Gusto is a people platform supporting 300,000+ small businesses with payroll, benefits, and HR tools.

Onboarding Package Recommendation

Personalizing Package Selection to Drive Activation

This redesign tackled early user drop-off by surfacing plan recommendations earlier in the onboarding journey. It helped customers better understand Gusto’s offerings, increased product adoption, and laid the foundation for a more personalized, scalable onboarding experience.

Problems we observed

Many customers were not completing onboarding or adopting our core products in the flow previous to the redesign.

Too many steps before value

Users were required to complete too many setup steps before they could even understand what Gusto offered and its extended product support. (UXR insights)

Top UXR insight (first 90 day new users)

New users struggled to understand what Gusto offers early in their journey

Specific User Goals

• Get up and running quickly

• Minimize cognitive load – reduce having to figure out what comes next

• Stay Within Budget

• Ensure tax compliance and avoid mistakes

Key Business Metrics

• No harm to payroll conversions

• Increase in matching add-on attachment

• Increase in average contract value (ACV)

• Reduce payroll onboarding drop-off

•Engagement in BIG 5 (core products) exposure

Early Concept Explorations

Designing an Interaction Model for Confidence & Control

This design introduces a guided advisor experience: we start with a clear recommendation, allow customization so users feel in control, and if a user chooses to downgrade away from the original recommendation, we surface a 'recommended again' modal.

That interaction reminds them why we made the initial suggestion—reaffirming value and encouraging reconsideration without blocking their progress.

Leadership Review & pre-MVP UXR

Presenting Sem-Final Designs and Vision for What’s Next

I collaborated with UXR to run another unmoderated test with 17 new employers using Gusto.

One standout insight was how long users spent on the recommendation page. It wasn’t necessarily always a good thing—it suggested analysis paralysis, where people weren’t sure how to proceed. When it came to benefits, some users were confused about Gusto’s role—whether we’re providing the benefits directly or not

But on the upside, several users were pleasantly surprised to discover that we have a benefits marketplace and found value in the integrated experience."

the MVP

Simplifying the Flow, Aligning the Teams, and Launching with Purpose

Finally, we arrived at MVP. In the MVP, we simplified the customization flow. Rather than making users go through a step-by-step process for plan, add-ons, and benefits, we moved to a 'save and continue' model.

We also streamlined the pricing panel to only show what’s necessary, cutting out confusion.

And instead of dropping users on the dashboard after package selection, we chose to move them straight into the first step of payroll onboarding—to keep the ball rolling.

Our success metrics

  • Subscription ACV ↑ 11%

  • Onboarding completion rate ↑ 8%

  • 85% increase in 401k opportunities and leads (Not activation)

  • 200% increase in Plus plan + 1 add-on bundle selection