Wells Fargo: Designing trust into onboarding

Problem: Wells Fargo saw significant drop-off across its digital checking account onboarding flow — particularly during identity verification and initial funding activation.

The assumption was that users were abandoning because the experience was too long or cumbersome. Our research revealed a more nuanced problem: users often lacked trust, clarity, and confidence at key moments in the journey.

I led design strategy and research for a cross-functional initiative focused on identifying the root causes of abandonment and defining a prioritized roadmap for improving onboarding conversion and activation.

Role: Design and Product Strategy Lead

Team: Product Managers, Researchers, Designers, Data Analysts, Client Stakeholders

Outcome: Defined and prioritized a roadmap of ~25 initiatives spanning onboarding, trust signals, activation, and customer education.

01: Understanding the onboarding journey

To understand where and why users were dropping off, the project’s research was structured research across three lenses:

  • Qualitative interviews

  • Quantitative survey data

  • Competitive analysis

This allowed us to evaluate not just where users abandoned the flow, but what expectations and anxieties shaped their behavior throughout the onboarding experience.

We analyzed Wells Fargo’s existing onboarding journey alongside flows from competitors including Capital One, Chime, Ally, PNC, and Bank of America — reviewing account opening, identity verification, and funding activation patterns across the market.

The research surfaced a critical insight:

Users weren’t abandoning solely because of friction. They were abandoning because they lacked confidence in what would happen next.

Moments like identity verification, external account linking, and initial deposits introduced uncertainty around:

  • Security

  • Timing

  • Account status

  • Fund availability

Without enough reassurance or transparency, users hesitated — especially during high-friction steps involving sensitive financial information.

Competitive Audit - Broken out by competitor

Competitive Audit - Broken out by competitor and step

Diary Study - Abandonment

User Journey - Application process

02: Challenging assumptions with competitive data

The journey analysis revealed that Wells Fargo’s onboarding experience lagged behind competitors in several key areas:

  • Expectation-setting

  • Progress visibility

  • Contextual education

  • Trust reinforcement

  • Activation guidance

In many cases, competing banks met users’ need for reassurance the transparency by proactively explaining:

  • Why sensitive information was required

  • How long verification would take

  • What users should expect after submitting

  • When accounts would become usable

Wells Fargo’s flow often relied on users inferring this information themselves.

This reframed the core problem. The issue wasn’t simply reducing steps — it was designing onboarding experiences that reduced ambiguity and reinforced confidence throughout the process.

That insight shifted the team’s roadmap from tactical UX fixes toward broader improvements in transparency, education, and onboarding orchestration.

Excerpt 1 from Research Synthesis deck

Excerpt 2 from Research Synthesis deck

Excerpt 4 from Research Synthesis deck

Excerpt 3 from Research Synthesis deck

03: Building a framework our client could use without us

To help Wells Fargo prioritize improvements beyond isolated UX changes, I synthesized the research into a strategic framework the broader organization could use to evaluate onboarding decisions.

The framework grouped friction into four categories:

  • Transparent — users clearly understood what was happening and why

  • Supportive — the system helped users navigate uncertainty or next steps

  • Consistent — language, expectations, and feedback reinforced trust

  • Easy — workflows minimized unnecessary effort or confusion

This created a shared language for evaluating onboarding experiences across product, design, and business teams — making it easier to prioritize initiatives based on customer confidence, activation risk, and operational impact.

Early whiteboard mapping session

04: Outcome

The engagement reframed how Wells Fargo approached onboarding optimization.

Rather than focusing exclusively on reducing friction, the team began prioritizing experiences that increased user confidence, clarified expectations, and improved activation readiness across the onboarding lifecycle.

The final roadmap included ~25 prioritized initiatives spanning:

  • Onboarding UX

  • Identity verification

  • Activation flows

  • Trust messaging

  • Customer education

  • Progress transparency

The work also established a repeatable evaluation framework the organization could continue using across future onboarding and activation initiatives.

Excerpt 1 from final readout deck

Excerpt 2 from final readout deck

Excerpt 4 from final readout deck

Excerpt 3 from final readout deck