Impact Summary (TL;DR)

• Led end-to-end redesign of a regulatory KYB onboarding experience for an enterprise payment platform

• Reduced average completion time by ~75% (from 45–60 minutes to ~12–15 minutes)

• Simplified the KYB flow from 7 steps to 4 adaptive steps

• Decreased KYB-related support tickets by ~35%

• Improved onboarding completion rates and significantly reduced mid-flow abandonment

• Increased user confidence when submitting sensitive business information
  
  

Overview

My Role
Led user flow redesign, information architecture, interaction design, visual design, design system application, and cross-functional alignment with Product, Engineering, Compliance, Legal, and Customer Support.

Context

KYB (Know Your Business) verification is a mandatory regulatory step required for businesses to access Onbe’s payment distribution platform. While compliance-critical, this experience was also one of the first and most sensitive interactions new customers had with the product.

At this moment, businesses were asked to submit tax documents, ownership details, and other sensitive information — yet the experience felt slow, confusing, and untrustworthy. Many users paused mid-flow or contacted support simply to confirm:

“Is this legitimate?”

My goal was to transform KYB from a major friction point into a clear, trustworthy, and highly efficient onboarding experience — without compromising any regulatory requirements.

The Problem

The existing KYB experience was compliant, but misaligned with how users build confidence and momentum.

Trust broke at the worst possible moment

The flow relied on an unbranded third-party form with no visual connection to Onbe. This undermined trust precisely when users were asked to submit highly sensitive business and tax information. Customer Support regularly received calls questioning the legitimacy of the process.

A 7-step flow exposed unnecessary effort

All businesses — from sole proprietors to complex LLCs — were forced through the same 7-step verification flow, regardless of entity type. The experience typically took 45–60 minutes to complete and offered little clarity around progress or remaining effort.

Users were re-entering information Onbe already had

Much of the required KYB data already existed elsewhere in the platform or had been previously provided during onboarding. However, users were forced to manually re-enter the same business details, increasing fatigue, error rates, and abandonment.

Lack of clarity increased support dependency

Users weren’t told why certain information was required or how it would be used. Fields lacked examples, context, or reassurance, pushing users to contact Customer Support for help with otherwise straightforward inputs.

Collectively, these issues slowed onboarding, increased support costs, eroded trust in the platform, and delayed customer activation.

Research & Discovery

To understand where and why users were struggling, I partnered closely with Product, Engineering, Compliance, Legal, and Customer Support.

My approach included:

• Stakeholder interviews across cross-functional teams

• Review and categorization of KYB-related support tickets

• Analysis of session data and abandonment patterns

• A full audit of the KYB flow against actual regulatory requirements

Working directly with Compliance, we classified every field as:

• Non-negotiable (required by regulation)

• Conditionally required (dependent on business type or ownership structure)

• Optimizable (could be merged, deferred, or prefilled)

Key Insight

Users weren’t abandoning because KYB was complex — they were abandoning because the system wasn’t doing enough work on their behalf.

We found that a significant portion of the 7-step flow could be simplified by intelligently reusing existing data, reducing redundant input, and only asking users to confirm or correct information rather than re-enter it.

The Solution

The redesign focused on absorbing regulatory complexity — and operational effort — on behalf of the user.

From a static 7-step flow to 4 adaptive steps

The KYB experience was restructured into 4 core steps that dynamically adapt based on business type, ownership structure, and tax classification. Additional steps appear only when legally required.

Intelligent prefill as a primary accelerator

Previously collected business information was securely reused to prefill large portions of the KYB flow, allowing users to review and confirm data instead of manually re-entering it. This dramatically reduced effort, errors, and completion time.

Trust through legitimacy and transparency

The experience was brought fully in-house and rebuilt using Onbe’s design system. Clear microcopy explains why information is required and how it will be used, reinforcing trust at critical moments.

Simplified information architecture

Related inputs were consolidated into logical groupings, redundant fields removed, and edge-case questions deferred. This reduced cognitive load and kept users moving forward.

Clear progress and reassurance

Progress indicators set expectations across the 4-step journey, while inline help and contextual guidance supported users through complex inputs.

Error prevention over correction

Real-time validation, examples, and autofill reduced mistakes and rework, enabling users to complete verification correctly the first time.

Validation & Impact

The redesigned KYB experience delivered substantial improvements across efficiency, completion, and support dependency.

• ~75% reduction in completion time
  Average completion time dropped from 45–60 minutes to approximately 12–15 minutes, driven primarily by intelligent prefilling, step consolidation, and adaptive logic.
  
  

• Significant improvement in completion rates
  Fewer users abandoned mid-flow as the reduced effort and clearer structure sustained momentum.
  
  

• ~35% decrease in support tickets
  Prefilled data, clear guidance, and transparency enabled users to complete verification independently.
  
  

• Increased user trust and confidence
  Post-completion feedback showed users felt more comfortable submitting sensitive information in the branded, transparent experience.
  
  

• Scalable compliance foundation
  The 4-step framework established a flexible system that can evolve with future regulatory requirements without reintroducing friction.
  
  

Reflection

This project reinforced that great product design isn’t about removing complexity — it’s about deciding who carries it. By shifting effort from the user to the system through intelligent prefilling and adaptive flows, we transformed a rigid 7-step compliance process into a faster, clearer, and more confident onboarding experience.