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Scaling Onboarding for a Global Trading Platform

Scaling Onboarding for a Global Trading Platform

Scaling Onboarding for a Global Trading Platform

ROLE

Lead Product Designer

Onboarding & early-engagement flows

COMPANY

Deriv

INDUSTRY / PRODUCT

B2C

Global online trading

USERS IMPACTED

Millions of retail traders, across regions and experience levels

TIMELINE

2022, 3 months

OVERVIEW

TL;DR

TL;DR

How do you onboard a nervous first-timer and an impatient expert — on the same screen, in a region with barely any bandwidth?


I designed onboarding for a global trading platform used by millions of retail traders — people spread across wildly different experience levels and connectivity conditions. The business problem was sharp: too many new users left in their first session, before the platform ever got to show what made it different.

Improved Day-7 (D7) retention by

10%

Improved Day-7 (D7) retention by

10%

Improved Day-7 (D7) retention by

10%

Lifted tutorial completion by (relative)

15%

Lifted tutorial completion by (relative)

15%

Due to NDA, product names and visuals are abstracted. Contact me to view the presentation deck.

PROBLEM

A lot of new users left within their very first session — before the platform could prove its worth.

A lot of new users left within their very first session — before the platform could prove its worth.

The onboarding tried to serve everyone and connected with no one. Beginners got buried in trading concepts too early and froze; experienced traders hit generic hand-holding and got impatient; and in low-bandwidth regions, the video tutorials simply didn't load. All of this hit at the exact moment a user was deciding whether to stay.

TENSION

The hard part: the same screen had to calm a beginner and get out of an expert's way.

The hard part: the same screen had to calm a beginner and get out of an expert's way.

These two users want opposite things — one needs reassurance and slower pacing, the other needs speed and zero friction.


A single linear flow was always going to fail one of them. And layered on top was a constraint most onboarding never has to consider: it had to work where bandwidth was scarce, which ruled out the rich, video-heavy approach the industry defaults to.

How might we create a scalable onboarding experience that:


  • Adapted to different experience levels

  • Worked across regional connectivity constraints

  • Communicated the platform’s value immediately

MY ROLE

I owned the onboarding and early-engagement flows — and the job of turning business differentiators into things a user actually notices.

I owned the onboarding and early-engagement flows — and the job of turning business differentiators into things a user actually notices.

I designed the onboarding and first-run experience, worked with marketing and content on the tutorials, adapted the experience for low-bandwidth regions, and translated the platform's selling points into clear, in-product signals rather than marketing copy.

KEY DECISION

So instead of one flow for everyone, I designed onboarding that adapts to who's using it.

So instead of one flow for everyone, I designed onboarding that adapts to who's using it.

The principle I anchored to was clarity and speed over completeness — better to get someone confident and moving than to teach them everything up front. That meant a modular, adaptive approach: users learned progressively instead of all at once, skipped what didn't match their experience level, and reached help only when they actually needed it.

SOLUTION

So onboarding met each user where they were — and worked even where the network didn't.

So onboarding met each user where they were — and worked even where the network didn't.

Step-by-step flows split by new versus experienced traders. Tutorials made optional and on-demand instead of mandatory walkthroughs that everyone had to sit through. Lightweight, text-first content for low-bandwidth regions, so onboarding still worked where video failed. And prominent in-context labeling that surfaced the platform's key differentiators early, while users were still deciding.

IMPACT

Early retention rose across target regions — and ~28% more new users came back after their first session.

Early retention rose across target regions — and ~28% more new users came back after their first session.

  • Day-7 retention increased 10%, showing the redesign's impact held well beyond the first session

  • Tutorial completion saw a 15% relative lift, as on-demand, adaptive content replaced mandatory walkthroughs

  • Successful rollout across multiple global markets, including low-bandwidth regions

  • Increased user confidence during first-time use, validated through qualitative feedback

REFLECTION

Early on, what you communicate matters more than how much you build.

Early on, what you communicate matters more than how much you build.

The instinct in a crowded market is to show users everything you've got. This taught me the opposite: the users I'd lose in the first session didn't leave because the platform lacked features — they left because they couldn't tell, fast enough, why it was worth their time. Designing for the constraint — low bandwidth, split audiences — wasn't a limitation to work around; it was the thing that forced the clarity that actually worked.