Improving the API integration and onboarding journey for new users
Overview
Mollie is one of Europe’s leading Payment Service Providers (PSP), offering businesses a range of payment solutions, including online payment systems for websites, in-person payment terminals, and financial tools. This project focused on improving the user experience for new customers, especially in the onboarding process.
I led the redesign of Mollie's KYC (Know Your Customer) experience and the API integration feature, simplifying the connection of websites and e-commerce platforms with Mollie’s services.
The redesign was launched across all markets and resulted in improved click-through (+366%) and conversion rates (+5.4%).
My role
Product Designer — Interaction Design, Visual Design, User Flows, Rapid Prototyping
Team
1 PM, 1 EM, 1 PD (me), 6+ engineers
Timeline
6 weeks
Tags
Fintech
B2B
PSP
Web
Onboarding
💫 Highlights
A quick preview — I will tell you how and why we got there.
🔎 Opportunity
Let's look at the numbers
Data revealed that customers who used a test API key were 3x more likely to complete a payment (65% vs. 23%) compared to those using their live key directly.
This presented an opportunity to enhance the user experience by allowing customers to test the feature before going live, thereby increasing the likelihood of conversion.
⚠️ Exact numbers are blurred out due to a NDA.
65%
With test payment
23%
Without test payment
👤 Customer research
Diving deeper in the mind of our customers
We conducted user interviews that revealed two major pain points:
1
Customers had difficulty getting started with Mollie.
2
Users struggled to find the guides for integrating their API keys.
These insights led to a redesign of the user flow, aiming to make the API integration process more intuitive and seamless during onboarding.
🎯 Hypothesis and goals
Measuring impact
We formulated four hypotheses to test the impact of these changes:
1
Increase in test transactions made by new customers.
3
No decrease in customers completing full KYC steps after integrating the test API.
4
Improved click-through rate of product cards.
🚀 Execution
Taking action
To execute the improvements, we focused on three critical areas:
Documentation
We updated the documentation page to include clear, step-by-step guides for integrating API keys, ensuring merchants had direct links to relevant resources (e.g., WooCommerce integrations).
Prebuilt integrations: A new overview.
Code libraries: A new overview.
API keys journey
We explored different pathways for API key integration, emphasizing simplicity. Clear callouts and easy navigation were implemented to guide users through the process efficiently.
Usability audit of the old API keys page.
Getting started page
We overhauled the landing page by decoupling the KYC process from API integration. This allowed merchants to explore Mollie’s services and test payment methods before completing KYC, making it easier for them to discover and navigate key features.
📊 Validating
A/B testing
An A/B test was conducted to compare the new experience with the previous one. This allowed us to gauge the effectiveness of the redesigned onboarding flow and API integration.
Get started
Test A: Previous get started page
Test B: Get started page redesigns
API keys
Test A: Previous API keys page
Test B: API keys page redesigns
🏁 Outcome
Our findings
The results of the experiment were promising, we saw:
⚠️ Exact numbers are blurred out due to a NDA.
Conversion metrics
Source: Mixpanel data
64.4%
+3.9%
First payments
18K+
+6.2%
Full KYC provided
2.5K
+6%
Activated customers
Click-through rates
Source: Mixpanel data
64.4%
+341%
Online payments - clicks
2.5K
+391%
In person payments - clicks
💭 Retrospective
What were the key learnings
From this project, several important takeaways emerged:
1
Importance of testing: Allowing merchants to integrate and test API keys before completing KYC played a significant role in increasing the completion rate of KYC steps.
2
Decoupling onboarding: Decoupling the KYC process from initial integration allowed users to explore and understand Mollie’s features before encountering friction, making the onboarding flow smoother.
3
Collaboration matters: Working closely with technical and external partners such as WooCommerce ensured that the project’s broader implications were considered early on, helping avoid delays and facilitating a successful rollout.
💬 Kind words
