BrandDrive
Branddrive helps entrepreneurs and SMEs manage everything from invoicing, expenses, and payments to POS, online shops, and AI-driven insights. With the redesigned v2 onboarding, business owners can join faster, verify easily, and start running their operations without friction. Backed by powerful features and a simplified experience, Branddrive makes growing a business smarter, not harder.
The Product
Branddrive is an all-in-one management stack for businesses, offering tools like invoicing, expense management, AI-driven insights, online shops, POS, online payments, and more. The platform serves small to medium-sized businesses, enabling them to run and grow operations from one place.
The Problem
In the original onboarding flow (v1), new business owners faced a long, detail-heavy signup process. The form collected all business information — including non-essential data — before letting users explore the platform.
This caused:
Higher drop-off rates during onboarding
Delayed access to core features
Lower early retention, as users felt the product was “work” before they experienced value
Industry research supports this challenge:
Long onboarding flows can reduce completion rates by up to 50% (NNGroup).
Average onboarding completion for mobile SaaS hovers around 60%; friction-heavy flows drop closer to 40%.
Progressive profiling — deferring non-critical fields — improves activation rates by 15–20% (Appcues/Userpilot).
63% of users say onboarding ease directly impacts their decision to stay (Wyzowl, 2023).
My Approach
We set a clear goal: to reduce onboarding time and make new users feel welcome faster.
1. Review & Analysis
Compared v1 designs with onboarding feedback data from existing customers.
Identified bottlenecks in authentication, verification, and initial business setup.
2. Progressive Profiling Strategy
Moved some non-critical business details to after authentication and verification.
Allowed users to access core features sooner, creating a sense of progress and achievement.
3. Flow Simplification
Reduced form fields on initial signup screens.
Grouped verification steps logically to minimise perceived effort.
4. Collaborative Validation
Worked with the product and dev teams to ensure the new flow aligned with security requirements and technical feasibility.
The Outcome
30% reduction in onboarding time
Improved retention from users who reached activation earlier
Positive qualitative feedback: users felt the process was faster and more welcoming
Flow changes aligned with industry best practices for higher conversion and retention
What I Learned
Early wins in onboarding matter more than gathering every detail upfront
Reducing friction has a measurable effect on both time-to-value and retention
Backing design changes with industry benchmarks strengthens stakeholder buy-in
Conclusion
The onboarding redesign for Branddrive demonstrated how simplifying flows and deferring non-essential inputs can create real business impact. By cutting onboarding time by 30% and improving customer retention, we aligned the product more closely with user psychology and industry best practices. This project reinforced the value of data-driven UX decisions and highlighted how thoughtful simplification can directly support business growth.
