Xero Payroll
🎨
ROLE
Design lead for UK product team; integrating user feedback, UK legislation & internal business data
🏦
CUSTOMER OUTCOME
Helping UK business owners manage workplace pension enrolment by uplifting the employee setup experience
🧪
DESIGN IMPACT
Mitigated risk prior to delivery by driving user testing and implementing substantial design iterations based on user feedback
Case study
The problem.
Pensions in the UK 🤯
Pension laws in the UK are complex! UK business owners find it confusing and time-consuming managing pension enrolment and contributions when it comes to paying staff
Online pension enrolment ⚙️
Xero offers online pension enrolment, but the prior experience lacked intuitiveness and guidance; making it difficult for customers to set up employee information accurately
Before / after
Mobile friendly experience
The re-organised flow on web & mobile means users only see relevant info + actions based on the initial setting selected at the start
New status updates
There's now better feedback during employee setup; including status updates on the automated enrolment process; keeping users informed and confident about their setup.
Ideate. Test. Refine.
During 2 rounds of user testing, we pivoted designs when 50% of participants failed usability tasks for setting up employee pensions in the initial prototype. Round 2 featured workflow changes and more guidance on pension legislation, resulting in successful task completion and higher confidence ratings
We tested 2 x prototypes with UK business owners who use payroll software to pay employees
8
Participants tested
Substantial design changes were made based on feedback & task failure during round 1 of testing
2
Rounds of user testing
Round 2 of user testing concluded with 100% of users successfully completing all usability tasks
1
Refined user flow
First prototype iteration ☝️
"There needs to be more support around enrolment laws because I don't live and breathe this."
Participant 4 | Round 1 of user testing
Second prototype iteration ✌️
"I prefer this experience much better, the setup options are much more clearer than before."
Participant 5 | Round 2 of user testing
Build, deliver & measure.
During the kick off for development, I worked closely with our product manager and engineering lead to plan and prioritise 3 phased releases, enabling us to iteratively deliver our first customer experience improvement in just 4 days and complete the entire initiative across 7 months from inception to delivery
6 months after launch
57%
Reduction in CX support cases related to pensions were raised by customers
1 year after launch
"Being a small business and taking on that first employee is terrifying with all the legal requirements - such has pensions. But now the pension set up just feels that little bit easier; the questions are much easier to answer and it feels like more of an education piece."
Quote from customer interview