Invoice onboarding

Designed core invoicing experiences within Xero’s mobile acquisition and onboarding flow, focusing on enabling new users to create and send invoices directly in the Xero Accounting App. The work aimed to reduce time-to-value faster while engaging with Xero’s core revenue workflows.

Role

I led the experience and interaction design for mobile invoice onboarding, translating complex requirements into clear, user-centred flows that helped new users get paid faster

Team

Product managers, Engineers, Content writers, Accessibility specialists, Web team

Stakeholders

GM of Product & Design, EGM of Engineering, Project leads

Design Approach

Problem

As Xero increasingly acquires customers directly through the Xero Accounting App (XAA), invoicing is often a user’s first meaningful interaction with the product. However, the current mobile experience makes it difficult for new users to confidently reach their first “send invoice” moment.

First-time users lack clear guidance on where and how to start invoicing
The experience does not clearly communicate value or next steps at key moments
Mobile invoicing does not align with users’ expectations shaped by web and competitors
Invoice creation feels transactional rather than supportive and progressive

*An audit of the existing mobile experience highlighted several points of friction that informed the design approach.*

Goal

Enable new XAA users to understand what to do first, how to invoice with confidence, and take their first step toward getting paid on mobile.

Challenges

Building new onboarding experiences alongside legacy invoice screens
Coordinating sequencing across a mobile-wide acquisition program spanning four teams
Designing for users with very different levels of product and invoicing knowledge
Getting users to value fast without overwhelming them with guidance

Solution

Our solution was a mobile-first tooltip experience that guided users through invoicing, helping them confidently create and send their first invoice so they could get paid sooner.

Impact

Accelerated time to getting paid
Guided Setup combined with invoice feature onboarding drove a +7.66 percentage uplift (+28% relative) in invoices sent within the first 14 days, helping new customers reach their first “money-in” moment faster.

A/B test result: Improved invoicing behaviour on mobile
35% of users who experienced the new onboarding sent an invoice within 14 days, compared to 28% in the control group, demonstrating stronger early engagement with a core cash-flow action.

Process

Discovery

I led alignment across the mobile acquisition initiative to establish a shared understanding of the problem and desired outcomes. This involved:

Defining success metrics that connected user value to business impact
Partnering with Product Managers, Tech Leads, and senior stakeholders to frame the opportunity
Clarifying user and business needs across teams

Shaping scope and direction

This was a complex, multi-team initiative spanning the mobile portfolio. I worked closely with PMs and initiative leads to:

Co-facilitate a cross-functional discovery workshop
Map the current experience through a user-centred lens
Identify key pain points and opportunities
Generate early design directions to inform prioritisation and delivery

Research

To inform early design direction, I led research across competitor analysis, experience review, and desk research, focusing on how mobile onboarding can reduce friction, build confidence, and drive first-time success.

Key insights

Sequential onboarding builds confidence (template → first invoice)
Fewer, well-timed steps outperform exhaustive guidance
Progress indicators reduce uncertainty and abandonment
Success states reinforce momentum
Always-on onboarding supports learning over time

Outcome

These insights were translated into clear design principles and directly informed lo-fi concepts focused on helping users reach their first successful action faster.

Ideation & User-testing

Building on research insights, I explored multiple directions before converging on two onboarding concepts for first-time invoice creation. Throughout ideation, I worked closely with Tech Leads to understand technical constraints early and regularly validated lo-fi concepts to ensure ideas were feasible before progressing.

User-testing

To evaluate the two concepts, I built two working prototypes and ran unmoderated user-testing to assess usability, confidence, and perceived effort.

What we tested

Which fields users expected and found most valuable
Clarity of language for users unfamiliar with Xero
Perceived effort and confidence in completing the flow
Understanding of progress and task completion

Key learnings

✅ Users strongly preferred the guided step-by-step approach in concept 1
✅ Visible progress made a 7-step flow feel fast and achievable
✅ Progress indicators increased trust and reduced uncertainty
⚠️ Language clarity required iteration

These learnings informed iteration into mid-fidelity designs and provided confidence to progress into hi-fi.

Prototype 🚀

Delivery

Content review

Insights from user testing highlighted language clarity as a key factor in supporting first-time success. To address this, I led multiple working sessions with a content specialist to refine copy, ensuring terminology was clear, approachable, and intuitive for users unfamiliar with Xero. This helped reduce friction and increased confidence at key decision points in the flow.

Accessibility review

In parallel, I partnered with an accessibility specialist to review the experience and ensure designs met WCAG standards. Accessibility considerations were embedded early, influencing layout, contrast, focus states, and interaction behaviour rather than being addressed retrospectively.

Designing for Scale

To support scalability beyond this initiative, I designed and componentised a reusable tooltip pattern and contributed it back to Xero’s mobile design system. I collaborated closely with engineers to ensure the component was built for reuse, documented usage guidelines and best practices, and validated it across different contexts. This pattern was later adopted in the Guided Setup stream, reducing development effort and improving consistency across the app.

Delivery & Execution

Once hi-fi designs were complete, I partnered closely with engineering and supported the team through to delivery via regular design and experience reviews, ensuring the intended interactions were implemented as designed. I also created an end-to-end interactive prototype to clearly communicate complex interactions, reducing rework and enabling faster, more confident delivery.