Case Study: Self-Service Signup & Login Flow for AI Product Portal

Overview

Historically, the company relied entirely on sales-driven customer acquisition, which created friction for prospects and slowed adoption of our AI products. We needed a modern, streamlined way for potential customers to sign up, explore the platform, and activate an account, without talking to a sales rep.

I led the end-to-end UX effort and managed two designers to build a simple, fast, 60-second onboarding experience that reflected the emerging brand and lowered barriers to evaluating our AI offerings.

This project enabled the company’s first self-service growth channel.

Role

Team Lead

Individual Contributor

Timeline

2 Weeks

Product Type

Self-Service Portal for Evaluating Enterprise AI Products

Team

Myself (Lead Designer)

2 Junior Designers

1 Product Manager

1 Engineer

Key Stakeholders

Problem & Context

The Challenge

The company’s customer onboarding process required:

  • direct communication with a salesperson,

  • manual creation of accounts,

  • internal approvals, and

  • back-and-forth email exchanges.

This friction discouraged early evaluation, especially detrimental in a rapidly evolving AI market where competitors offered frictionless signups.

Primary Users

  • AI-curious business leaders (non-technical decision makers)

  • Technical practitioners evaluating feasibility (engineers, data analysts)

Pain Points Identified

  • No way to try the product independently

  • No simple login mechanism for returning users

  • Confusion about which product or path was right for their role

  • Overly technical explanations and poorly branded legacy UI

Constraints

  • Limited engineering bandwidth

  • Short timeline before a major product launch

  • Need to integrate with evolving design system + brand refresh

Sign-up screen showing standard fields plus product-specific required fields, with marketing material explaining the benefits of the product.

Defining the Experience

I led the UX direction around a core principle:

“Avoid complexity. The experience should feel effortless.”

In practice, this meant:

  • reducing steps,

  • eliminating jargon,

  • providing guardrails for different user types,

  • and designing a modern, branded entry point that set expectations for the entire product.

Key Experience Pillars

  1. Instant clarity — Users immediately see what product they’re signing up for.

  2. Short time-to-value — Signup completion in under 60 seconds.

  3. Role-appropriate paths — Different needs for business vs technical users.

  4. Trust & credibility — Clean visual language, clear security cues.

  5. Seamless handoff — Smooth transition into the onboarding experience.

Design Activities & Process

My Responsibilities

  • Translated product requirements into UX strategy

  • Created end-to-end user flows + architecture

  • Designed wireframes and prototypes

  • Integrated design system components

  • Developed visual direction (color theme, typography, spacing)

  • Reviewed and guided junior designers

  • Collaborated with PM, engineering, and sales stakeholders

  • Ensured adherence to UX best practices for conversions

Key Concepts Explored

  1. Two-path model: Business users vs technical users

  2. Minimalist step-based flow: Email > verification > basic profile > done

  3. Auto-detecting company domain based on email domain

Final Experience Components

  • Role Selection Screen
    Helps users pick paths that match expectations (“Business Leader” or “Technical User”)

  • Smart Email Input
    Validates corporate domains, provides trust indicators

  • Brand-Aligned Visual Design
    Crisp typography, neutral colors with a signature accent, clean spacing

  • Mobile-Ready Layout
    Optimized for phone-based signup (common scenario at conferences/demos)

A. Simple, Modern Signup Flow

A clean, single-column layout with fewer fields, clear labeling, and auto-validation.

B. Role-Specific Experiences

  • Business users see product value first

  • Technical users get quick access to documentation, API keys, and integration steps

C. Login for Returning Users

  • Simplified “Forgot Password” flow

D. Visual Direction

  • Fresh, neutral theme

  • Strategically placed accent color

  • Elevated whitespace and spacing rules

  • Consistent with the new design system

E. Error Handling & Edge States

  • Clear, friendly error messages

  • Blocked personal-email domains

Impact

Quantitative

Less than 60 seconds

Signup completion, down from multi-day sales process

Qualitative

“Game-changer for growth.”

-Leadership

Instant adoption

-across demos, webinars, and outbound campaigns

“This cut our qualification time sharply.”

-Sales

“I appreciate not having to go through sales.”

-Prospect

Strategic Impact

This project enabled:

  • A new self-service acquisition channel

  • Faster product evaluations (critical in AI competition)

  • Entry into product-led growth

  • Reduced dependency on sales for initial onboarding

  • A new foundation for future onboarding flows

It effectively modernized how the company presents itself to the outside world.

Lessons & Future Improvements

What I’d Improve

  • Add social SSO (Google, Microsoft)

  • Build analytics dashboards to track drop-offs

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