Rebuilding Nusawork Onboarding: A Strategic Overhaul
Rebuilding Nusawork Onboarding: A Strategic Overhaul
Rebuilding Nusawork Onboarding: A Strategic Overhaul
Selling software is easy on paper, but adoption was painful. Clients took months to get through setup, often stalling before they saw any value. I took ownership of the entire client journey, mapping gaps between sales and client's impact realization.
Selling software is easy on paper, but adoption was painful. Clients took months to get through setup, often stalling before they saw any value. I took ownership of the entire client journey, mapping gaps between sales and client's impact realization.
Role
Lead Product Designer
Role
Lead Product Designer
Role
Lead Product Designer
Service
UX Research, Service Design, Product Management
Service
UX Research, Service Design, Product Management
Service
UX Research, Service Design, Product Management
OVERVIEW
OVERVIEW
OVERVIEW
Nusawork is an HR software platform that designed specifically for medium businesses who seeking a transition from paper-based HR processes to digital systems.
During Q2 2023, the product was ready to ship and being promoted with strong sales momentum, but we faced a critical business challenge:
Our beta clients is struggling throughout prolonged implementations before realizing any value from what they actually pay.
Nusawork is an HR software platform that designed specifically for medium businesses who seeking a transition from paper-based HR processes to digital systems.
During Q2 2023, the product was ready to ship and being promoted with strong sales momentum, but we faced a critical business challenge:
Our beta clients is struggling throughout prolonged implementations before realizing any value from what they actually pay.
Nusawork is an HR software platform that designed specifically for medium businesses who seeking a transition from paper-based HR processes to digital systems.
During Q2 2023, the product was ready to ship and being promoted with strong sales momentum, but we faced a critical business challenge:
Our beta clients is struggling throughout prolonged implementations before realizing any value from what they actually pay.
PROBLEMS
PROBLEMS
PROBLEMS
The core issue wasn't the product: it was the complete absence of structured onboarding process.
Our client journey was essentially broken telephone: Sales closed deals → handed off to implementation → hoped for the best. No playbook, no milestones, no structured approach.
The "Aim and Hit" Problem
Originally, the client onboarding looked like this at first:
Client deal closes
Schedule training session
Sales conducts training
Client left to figure out the rest
A multi-layers confusion with back-and-forth communication, resulting tons of customer support tickets, and some of our beta clients were bouncing out by month 3-4.
Why is that?
At least, there are two reasons from both our users.
From the HR side:
HR staff became day-to-day users without proper guidance. Employee data upload, role assignments, payroll configuration—all felt like guesswork, made the actual setup dragged on for months.
From the employee side:
When HR struggled with system configuration, employees experienced broken attendance submissions, delayed leave approvals, and account activation issues. This eroded trust in the product before it became part of daily workflow.
The core issue wasn't the product: it was the complete absence of structured onboarding process.
Our client journey was essentially broken telephone: Sales closed deals → handed off to implementation → hoped for the best. No playbook, no milestones, no structured approach.
The "Aim and Hit" Problem
Originally, the client onboarding looked like this at first:
Client deal closes
Schedule training session
Sales conducts training
Client left to figure out the rest
A multi-layers confusion with back-and-forth communication, resulting tons of customer support tickets, and some of our beta clients were bouncing out by month 3-4.
Why is that?
At least, there are two reasons from both our users.
From the HR side:
HR staff became day-to-day users without proper guidance. Employee data upload, role assignments, payroll configuration—all felt like guesswork, made the actual setup dragged on for months.
From the employee side:
When HR struggled with system configuration, employees experienced broken attendance submissions, delayed leave approvals, and account activation issues. This eroded trust in the product before it became part of daily workflow.
The core issue wasn't the product: it was the complete absence of structured onboarding process.
Our client journey was essentially broken telephone: Sales closed deals → handed off to implementation → hoped for the best. No playbook, no milestones, no structured approach.
The "Aim and Hit" Problem
Originally, the client onboarding looked like this at first:
Client deal closes
Schedule training session
Sales conducts training
Client left to figure out the rest
A multi-layers confusion with back-and-forth communication, resulting tons of customer support tickets, and some of our beta clients were bouncing out by month 3-4.
Why is that?
At least, there are two reasons from both our users.
From the HR side:
HR staff became day-to-day users without proper guidance. Employee data upload, role assignments, payroll configuration—all felt like guesswork, made the actual setup dragged on for months.
From the employee side:
When HR struggled with system configuration, employees experienced broken attendance submissions, delayed leave approvals, and account activation issues. This eroded trust in the product before it became part of daily workflow.
APPROACH
APPROACH
APPROACH
When our new Sales Manager arrived, we identified this as a strategic opportunity. Within his first week, I proposed we jointly redesign the client journey from deal-close to value realization.
Mapping the End-to-End Implementation Funnel
We introduced the Hunter vs. Farmer model to clarify team responsibilities and eliminate gaps: missing handoff processes between product, dev, sales, and implementation team.
Hunter: the selling stage, where you're trying to acquire new customer as much as possible.
Farmer: the retain stage, where you're trying to keep them happy and gain their loyalty.
"OK, so what's the designer do?"
Designer's role is to fill what's required from each step. Since we are the one who possess the product domain knowledge, we need to provide:
Short deck for introductions: problem framing and solution overview
Long deck for deeper conversations: features, ROI, proof points
User guidance: covering critical workflow during implementation stage
This ensured consistent messaging from pain point identification through solution delivery, creating smoother handoffs from sales team to activation team.
"Hold on, there are so many features. How to simplify the documentation process?"
We categorize the guide structure based on platform first, since both company users & employee users are using two completely different platform. Then we can deep dive to provide information from each platform usability
There is also a video format and useful link in advance to assist user directly when needed.
When our new Sales Manager arrived, we identified this as a strategic opportunity. Within his first week, I proposed we jointly redesign the client journey from deal-close to value realization.
Mapping the End-to-End Implementation Funnel
We introduced the Hunter vs. Farmer model to clarify team responsibilities and eliminate gaps: missing handoff processes between product, dev, sales, and implementation team.
Hunter: the selling stage, where you're trying to acquire new customer as much as possible.
Farmer: the retain stage, where you're trying to keep them happy and gain their loyalty.
"OK, so what's the designer do?"
Designer's role is to fill what's required from each step. Since we are the one who possess the product domain knowledge, we need to provide:
Short deck for introductions: problem framing and solution overview
Long deck for deeper conversations: features, ROI, proof points
User guidance: covering critical workflow during implementation stage
This ensured consistent messaging from pain point identification through solution delivery, creating smoother handoffs from sales team to activation team.
"Hold on, there are so many features. How to simplify the documentation process?"
We categorize the guide structure based on platform first, since both company users & employee users are using two completely different platform. Then we can deep dive to provide information from each platform usability
There is also a video format and useful link in advance to assist user directly when needed.
When our new Sales Manager arrived, we identified this as a strategic opportunity. Within his first week, I proposed we jointly redesign the client journey from deal-close to value realization.
Mapping the End-to-End Implementation Funnel
We introduced the Hunter vs. Farmer model to clarify team responsibilities and eliminate gaps: missing handoff processes between product, dev, sales, and implementation team.
Hunter: the selling stage, where you're trying to acquire new customer as much as possible.
Farmer: the retain stage, where you're trying to keep them happy and gain their loyalty.
"OK, so what's the designer do?"
Designer's role is to fill what's required from each step. Since we are the one who possess the product domain knowledge, we need to provide:
Short deck for introductions: problem framing and solution overview
Long deck for deeper conversations: features, ROI, proof points
User guidance: covering critical workflow during implementation stage
This ensured consistent messaging from pain point identification through solution delivery, creating smoother handoffs from sales team to activation team.
"Hold on, there are so many features. How to simplify the documentation process?"
We categorize the guide structure based on platform first, since both company users & employee users are using two completely different platform. Then we can deep dive to provide information from each platform usability
There is also a video format and useful link in advance to assist user directly when needed.
DESIGN RESULTS
DESIGN RESULTS
DESIGN RESULTS
Product Sales Decks
I delivered both short and long decks matching the sales cycle stages. Together, they standardized our story across teams and ensured clients entered implementation with realistic expectations and clear success criteria.
Product Guides for Mobile & Web
I designed parallel workflows for different platforms and user types.
Web version focused on admin-heavy tasks (employee data, payroll reporting), while mobile version centered on employee tasks (attendance, leave requests). Rather than one-size-fits-all documentation, this gave each user type context-specific guidance.
The structure made it easy to find the right step at the right moment, giving both clients and internal teams systematic workflows.
Video Tutorials
The design team & I also provided design assets for video tutorials on every steps of the product guide.
The video tutorials focus on real-world scenarios and specific use cases where written instructions alone proved insufficient. These demonstrations eliminate setup confusion and accelerate user comprehension of critical features.
You can check our video tutorial works here.
Product Sales Decks
I delivered both short and long decks matching the sales cycle stages. Together, they standardized our story across teams and ensured clients entered implementation with realistic expectations and clear success criteria.
Product Guides for Mobile & Web
I designed parallel workflows for different platforms and user types.
Web version focused on admin-heavy tasks (employee data, payroll reporting), while mobile version centered on employee tasks (attendance, leave requests). Rather than one-size-fits-all documentation, this gave each user type context-specific guidance.
The structure made it easy to find the right step at the right moment, giving both clients and internal teams systematic workflows.
Video Tutorials
The design team & I also provided design assets for video tutorials on every steps of the product guide.
The video tutorials focus on real-world scenarios and specific use cases where written instructions alone proved insufficient. These demonstrations eliminate setup confusion and accelerate user comprehension of critical features.
You can check our video tutorial works here.
Product Sales Decks
I delivered both short and long decks matching the sales cycle stages. Together, they standardized our story across teams and ensured clients entered implementation with realistic expectations and clear success criteria.
Product Guides for Mobile & Web
I designed parallel workflows for different platforms and user types.
Web version focused on admin-heavy tasks (employee data, payroll reporting), while mobile version centered on employee tasks (attendance, leave requests). Rather than one-size-fits-all documentation, this gave each user type context-specific guidance.
The structure made it easy to find the right step at the right moment, giving both clients and internal teams systematic workflows.
Video Tutorials
The design team & I also provided design assets for video tutorials on every steps of the product guide.
The video tutorials focus on real-world scenarios and specific use cases where written instructions alone proved insufficient. These demonstrations eliminate setup confusion and accelerate user comprehension of critical features.
You can check our video tutorial works here.
OUTCOME
OUTCOME
OUTCOME
By Q1 2024, we had transformed implementation from a major risk factor into a competitive advantage. The designed approach became our foundation for scaling the client onboarding, turning what was previously our biggest weakness into a repeatable strength.
Our efforts highlight:
Implementation time dropped from 4–5 months to just 3–5 weeks — a 70% improvement.
3,000+ new employees across multiple enterprise clients were onboarded smoothly with less than 5% bounce rate in 2024.
Eliminated the variance between clients—some previously took months, others weeks; now all followed consistent timeline.
What our recent clients said about Nusawork:
"The processes that previously took considerable time can now be completed faster and more accurately"
"Attendance recap and payroll processes that previously took days can now be completed in minutes."
By Q1 2024, we had transformed implementation from a major risk factor into a competitive advantage. The designed approach became our foundation for scaling the client onboarding, turning what was previously our biggest weakness into a repeatable strength.
Our efforts highlight:
Implementation time dropped from 4–5 months to just 3–5 weeks — a 70% improvement.
3,000+ new employees across multiple enterprise clients were onboarded smoothly with less than 5% bounce rate in 2024.
Eliminated the variance between clients—some previously took months, others weeks; now all followed consistent timeline.
What our recent clients said about Nusawork:
"The processes that previously took considerable time can now be completed faster and more accurately"
"Attendance recap and payroll processes that previously took days can now be completed in minutes."
By Q1 2024, we had transformed implementation from a major risk factor into a competitive advantage. The designed approach became our foundation for scaling the client onboarding, turning what was previously our biggest weakness into a repeatable strength.
Our efforts highlight:
Implementation time dropped from 4–5 months to just 3–5 weeks — a 70% improvement.
3,000+ new employees across multiple enterprise clients were onboarded smoothly with less than 5% bounce rate in 2024.
Eliminated the variance between clients—some previously took months, others weeks; now all followed consistent timeline.
What our recent clients said about Nusawork:
"The processes that previously took considerable time can now be completed faster and more accurately"
"Attendance recap and payroll processes that previously took days can now be completed in minutes."