Increasing setup flow conversion

Role:Lead product designer

Company:Pipedrive

Duration:2 weeks

Type:A/B experiment

Almost done — email sync modal

Intro

(Project overview)

During this 2-weeks-long initiative, our team prepared and conducted an A/B experiment around email sync flow aimed at increasing feature adoption.

(Goal)

The primary objective was to increase the email sync flow conversion rate by 10%.

(My role)

I played a key role in identifying the problem, defining hypotheses, and creating designs to address the issue.

Problem statement

After developing a UX metrics dashboard, we uncovered a critical issue in our feature activation funnel. We observed a significant drop-off at the email account connection stage.

Although users express intent to connect their email accounts and successfully completed the authentication flow, 43% of paying users (approximately 7,400 users monthly) and 16% of non-paying users (approximately 740 users monthly) failed to finalise the process.

This drop-off represents a substantial loss in user engagement and prevents users from fully using a key feature, impacting both user experience and business outcomes. Email activation is an important milestone for the entire product's adoption, as it has proved to have a direct impact on company's North Star and churn metrics.

Addressing this problem was crucial to improve feature adoption and overall product success.

Pipedrive email sync settings

Challenges

(Limited time & resources)

The project operated under tight time constraints and resource limitations, which required us to pick wisely those most impactful changes that could be implemented quickly and effectively.

(Complicated backend structures)

The backend infrastructure posed a challenge due to its complexity. To prevent future errors and system overload, we needed precise user input during the setup flow. Key details, such as how far back to sync emails, whether emails should be private or shared, and which emails to share, were critical for solving the problem.

(Reduce friction vs user trust)

While we aimed to minimize friction in the setup flow, certain steps could not be removed without compromising the system's functionality. Automatically deciding these settings risked losing important information, potentially undermining user trust.

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Discovery

I started by analyzing the email sync activation funnel and identified the primary bottleneck: a significant drop-off between users finalising email authentication (giving Pipedrive permission to access their email provider's data) and activating the sync (configuring settings).

Amplitude UX metrics dashboard

To better understand the problem, I mapped out the existing flow, pinpointing areas where users might experience confusion or friction.

UX flow: activate email sync

Another problem lies in the UI layout itself. There is no clear communication, that the process has not been finished yet. Moreover, the main button, that activates the sync is hidden below the viewport.

Pipedrive email sync settings page

Definition

I brainstormed potential solutions and limitations with our Product Manager and Engineering Lead. Considering resource constraints, we opted for an experimental approach that utilised frontend capabilities, avoiding backend changes to minimize complexity.

To initiate email sync there are 5 mandatory inputs needed from user: email account handle, authentication permission (done via 3rd party), default privacy, past emails sync, email labels

In the ideal world, the entire setup process would require minimum user input. However, our previous user researches and data analysis uncovered, that there is no default settings configuration, that would fit all of our users: some of them are very strict about data privacy and won't want their emails to be shared by default. Others have an internal requirement that every email has to be shared with the team for a full transparency.

We decided to work with the following hypothesis:

Current flow lacks clear feedback on the progress of the email sync process, leading users to misinterpret the completion of 3rd-party authentication as the finalisation of the entire setup.

By improving progress visibility and clarifying next steps, we can enhance the user experience, reduce confusion, and drive higher activation rates for this feature.

Development

I started sketching potential solutions, keeping our backend constraints in mind. To provide clarity on the progress, while allowing for customization and flexibility, I decided to experiment with untraditional approach. Instead of reducing the numbers of steps in the sync flow, I offered adding an extra one: a pop up window, that would require users to take an action.

Proposed flow with popup

This would require minimum engineering effort, while assuring that users receive an immediate feedback on the progress state and also highlighting the most important settings that needs to be reviewed prior to sync activation.

I've also suggested moving activation button to the top of the page to make it harder to miss.

Delivery

After aligning on the user flow, I sketched out the final designs using our design system.

Design iterations on the confirmation popup

I've then designed the complete new flow with detailed instructions. To further improve user experience, I've moved start sync button from the bottom of the page to the very top, placing it inside of the banner element to make it the most prominent element on the page.

Figma deliverable: test option flow

Conclusion

The A/B test was conducted from May 13th to May 27th, with the test version outperforming the control version. Our new design delivered an improvement in conversion with statistical significance.

Based on our calculations, this improvement is expected to generate the following business impact:

+17K

Paying customers

↓7.2%

Reduced churn risk

$25K

Monthly ARR retained

+4K

Trial users

↓2%

Reduced churn risk

$14K

Monthly ARR retained

This demonstrates how smallest design improvements, even under resource constraints, can drive measurable outcomes for both user experience and business performance.

You made it here!