Reducing the drop-off rate of the savings journey
25% → 70% onboarding completion
73% → 55% drop-off before first funding
10+ A/B tests
Adapting a desktop-first white-label savings platform to the MoneySuperMarket app, across a journey split between two companies.
Role
Product Designer
INDUSTRY
Financial Services
PLATFORM
React, Typescript
MAIN Tools
Figma, AB Tasty, Hotjar
PROBLEM STATEMENT
MoneySuperMarket’s Savings proposition launched in Q1 2026 on a desktop-first white-label, shipped on app without mobile usability research. Within weeks, customer ops volume was climbing, only 25% of users completed onboarding, and most new accounts were never funded.
TEAM & CONTRIBUTIONS
I led two workstreams, app journey and comparison grid, with 1 PM and 3 engineers at MSM and a partner team of 1 designer, 1 PM and 5 engineers.
Designed the visual A/B tests and shaped the test roadmap with product
Ran interviews and usability tests on brand identification
Main design bridge with the partner: change requests and QA
Used ChatGPT for wireframes, prototypes and research synthesis
Evidence & Reasoning
A first-party product on a desktop-first platform
Savings was one of MoneySuperMarket’s first in-house products, moving the company from comparison platform to end-to-end service owner. It launched through a white-label partnership offering exclusive rates and cashback. The partner’s platform had been built for desktop, so gaps in the app experience only surfaced once customers started contacting support.
A journey owned by two systems
MSM owns the onboarding flow. The partner owns the savings platform and account experience. Every change on either side meant separate teams, timelines and releases. Designing across that boundary, and keeping it invisible to customers, shaped every decision.
Key pain points
Lack of transparency: customers didn’t know when their funds would land, driving avoidable support contacts.
Low completion: only 25% of users completed onboarding.
Low engagement: most customers who opened an account never funded it.
Weak branding: nothing signalled that Savings was a MoneySuperMarket product.
STRATEGY & APPROACH
Two parallel workstreams
The response to the launch issues was split into two distinct workstreams: optimising the in-app journey and redesigning the savings comparison grid to differentiate the native proposition.
Optimise the app journey
Cut steps before registration, adapt partner screens for mobile, and give customers clear updates on where their money was.
Comparison savings grid redesign
Make MSM’s exclusive accounts visible without compromising the grid as an unbiased comparison tool.
OUTCOMES & DELIVERABLES
Key decisions
1. From 5 steps to 2 before registration
Three promotional screens became one. The account discovery screen merged with the “what you need to open an account” screen. Platform details moved to an optional screen for customers who wanted more. Restructuring onboarding drove the biggest conversion gains.
2. Adapting the partner’s desktop screens to mobile
Working with the partner team, I redesigned and QA’d key screens for mobile. This drove the biggest usability gains, including a 50% increase in mobile filter use.
3. Alerts across the app
Applying Nielsen’s Visibility of System Status heuristic, we added alerts throughout the app showing where funds were in the process, reducing uncertainty after deposit.
4. Highlighting MSM accounts without biasing the list
Exclusive accounts got a branded wrapper and a dedicated details drawer with MSM branding and proposition, while the list order stayed accurate and unbiased.
IMPACT
Measurable gains through rapid experimentation
Across both workstreams, incremental UI improvements, new product cards and page redesigns helped reduce friction and improve performance throughout the savings journey.
25% → 70% onboarding completion after cutting the journey from 5 steps to 2.
Drop-off before first funding fell from 73% to 55% and registrations rose 6% compared with the previous onboarding.
15% higher click-out conversion on the savings offers in the grid, and 50% more mobile filter use.
Learning from what didn’t work
Not every test succeeded. An early onboarding version showed customers the top accounts upfront, but the highest rates came from lesser-known banks and a Hotjar survey run during the test showed this lowered trust. We moved account choice later in the journey.
Branding taught us something too. In usability tests, every participant easily identified MSM’s exclusive offers. But in A/B tests, unbranded cards got more interaction. Our hypothesis: the branded card read too much like an ad, and people skipped it. That became the next test to run.
