Turning a mandatory Payroll tool into a trusted USD financial product
Redefined onboarding strategy to drive adoption of USD financial services for Ontop, a YC-backed global fintech for remote workers
Company
Ontop (YC)
Headquarters
Miami, Florida, USA
Role
Lead Product Designer
Industry
Payroll & Fintech
GUI
IOs, Android and Web
Revenue
$56.7 million (2023)
Company size
320
Context
Ontop is a global payroll platform that helps companies onboard and pay remote workers worldwide, while offering built-in USD financial services for contractors and employees.
For most users, Ontop is their entry point to receiving income in USD, but not necessarily their preferred place to manage or grow their money.
Challenge
Despite being the mandatory payroll provider, Ontop struggled to become users’ trusted “banking” product. Remote workers had no alternative to receive payments through Ontop, yet:
Engagement with financial services was low
Brand trust was weak compared to traditional banks and neo-banks
Onboarding failed to clearly communicate value beyond “getting paid”
The key tension: How might we transform a forced first-time interaction into a foundation for long-term financial engagement — without brand equity or prior trust?
Results
Within 5 weeks, we:
Identified the primary onboarding frictions through qualitative and behavioral analysis
Defined a strategic roadmap for a new omnichannel onboarding experience
Design and launched the first of the new onboarding multi-channel flow iteration incrementally
35%
Increase in engagement with Ontop’s financial services
62%
Increase in the completition rate of the onbording phase
Q+
Stronger foundation for positioning Ontop as more than a payroll tool
My rol: Strategic, not operational
As the Lead Product Designer, I partnered closely with Product and Engineering to reframe onboarding from a transactional setup flow into a strategic adoption moment.
For this project I was asked to lead and mentor a mid-UX designer, with whom we worked side by side to get this project out in record time.
My responsibility went beyond UI execution:
Identifying the core behavioral blockers preventing financial product adoption
Translating onboarding insights into a phased product roadmap
Designing an omnichannel onboarding experience aligned with user trust-building moments
Designing and documenting the GUI of the new onbording flow for IOs, Andorid and Web
Tech stack
"I highly recommend Daniel as an outstanding product designer. Daniel is undoubtedly one of the best designers I've worked with. His understanding of users' needs and his ability to translate that understanding into effective design solutions is truly exceptional.
Daniel excels in every aspect of the design process, from meticulous research and insightful planning to conducting engaging workshops. His talent for guiding a project seamlessly from initial research to completion makes him a valuable asset for any project."
Head of Product Design | Ontop (Currently at Stori)
Details of my work are confidential
