Data import

Data import as a trust-building onboarding experience.
Redesigning a critical onboarding flow to reduce early churn.

Role:

Lead Product Designer (hands-on)

Product:

Tribe (B2B and B2C CRM platform)

Why it could be interesting for you:

This project shows how I work as a hands-on Lead Product Designer: aligning UX decisions with business risk, challenging assumptions with research, and designing systems that scale trust, not just screens.

What?

The problem

Import is one of the first actions new users perform.
The existing all-in-one page was optimised for speed, but new users:

didn’t understand required fields or Tribe-specific mappings
missed errors and didn’t know how to fix them
lost confidence early, contributing to churn

So what?

The real problem

The surface problem looked like usability and errors. The deeper problem was trust.
New users were being asked to make decisions and using unfamiliar concepts without understanding consequences.

Strategic tension

Research and support data were pointing in the opposite direction.
The real tension:

Speed vs. comprehension
Power vs. guidance
Experienced users vs. first-time users

As a lead, my role was not to optimise clicks, but to define what “good” means for this moment in the journey.

Key insights that changed direction

User interviews, usability tests and qualitative feedback surfaced the following insights:

Users didn’t know what was required until it was too late

Required fields and rules were technically present—but cognitively invisible.

Error management was poor

Error messages were barely visible; even when users noticed something was wrong, there was no explanation of what to do next.

Tribe-specific relation ID mapping concept was hidden and unclear

Users couldn’t evaluate correctness because they didn’t understand the model.

Speed without understanding increased anxiety

Users preferred a slower experience if it meant feeling in control.

A single screen for every action created confusion.

After spending a long time unsure what to do, users contacted Customer Support because they couldn't complete the task on their own.

This led to a critical reframing:
The import flow needed to guide and teach, not just execute.

Field mapping before/after

Now what?

Design strategy — a guided experience on purpose

I made a deliberate strategic decision: Increase interaction steps if it increases clarity and confidence.
I challenged the assumption that fewer clicks = better UX. Research showed new users preferred clarity over speed, so I intentionally increased steps to improve understanding and confidence.

Key principles:

Progressive disclosure over information overload
Explicit guidance before irreversible actions
Errors as part of the flow, not exceptions
Clear cause → effect visibility

This wasn’t just a redesign—it was a change in philosophy for onboarding experiences.

What I designed

I owned:

Problem framing and success criteria
UX strategy for first-time import
End-to-end flow redesign
Stakeholder alignment around a counter-intuitive direction

I also worked hands-on:

Mapping flows and states
Designing interaction patterns
Defining error handling and recovery

This was a high-impact, high-risk decision, because it intentionally challenged an established product assumption.

Impact

First-import completion rate — 62% → 84%
Import-related support tickets — down ~40%
Time to first successful import — ~22 min → ~7 min
Early-stage activation / 30-day retention — directional uplift
Strong qualitative feedback around clarity and confidence

Gallery