I worked with a small team at Toptal to understand why so many applicants didn’t complete our onboarding process. Our goal was to pinpoint the problem and create solutions that improved the user experience.

This was one of the first projects I contributed towards after joining the Toptal team. I didn’t have the product background that others had. To get caught up to speed quickly, I began gathering information about the current process.

- Screening calls. I asked to observe all the onboarding steps that included Toptal staff (English call, technical 1 & 2, portfolio review, development test, etc.)

- Onboarding process. I went through the onboarding process repeatedly, to understand and experience all the different situations our applicants encountered.

- Competitive analysis. How was our competition onboarding talent?

It didn’t take long to uncover one of the major problems this user flow introduced. Our current flow prioritized ease of back-end development sacrificing the overall user experience. Onboarding talent were asked dozens of questions (some repeatedly) and required to complete technical interviews and test projects. This all took the average user 3.5 months to complete the onboarding.

Once I understood exactly what information was needed from the user during onboarding, I set out to create different mockups and prototypes. The focus here was on brainstorming different ways to cluster the questions, seeking to find the combination that made the most sense to users.

With the flow defined, I explored dozens of different layout options to see what combination produced the most straightforward and efficient experience. This work coincided with the BASE project, which allowed me to quickly swap different components and patterns. At this point, I circled back with both internal operations staff and recently hired talent to receive feedback.

The final designs simplified the entire onboarding experience. Instead of slogging through multiple screens, scheduling calls, and responding to emails, applicants knew exactly what was expected of them at all times.

Applicants weren’t the only ones who would benefit from these changes. Toptal internal operations staff were thrilled about the simple direction. It would translate to less time tracking down leads that were stuck for unknown reasons.

- Significantly reduced the time to complete onboarding

- More opportunities for moments of learning about Toptal, without being too heavy-handed about it

- Users could now fill out forms in any order they like, returning to areas at a time that suited them best. Previously, it wasn’t obvious if their work had been saved or if they would have to begin again.

- Instead of involving a Toptal screener at four different sections, I proposed combining the calls into a single step

- Form fields that weren’t required were removed. Unnecessary emails were to be removed.

Once my involvement with this project was finished, I met with the incoming designer who would be continuing what I had started. Looking back, this was an excellent opportunity for me to be an advocate for the end user. I had to be aware of the engineering team’s apprehension to change and temper my suggestions and future designs accordingly. Fortunately for me, the engineers I worked alongside were excited and passionate about making improvements.