Optimising onboarding to welcome up to 1m new users monthly

Creating a smoother path from first interaction to loyal customer, simplifying the journey while boosting adoption and long-term retention.

Confidentiality notice

This case study contains information from work completed under non-disclosure agreements. Sensitive details have been modified or omitted to respect confidentiality obligations. The content represents my personal analysis and work contributions, and does not necessarily reflect the views or positions of Revolut.

Introduction

Like any successful product, Revolut had room to improve their onboarding funnel — reducing drop-offs, simplifying decisions, and getting people to stay after creating an account.

Context

At Revolut the activation, adoption, and retention of new customers falls to the Lifecycle team. We're responsible for providing a smooth and painless path to a completed account and a happy customer who sees immediate and continuing value in the product. Upon joining the department, I quickly began work on optimising the onboarding flow with the aim to improve habit-forming behaviours of new users.

Results

Our team hit their target — 60% of new users are active 2 months after signing up. Revolut has since grown to over 52m customers globally and at the time of writing, is the most valuable private technology company in Europe.

My ROLE

I helped shape the design strategy and created end-to-end design solutions, while guiding our research to understand what actually worked for users.

I led our design and research teams while working closely with product, engineering, data science, and marketing teams. I was also involved in collaborating with other departments relevant to the project.

My ROLE

I helped shape the design strategy and created end-to-end design solutions, while guiding our research to understand what actually worked for users.

I led our design and research teams while working closely with product, engineering, data science, and marketing teams. I was also involved in collaborating with other departments relevant to the project.

Project goals

Reduce activation drop-off

Activation is the stage whereby important habit-forming actions take place — funding accounts and ordering cards. These are high drop-off points and can deter people from returning later.

Increase 2 month retention

Data shows that daily active usage correlates to the first 2 months of activity. During this stage people are becoming familiar with and investing in the app, making payments and moving money.

Increase completion rate of critical actions early on

Data shows that people who fund their accounts, order cards, and add them to Apple or Google Pay tend to stick around for the long term. Habits are formed and 'stickiness' is established in the first few days and weeks after joining.

Plan of action

Onboarding is a critical part of the Revolut experience, especially with the immense volume of new joiners creating accounts each month. In order to mitigate the risk of blowing up the company — we did thorough research, testing, and conducted lower-risk experiments on small user cohorts before scaling what worked.

70+

Interviews with people who didn't have a Revolut account yet

8

Steps in the onboarding flow that were thoroughly analysed with detailed data and event tracking

10

Cost-effective experiments conducted on user cohorts before scaling to full production

Focusing on the Activation stage of onboarding, we aimed to learn why people would skip these key steps or drop-off entirely.

The steps that contribute directly to retaining new users also have the highest drop-off rates.

A few small issues lead to big trouble

Through our in-depth interviews and data analyses, we discovered multiple issues at key steps of the activation flow. On the surface they initially seemed minor, but after a bit of digging turned out to be more damaging than anticipated.

An unexpected greeting

Users were surprised when presented with higher plans this early, finding it discouraging and pushy.

They also struggle to understand the connection between plans and cards.

Data confirms this — most users either defaulted to the free Standard plan or skipped the step.

What’s the difference between a plan and a card?

I'm asked to pay for a plan but haven't seen the app yet.

Where's the card? I'd expect to choose one first

Card vs plan

At this step, customers are presented with a variety of cards that correspond to the plans from the previous step.

They appear disconnected, leading to confusion, hesitation and uncertainty when making a decision.

Why am I seeing expensive cards if I already picked the Standard plan?

Are cards separate to plans from the previous step?

What benefits do I get?

69% of people who order cards during onboarding become active users.

Surprise!...fees

The last step of the activation process — where customers finalise their order.

The delivery fees often surprise and deter people, leading them to either skip it or abandon the process altogether.

Data shows that the majority of users also decide not to fund their account, which significantly impacts retention rates.

I wasn’t expecting to pay delivery for the card

Is the starting balance for the card or the account?

I’m not sure why I should add money at this point

One of the most important steps — the checkout. We ran an experiment that offered people free card delivery when funding their account, which ensured they had both a card to use and a starting balance. Our data confirmed this significantly boosted account balances and customer engagement early on.

Alongside our experiments, we looked at ways to simplify parts of the onboarding flow. Adjusting logic and combining certain steps resulted in a shorter process and helped to clear up points of confusion.

A wealth of data and insights translated into a better experience

Taking the findings from the numerous interviews, user tests, and analytics — we amended the activation stage of onboarding to present a simpler, more streamlined experience for first time users.

Card and plan selection steps are combined — presenting a clearer decision and fewer steps in the flow. Benefits are reordered and standardised for easy comparison across plans.

Card and plan selection steps are combined — presenting a clearer decision and fewer steps in the flow. Benefits are reordered and standardised for easy comparison across plans.

Funding an account early on is crucial to retention-forming habits. Changing the perception of adding money had a substantial increase on funded accounts for first-time users.

We presented a clear benefit for funding the account, while

reorganising the layout, hierarchy of info, and removing redundant details. The new configuration also allows for various promotional material and experiments.

We presented a clear benefit for funding the account, while

reorganising the layout, hierarchy of info, and removing redundant details. The new configuration also allows for various promotional material and experiments.

It's important to find the sweet spot between nudging someone and allowing the product to speak for itself. Many products are too eager to encourage engagement and it usually deters people.

Of course not everyone will want to commit to card orders and account funding during onboarding — those who aren't ready are free to explore the app before completing their account setup.

When they're ready, a clear entry point is available on the home screen to resume where they left off.

Of course not everyone will want to commit to card orders and account funding during onboarding — those who aren't ready are free to explore the app before completing their account setup.

When they're ready, a clear entry point is available on the home screen to resume where they left off.

Something to sweeten the deal for those on the fence.

The team ran experiments with carefully targeted incentives. Overall these proved to be successful but in some cases needed adjustments to work for both the user and business. We explored multiple rewards — each tailored to encourage specific behaviour.

For the cashback campaign we initially offered money back on all card spend — however people mostly used it for larger purchases, which didn't form many long term habits. Adjusting the spend categories to everyday items like groceries, transport and eating out resolved this issue and still produced positive results.

Designing and revamping these new experiences didn't require any notable changes to the design system — simply piecing together existing elements and patterns meant we could create something fresh yet maintain consistency.

Through a comprehensive audit, strategic experimentation, and a revamped design — the Lifecycle team contributed to Revolut's largest annual increase in customers to date.

The work we did helped push Revolut's growth forward in 2023. Each team across the company stepped up their game that year, and that combined effort translated into both remarkable user acquisition and stronger retention rates.

Revolut continues to stand out in the fintech space by delivering genuine value through its expanding features and refined user experience, now connecting with 1 million users daily.

60%

Of new customers retained after 2 months

28%

Increase in funded accounts during onboarding

45%

Increase in customer base (12m users) in 2023

68%

Increase in customers using Revolut as a primary account in 2023

38%

Increase in total customer balances for 2023

Thanks for your time! I'd be happy to elaborate on the work described in this case study on a call.

Video credits

Oleg Lehnitsky

Ben Brouckaert Design + Product Porfolio

2025