Boosting Gusto's signup flow: 15% conversion growth via iterative testing

Up first…

Audit the original flow and identify key pain points and areas of opportunity

From left to right: Homepage (Organic visitors) → Survey → Account Creation (also becomes a Sales Lead) → Email Verification

Drop-off in onboarding was too high, upwards of 25%

Users who were not ready to commit had no way of becoming a lead

Turning data into design opportunities

Homepage data showed most users bounced after one page. I prioritized redesigns to reduce drop-off and boost lead capture by 5%+.

A diary study revealed small biz owners needed time to compare options—something our fast-track sign-up didn’t allow.

Who I was designing for

The Small Business Owner

New to payroll; overwhelmed by compliance. Needed clarity and step-by-step support.

The Growing Startup Founder

Scaling fast; tech-savvy. Needed robust automation and integration info.

How might we …

Bridge the gap between account creation and payroll initiation to increase organic visits converting to quality leads, that actually run payroll?

Brainstorming with impact: Designing a better entry point

Design hypothesis:

If we reduce friction upfront and give users more context before asking them to commit, more of them will convert—either as leads or full signups.

I partnered with my PM to rethink the early shopping journey. Instead of forcing account creation, we tested lower-friction paths that aligned better with how small business owners actually make decisions.

Key design goals:

• Capture interest with low-commitment CTAs
• Let users explore the product without pressure
• Support Sales with better-qualified leads
• Make conversion feel natural—not forced

But progress required tradeoffs.

I faced pushback, ran scrappy A/B tests, and worked around tight constraints. So I pitched a phased approach focused on lightweight, high-impact UX changes based on behavioral insights.

My 4-step solution:

Split intent with dual CTAs

Add password-free lead form pre-sign up

Only show content the user asked for

Replace content with an interactive Sales demo

My Figma if you want to peruse around my process!

my process

Design and test lead capture funnels, no sign-up required

Problem:
Most visitors dropped off before creating an account. We needed a way to let them explore without committing upfront.

What I did:
I introduced a new primary CTA, “How Gusto Works," so users could self-educate or connect with Sales before signing up. Meanwhile, high-intent users still had access to the traditional “Create Account” path.

How the new flow worked:

• Users selected only the features they cared about
• Submitted lead info (no password required)
• Saw personalized product content based on intent
• Then chose to sign up, talk to Sales, or just keep exploring

Why it worked:
This lowered friction, helped Sales capture more leads, and met users where they were in their decision-making journey, so that when they were instructed to create an account, they were more confident in their decision.

I built the flow using CMS components for speed and worked closely with Sales, PMM, and Brand to align content and messaging across the funnel.

Control

Variation

What users saw after clicking "How Gusto Works"

What they saw after clicking "Let's go"

1 / 6

At the end of the series, if they were ready to create their account, all they had to do was create a password. Everything else was already filled in.

Testing variations and learning fast

I worked with Sales to define better qualifying questions and used Workbench components to keep it fast and scalable.

I then expanded the flow to the global navigation, changing that CTA with the new “How Gusto Works” flow, increasing traffic to the journey by 80% and driving more high-quality leads.

Control

Variation

Analyze impact

Adding friction to account creation while lowering the barrier to becoming a lead proved more effective than combining lead capture and account creation into one step. From our last round of testing, we saw:

visits converting to leads

+15%

increase in account creations

+25%

new businesses running payroll each month

+1,000