesthetic Usability: The redesigned interface, with simplified visuals and larger input fields, reduced user frustration and increased ease of use.
3. Zeigarnik Effect: Visible progress indicators subtly reminded users of their unfinished task, reinforcing their commitment to complete the profile.
🚀 Outcomes: Profile completion time was reduced from over 4.5mins to 55secs. Drop-off rates decreased significantly, from 70% to 10%, reflecting improved engagement and user satisfaction with the streamlined, visually appealing design.
⚠️ Original Issue: The progress indicator screen previously overwhelmed users with a long list of steps, including profile creation and introduction to the Squadstack video, leading to confusion and uncertainty.
💡 Changes Made: The hinge screen (since this acts as a hinge between various steps) now serves as a clear progress indicator, displaying three major onboarding steps:
1. First Step: Assssments (which includes profile creation, grammar assessment, and speech assessment).
2. Second Step: Phone Interview (including the EKYC verification).
3. Third Step: Shortlisting (covering industry training and company selection). Each minor step is shown under its respective major step, with completed steps marked, simplifying the user's journey.
🧠 Rationale: By consolidating the onboarding into major and minor steps, users can focus on one task at a time while clearly seeing their progress, which builds confidence in completing the process.
🧘 Psychological Principles leveraged:
1. Chunking: Information on the hinge screen is organized into manageable sections, reducing cognitive load and helping users focus on essential details.
2. Progressive Disclosure: We only reveal relevant information upfront, reducing clutter and guiding users through the process step-by-step.
3. Goal-Gradient Effect: Showing the first step as complete leverages the goal-gradient effect, motivating users to stay engaged and complete the remaining steps.
4. Framing: The hinge screen highlights the completed profile step, framing it as a positive milestone and building users’ sense of accomplishment, keeping them encouraged.
🚀 Outcomes: Users experienced improved clarity about their progress, leading to higher engagement and lower drop-off rates throughout the onboarding process.
⚠️ Original Issue: Both assessments previously caused frustration due to a lack of clarity and guidance, leaving users feeling unprepared and anxious.
💡 Changes Made: We introduced a guide video before each assessment, presented by the same person from the onboarding video, clearly outlining user expectations. A "Things to Remember" screen follows the guide, ensuring users are well-informed. We also transitioned from the clunky JotForm interface to a streamlined in-house design for better usability.
🧠 Rationale: The goal was to reduce user anxiety by providing clear instructions and expectations. Enhancing the interface improved aesthetic usability and navigation.
Initially, we considered integrating Pearson's speech model, as it offered a seamless experience. However, we decided against it due to potential increases in customer acquisition cost (CAC) and opted to develop our own speech model instead.
🧘 Psychological Principles leveraged:
1. Information Seeking: Providing users with clear information and guidance reduces uncertainty, making them feel more engaged and confident.
2. Feedback Loop: Users receive instant feedback during the assessment, reinforcing them to move to the next question quickly.
3. Zeigarnik Effect: By presenting users with an unfinished task, we motivate them to complete the assessment.
🚀 Outcomes: These enhancements led to improved user confidence, increased completion rates, and a more positive overall experience.
The ⚠️ issues, 💡 changes made, 🧠 rationale & 🧘 phycology principles used here were similar to what we did in the profile creation step, we simply addressed the existing usability issues.
🚀 Outcomes: The personal interview completion rate surged form 60% to 100% - We've observed all the users are serious about this job opportunity so all the users who had scheduled their phone interviews were found to attend their interviews.
⚠️ Original Issue: Users were uncertain about the eKYC process and its requirements, and many lacked trust in sharing sensitive information like Aadhar and PAN.
💡 Changes Made: A guide video was added to explain the necessary documents and what to expect during eKYC. The integration with the third-party app, Idify, remained the same.
🧘 Psychological Principles leveraged:
1. Loss Aversion Effect: Users who got selected in the interview felt more invested in this job opportunity, motivating them to complete the eKYC process.
2. Personal Touch: Interaction with interviewers increased users' confidence in providing their information.
3. Clarity: Keeping users informed through the guide video reduced anxiety and confusion.
🚀 Outcomes: The enhancements led to a smoother eKYC process, as users felt prepared and supported, ultimately increasing their willingness to share sensitive information.
⚠️ Original Issue: Previously, industry training was placed before the phone interview, which led to significant drop-offs. Users were required to complete lengthy, generalized training content and assessments for multiple industries, making it feel impersonal and overwhelming.
💡 Changes Made: We strategically moved the industry training step to after the phone interview and eKYC, allowing users to build a commitment to the onboarding process before reaching this stage. Users now first select a specific industry, where they see information about potential earnings and top brands within that industry, which builds trust and excitement. They’re then shown only the relevant training content, followed by an assessment.
🧘 Psychological Principles leveraged:
1. Sunk Cost Effect: By placing industry training after phone interviews and eKYC, we capitalize on the time and effort users have already invested. This placement helps keep them engaged, as they’re now more likely to continue rather than abandon the process.
2. Priming: Presenting potential earnings and reputable brands in each industry primes users with positive expectations, making them more motivated to proceed with training and assessments.
3. Curiosity Gap: A guide video introduces industry-specific insights, sparking curiosity and drawing users into the training content.
4. Progressive Disclosure: The training and assessment content is shown in segments, keeping users focused on one module at a time.
🚀 Outcomes: This approach has led to significantly higher completion rates for industry training and assessments. By moving the training step later in the flow, we’re able to leverage better the investment users have already made in the process, helping them stay motivated to complete their onboarding.
⚠️ Original Issue: The company selection and onboarding process was chaotic, reliant on agents (happened outside our app), and lacked clarity about the subsequent training, leading to significant drop-offs and increased customer acquisition costs.
💡 Changes Made:
1. A guide video is introduced at the start, clearly outlining the expectations and details of the upcoming seven-day training, ensuring users are well-informed.
2. In-app company selection presents companies with training dates and expected earnings prominently, providing essential information upfront.
3. Users can click on a selected company to view a detailed earnings breakdown and required working hours, enabling informed decision-making.
4. An acknowledgment checkbox reinforces user commitment to attend the mandatory training, emphasizing the importance of participation.
5. After selection, users receive a final video detailing the training program, alongside notifications and personal follow-ups from agents.
🧘 Psychological Principles leveraged:
1. Commitment and Consistency: The acknowledgment checkbox encourages users to commit actively, increasing their likelihood of following through.
2. Loss Aversion: Highlighting the consequences of missing the training motivates users to complete the onboarding process.
3. Personalization and Trust: Personal calls from inhouse agent from squadstack foster a supportive environment, enhancing user trust.
🚀 Outcomes: The streamlined process has significantly reduced drop-offs, as users feel informed and engaged, leading to higher attendance rates for the training. This clarity and personal touch have resulted in users confidently committing to the onboarding process.
Additionally, a parallel effort by another team to reduce the two-week training into one week, combined with these changes, has dramatically decreased the overall time to integrate with the company from three weeks to just one week, cutting the onboarding time to one-third.
This enhancement is a significant improvement for both users and the organization, ultimately lowering customer acquisition costs and increasing efficiency in the onboarding process.
The redesigned onboarding flow was launched successfully. The key metrics showed a significant improvement:
Qualitative Impact:
1. Addressing Pain Points: Users noted that the redesign effectively addressed the six main pain points identified earlier. The onboarding flow felt less overwhelming and more straightforward.
2. Video and Content Delivery: Users highlighted the positive impact of the video instructions at each step. However, some feedback pointed out issues with internet connectivity affecting their experience with video playback.
3. Speech Assessment: Several users provided insights about the speech assessment, suggesting improvements that could be implemented in collaboration with the data science team to enhance accuracy and user experience.
Quantitative Impact:
1. Dropout rates during profile creation decreased from 70% to just 10%
2. The average time to complete the profile creation step was reduced from 4.5 minutes to just 55 seconds. (80% reduction in time in profile creation)
3. Overall onboarding completion time, previously taking up to 1 hour 15 minutes, is now streamlined to less than 30 minutes. (60% reduction in overall time taken)
4. CES scores improved notably across onboarding, averaging 6 out of 7 compared to the initial 3 out of 7, where 7 indicates the easiest experience and 1 the hardest.
Business Impact:
1. Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC): The CAC was reduced from ₹10,000 to ₹2,700 (75% percent decrease in CAC)
2. Enhanced Customer Integration: The integration time with companies decreased from three weeks to just one week, streamlining operations and improving overall efficiency. (67% reduction in Customer Integration time)
3. Reduced Supply fulfilment time from 3 days to 4 hours. (95% reduction in supply fulfilment time)
This project was a testament to what’s possible when a team comes together under pressure with a shared mission. It was incredibly fulfilling to see how our efforts not only rescued the company from a financial crisis but also positively impacted the lives of so many individuals in tier 2 and 3 cities. The experience reinforced my belief in the power of user-centred design and its ability to drive meaningful business and social outcomes.
Moving forward, I’ll continue to prioritize user trust and leverage psychological insights in my designs. This project has profoundly shaped my approach to problem-solving and collaboration, lessons that I will carry into all future endeavours.
More resources:
Link to prototype
Prototype video
