Company
Factorial HR
Date
Jul 23 - Sep 23
Context
I worked at Factorial HR as Product Designer, leading a high-impact onboarding redesign for the Payroll product.
The Payroll team was missing a designer, and monthly activations were flat: only ~43 companies were onboarding each month. My role allowed me to:
Lead end-to-end onboarding design.
Manage sprint planning and cross-team syncs.
Coordinate user testing and validation.
Oversee design-to-development QA.
The goal: Increase monthly activations and product usage by helping users understand Payroll’s value earlier and complete key tasks faster. Within 4 months, onboarding volume grew to 500 companies/month.
Research & Discovery
Business context: Analyzed lost deals, churn drivers, and MRR impact.
Team syncs: Weekly alignment with Payroll Activation & Sales teams.
User pain points: Unclear value proposition, high-friction onboarding flow.
Competitive audit: Benchmarked Personio, Gusto, Remote, Payfit for onboarding patterns.
Process
Defining the scope:
6-week delivery target to ship measurable improvements fast.
Bundle onboarding fixes with the high-friction bulk compensation creation.
Execution:
Diagrams & user journeys to map the ideal onboarding sequence.
Wireframes for the wizard, First Steps, and settings refactor.
Prototype testing with promoters and detractors to validate flow clarity.
Stakeholder reviews with sales, C-level, and engineering for alignment.
Solution
A three-phase scope plus a scoped functional improvement:
Onboarding Wizard: Guides users through must-have tasks like creating payroll policies, selecting updates to track, and integrating with calculation software.
First Steps Component: Suggests additional tasks to increase value discovery, such as connecting Financial Insights or managing employee updates.
Settings Refactor: Improved navigation and discoverability for payroll configuration.
Bulk Additional Compensations MVP: Allows assigning a newly created compensation to multiple employees at once.
HR Manager - Onboarding Splash Screen to Start Configuration Process and Create Payroll Policy
HR Manager - First Steps After Configuring Basic Requirements and Creating Payroll Policy
HR Manager - Request Help Modal to Drive Revenue Through Consultancies
HR Manager - New Settings Layout to Streamline Configuration
Impact
Pre-launch KPIs:
Increase onboarding volume.
Increase usage of payroll-impacting updates.
Increase exports of payroll data for calculation.
Results (4 months after launch):
Companies onboarding monthly: 43 → 500.
Payroll updates managed monthly: ~2K → 7.8K.
Companies exporting payroll data: ~400 → 600.
Companies onboarding monthly
Updates successfully managed monthly
Companies exporting payroll data monthly