Automation Platform Onboarding

Automation Platform Onboarding

Self-serve onboarding and a centralized Connection Center to cut time and touchpoints

Self-serve onboarding and a centralized Connection Center to cut time and touchpoints

Self-serve onboarding and a centralized Connection Center to cut time and touchpoints

GIF of a user clicking from the Connection Center into a product Details Page.
GIF of a user clicking from the Connection Center into a product Details Page.
GIF of a user clicking from the Connection Center into a product Details Page.

Summary

Summary

Turned a multi-day, high-touch onboarding process into a one-session self-serve experience. I led end-to-end UX for onboarding and integrations across the automation platform, designing a new self-registration flow and a Connection Center that unified setup across products. The redesign standardized terminology, simplified steps, and reduced manual assistance. We shipped self-service onboarding and centralized product connections, cutting setup time from days to minutes and reducing support dependency across teams.

At a Glance

At a Glance

Role: Senior UX Designer (project lead for onboarding and integrations)

Users: System administrators and IT managers responsible for deploying and linking products

Problem: Account setup required multiple approvals, handoffs, and inconsistent steps across products, causing long delays and confusion

Solution: A self-serve onboarding flow paired with a centralized Connection Center to connect products in one place with consistent steps and language

Key Features: Self-registration; guided step-by-step setup; centralized Connection Center for integrations; standardized checklists; consistent UX copy and terminology; reusable interface components

My Contributions: Discovery, journey mapping, service blueprinting, cross-functional workshops, IA and flows, high-fidelity prototypes, content guidelines, reusable components, design-system contributions

Tools: Figma, FigJam, company design system, Google Workspace

Outcomes: Shipped self-service onboarding and the Connection Center, reducing setup time from days to minutes, cutting handoffs and support requests, and improving delivery speed and consistency across product teams

The Opportunity

The Opportunity

Public-safety tech stacks are sprawling: radios, cameras, sensors, access control, and more, often acquired from different vendors and expected to work as one. When I joined this project, the bottleneck wasn’t day-to-day use; it was everything before first use. Account creation often involved multiple steps across products, each with different integration flows and terminology. We aimed to shorten time-to-first-use and reduce manual assistance by making setup self-serve and consistent. My mandate: redesign onboarding and integration so teams could get operational quickly, without expert help.

My Role: Lead Designer & Strategic Partner

My Role: Lead Designer & Strategic Partner

  • Owned the end-to-end UX for onboarding and integrations, from discovery to delivery.

  • Mapped current journeys (account creation, product linking, first-run setup) to expose avoidable steps and hand-offs.

  • Ran cross-functional workshops with product teams and SMEs to standardize what “good setup” looks like across products.

  • Delivered a high-fidelity prototype of the new flows and UI, plus content guidelines and reusable components to scale adoption.

  • Partnered closely with engineering and product to ship self-service capabilities and a central place to connect products.

The Problems We Saw

The Problems We Saw

Screenshot of the Orchestrate Account Request Google Form, which required 3-5 business days and multiple communications to activate, highlighting manual steps in the workflow.
Screenshot of the Orchestrate Account Request Google Form, which required 3-5 business days and multiple communications to activate, highlighting manual steps in the workflow.
Screenshot of the Orchestrate Account Request Google Form, which required 3-5 business days and multiple communications to activate, highlighting manual steps in the workflow.
  • Onboarding drag — New accounts took days and multiple human touchpoints.

  • Fragmented instructions — Each product used different steps, terms, and formats; users had to reconcile conflicts on their own.

  • High cognitive load — Too much technical detail up front; unclear what to do first vs. later.

  • Heavy support dependency reliance on manual assistance became common, slowing rollouts and tying up internal teams.

Strategy & Alignment

Strategy & Alignment

  • Journey mapping of the end-to-end customer experience.

  • Voice-of-customer and SME interviews to confirm the biggest slowdowns and failure points.

  • Service blueprinting to decide which steps should be self-serve, guided, or assisted.

  • Defined a consistent “minimum setup” baseline per product to unify experience and avoid rework.

Our Solution

Our Solution

Self-Registration

Self-Registration
Screenshot of a self-serve, step-by-step onboarding that replaces request-and-wait—users complete setup in one sitting with no hand-offs, fewer touchpoints, and go live in minutes instead of days.
Screenshot of a self-serve, step-by-step onboarding that replaces request-and-wait—users complete setup in one sitting with no hand-offs, fewer touchpoints, and go live in minutes instead of days.
Screenshot of a self-serve, step-by-step onboarding that replaces request-and-wait—users complete setup in one sitting with no hand-offs, fewer touchpoints, and go live in minutes instead of days.

Replaced request-and-wait onboarding with a self-serve flow. Users could now get started in one sitting. This removed hand-offs, cut overall touchpoints, and allowed users to get started in minutes, not days.

Connection Center

Connection Center
Screenshot of a guided setup checklist where users configure steps like server, admin account, and alerts in one flow, enabling them to get started immediately without waiting on external hand-offs.
Screenshot of a guided setup checklist where users configure steps like server, admin account, and alerts in one flow, enabling them to get started immediately without waiting on external hand-offs.
Screenshot of a guided setup checklist where users configure steps like server, admin account, and alerts in one flow, enabling them to get started immediately without waiting on external hand-offs.

Designed a single interface where users could discover available product integrations and complete setup in one place.

Key improvements:

  • Consolidated scattered setup flows into one consistent, guided experience

  • Standardized terminology and structure so every product followed a predictable rhythm

  • Made it simple to see which integrations were available and configure them using clear, repeatable steps

  • Eliminated back-and-forth hand-offs by letting users complete setup within the same flow

UX Copy & Information Architecture

UX Copy & Information Architecture

Lengthy and confusing instructions were revised into a simple checklist with consistent terms and straightforward language. Outcomes:

  • Fewer surprises (same concept, same word, across products).

  • Actionable guidance (“Do this now” vs. “Here’s everything at once”).

  • Confidence to self-serve for non-specialist admins.

Reusable Components

Reusable Components
GIF of a prototype of the Dual List Selector built for configuration flow and adopted by company-wide design system.
GIF of a prototype of the Dual List Selector built for configuration flow and adopted by company-wide design system.

Contributed modular patterns such as a dual listbox (above), banners, connection status tiles, so each product team could provide consistent content and implement the same experience without reinventing.

Research & Validation

Research & Validation

  • QA teardown with engineering to document redundant steps and dead ends.

  • Interactive prototype reviews with product and engineering to exercise edge cases and verify end-to-end coverage before build.

  • Focused customer reviews to confirm the new flows removed the biggest hurdles (sign-up delays, inconsistent steps, unclear next actions).

  • Build-readiness checkpoints across product, engineering, and architecture, with internal dry-runs on representative scenarios to finalize on-schedule sign-off.

Results & Impact

Results & Impact

Screenshot of three-step self-serve onboarding:create account, accept agreements, set password—so users finish in one sitting and get instant access, eliminating hand-offs and multi-day waits.
Screenshot of three-step self-serve onboarding:create account, accept agreements, set password—so users finish in one sitting and get instant access, eliminating hand-offs and multi-day waits.
Screenshot of three-step self-serve onboarding:create account, accept agreements, set password—so users finish in one sitting and get instant access, eliminating hand-offs and multi-day waits.

Onboarding: days → minutes
Users could create accounts and invite teammates in one sitting instead of waiting multiple days for manual activation.

Integration speed
A centralized Connection Center replaced scattered documentation and bespoke setup flows, reducing confusion and enabling faster product linking.

Reduced support dependency
Clear, consistent steps and language cut “how do I…?” tickets and allowed non-technical admins to self-serve with confidence.

Cross-team efficiency
Reusable components and standardized content accelerated delivery across multiple product teams, improving alignment and consistency at scale.

Reflections

Reflections

Design the runway, not just the plane.
The best features don’t matter if setup stalls; self-serve is the multiplier.

Standardize the verbs.
One shared sequence (“check prerequisites → connect → finish setup”) beats ten bespoke ones.

Clarity compounds.
Plain language and predictable patterns reduce support, shorten cycles, and raise confidence.

Ship the baseline, then deepen.
A consistent minimum setup per product creates momentum; advanced scenarios can layer on later.

Authenticity & Confidentiality
This case study reflects real design work. Certain labels, visuals, and data are anonymized, generalized, or reconstructed from public references. No non-public, confidential, or proprietary information, nor any third-party proprietary information, is disclosed.

© 2025 by Joe Balich — All Rights Reserved

© 2025 by Joe Balich — All Rights Reserved

© 2025 by Joe Balich — All Rights Reserved