Situation
Vagaro's sign-up flow had been patched over the years as new business requirements were added. By the time I started, new users faced 14 steps before seeing a single feature. Drop-off was highest between steps 4–8—right where users should have been feeling momentum. The business needed data; users were leaving before we could give them value.
My Role
I owned this project end-to-end as the lead designer, partnering with product, engineering, and our data team. I conducted the research, framed the problem, designed the solution, and worked through three rounds of testing before shipping.
How I Brought Order
I mapped every step against two axes: business necessity (is this data truly required at signup?) and user value (does completing this make the product better for them right now?). This revealed that 6 of the 14 steps were collecting information that could be gathered progressively after activation—not as a gate before it.
Design Work
Redesigned the flow from 14 steps to 6 core steps, with progressive disclosure for everything else. Introduced a 'complete your profile' mechanic post-activation that surfaced the deferred steps contextually. Redesigned the visual language of each step to feel lighter—shorter inputs, clearer microcopy, better error states. Conducted 8 moderated usability sessions and two rounds of A/B testing.
Impact
Sign-up completion improved by 22% in the 60 days following launch. Time-to-first-booking (our primary activation metric) dropped by 18%. Customer support tickets related to 'confused about setup' dropped by 31%. The revised flow became the template for how we think about onboarding across Vagaro's product suite.
Reflection
The core lesson: what the business wants to know and what the user needs to do are often misaligned at onboarding. My job was to find the overlap and protect the user experience without abandoning the data requirements. Progressive disclosure isn't a trick—it's a pact with the user: I'll ask for what I need, when it actually helps you.