Where we started

The fantasy sports industry requires companies to collect user data for operational and legal purposes. Before a user can enter a paid contest, SuperDraft needs to gather their age, location, and verify their identity. Thankfully we have 10m target users who have already verified with other fantasy sports products that understand the reasoning and are familiar with this process.

As the sports betting industry began to take off in the United States, we adjusted our marketing strategy by expanding our target audience. This new demographic includes casual sports fans who have not yet played fantasy sports, meaning this will be the first time these users will have to decide if disclosing their information is worth the effort. As expected, these new fantasy sports players are dropping off at higher rates throughout the onboarding experience.

SuperDraft's current onboarding flow was built three years previously based on competitive analysis data. We previously could not invest the time to clean up the UI; we prioritized function over form in our scrappy startup phase.

The goal of the onboarding flow is for a user to enter a paid contest that currently requires them to go through 10 steps.

Early insights

To dive deeper into the problems facing new users, I teamed up with Andy, VP of Marketing, and Zach, Director of Operations. SuperDraft's standard acquisition funnel tracks users' registration, verification (KYC), deposit, and paid contest entry.

We have a 10% chance that someone will make it through all hurdles and enter a contest. Unfortunately, only 11% of that group goes on to win a fantasy contest. Who wants to deposit more money and play again after losing?

Providing a winning experience is at the core of SuperDraft's marketing message, and a users first contest sets the tone.

The rundown

Skip to designs

How might we improve onboarding so that our customers are more successful in product?

SuperDraft's onboarding requirements involve many aspects of the business, as all well-designed experiences do. Understanding the funnel metrics helps us define our KPI's, but we also want to consider the impact that the brand has on the customer experience. Our goals involve direction from all departments of the company.

Our KPI's, in order of priority:

1. Increase the number of users who successfully verify their identity
2. Increase the number of users who deposit money
3. Increase the number of users who have a winning experience the first time they play
4. Set expectations and help the user grasp what our product is all about from a brand standpoint

Direction

Curating a winning first time experience is important to all products, but for SuperDraft, user are literally here to win. Through collaboration with the Marketing team as well as our Contest team we found two key ways we can help.

1. Give away money
Introducing 'FREE5', SuperDraft's new promo code, which solves many of our issues. Previously, we were marketing deposit offers; this new model allows us to promote free money just for signing up. Once registered, we can add positive reinforcement and quick wins in the onboarding process to help motivate people to complete the process. The most significant benefit of this promotion is that for users to enter a paid contest and use their free money, they must verify their account, incentivizing KYC.
‍
2. 50/50’s over large prize pool contests
Large prize pool numbers are always an eye-catcher, and for years we have been pushing the limits to promote a shiny number. With big contests, new users do not have the skills yet to compete against more advanced fantasy players. These contests are also structured so that only the top 5-10% of the users win prizes. Moving forward, we will promote Beginner 50/50's, where 50% of the users win prizes. The prize money will be smaller, but more players will have a winning experience.

Behind the Scenes

Discovery (2d)
- Document relevant data with customer support and data teams
- Revisit SuperDrafts competitor flows and document changes
- Research onboarding best practices
- Review user personas

Design (7d)
- Brainstorm improvements to the user journey
- Conduct a UX audit on our current
- Design solutions / prototype
- Conduct internal usability testing & iterate on designs
- Present design solutions with stakeholders
- Build handoff documentation

Minimize cognitive load

Let's reduce the amount of information, so you don't have to think so hard.

Instead of relying on the first screen to pitch the benefits of SuperDraft, we lean on our app store listing and the deposit offer to drive account creation. We can fill you in on more benefits organically throughout the onboarding process, where it makes more sense. One common decision. Join Now or Sign In.‍

Aesthetic-Usability Effect

A significant addition to this screen is the exposed FREE5 promo code. FREE5 incentivized users to complete the form and allowed SuperDraft to provide positive success messaging within the onboarding flow.We had a 91% success rate on the old design, so we maintained the integrity of the input fields while elevating the brand and improving consistency in our UI. ‍

Quick wins

Everyone loves free money. Adding the ‘FREE5’ promo code allowed us to give a user a quick win before asking to deposit and verify. Giving the user a win upfront will help to ensure they are more likely to have the motivation to keep going.

To further incentivize people to deposit, we highlighted more opportunities to claim free money and added urgency to the offers.

Correct information

Before a user can deposit money, we must first verify their identity. To help ease the frustration, we have added personality to our UX writing and information to help the user complete the process.

A massive reason for verification drop-off was users inputting incorrect information. We helped minimize this by providing more context around the correct ways to get verified, such as using the information on your ID or if your ID says "Road," input "Road," not "Rd.".

Another issue we uncovered was communication to the user after a failed verification. Once a verification fails, they cannot deposit until our CX team can manually verify their ID. We added messaging around the following steps and reminded them that free contests are available to keep them within the product.

Due to these changes, we have increased users who successfully verified their identity by 312%.

Winning Experience

This is what they came for, playing fantasy sports. Let's get them excited and confident about winning their first contest. Once a user decides to enter the 50/50 contest, we walk them through a tutorial on playing with quick tips and animations.

Changing the contest type has increased the number of users who win their first contest by 505%.

Takeaways

There may not be phase two. We have not gone back and made many updates to onboarding to this day. Making sure your MVP is designed effectively is a crucial task.

Onboarding was the first complete redesign I had worked on since the launch. I took this opportunity to document everything better, which generated a robust handoff document. Instead of alleviating questions, it caused more questions and confusion. Through cross-collaboration throughout the project, the teams had a strong understanding of the design. The extensive document created confusion and had team members second-guessing their knowledge. More straightforward handoff documentation could have significantly reduced the time spent and would have been more effective in communicating the designs.

SuperDraft Fantasy

First Impressions

How might we improve onboarding so that our customers are more successful in product?

Direction

Behind the Scenes

Up next

Mary Annon