Enhancing QBO User Experience

Key Learning & Recommendations

"It started with feedback from my gardener: 'Used to be good, now overpriced and getting worse!' This sparked my curiosity—what do other QuickBooks customers really think?"

This personal moment led to comprehensive research across 20+ customer interviews, 5000+ reviews, and hands-on product testing.

By Paurush Singh
Research Complete

Target: >20% NPS Improvement

Executive Summary
20+
Long-term customers interviewed
5000+
Reviews analyzed
34
Onboarding steps experienced

Research Approach: Design Thinking

1. Empathize & Define
2. Ideate & Design
3. Prototype
The Story Behind This Research
Real customer voices that sparked this investigation
Customer feedback quotes that started the research

"Used to be good, now overpriced and getting worse!"

- My Gardener (the spark that started it all)

"I made a mistake switching to QBO and lost that comfort I used to have with my old software."

- Long-term Desktop user

"Pricing is off the roof. I wish I could increase pricing in my business like that!"

- Small business owner

Research Methods: 19 customer interviews • G2.com & Capterra reviews • Google Play sentiment analysis of 5000+ reviews

What Customers Love
Ease of use and intuitive navigation
Seamless integrations
Comprehensive business management
Expense tracking & mileage features
Major Pain Points
Onboarding
11 issues
Banking & Accounting
8 issues
Features
4 issues
Pricing
3 issues
Support
4 issues
Competitive Landscape Analysis
QBO vs competitors on key metrics (G2.com ratings)
Ease of Use
QBO: 8.1Xero: 8.3Sage: 8.2NetSuite: 7.8
Setup
QBO: 7.9Xero: 8.7Sage: 8.3NetSuite: 7.8
Support Quality
QBO: 7.4Xero: 8.1Sage: 7.6NetSuite: 7
My Onboarding Experience Journey
A first-hand account of the QBO onboarding process

Website Complexity Issues

  • • 20+ clickable options under 'For Business'
  • • 15+ options under 'Learn & Support'
  • • 3 different pricing links causing confusion
  • • 10+ minutes just to find the right product
Prioritized Solutions (WSJF Framework)
Top 5 solutions based on business value, time criticality, and risk reduction
#1
Checklist to show stage and % complete
WSJF Score: 6.7
Prototype Ready
#2
Profiling to auto suggest product & pricing
WSJF Score: 6.7
In Planning
#3
Enhance auto population and design of invoices
WSJF Score: 6.25
In Planning
#4
Prioritize, reorder and reduce key info for onboarding
WSJF Score: 6
Prototype Ready
#5
Reduce steps and clicks for onboarding
WSJF Score: 4.8
Prototype Ready
Proposed Onboarding Redesign - Interactive MVP
Streamlined 3-stage process to replace the current 34-step journey

Let's set up your business

Step 1 of 3

We'll auto-fill most details using your ABN

We'll auto-fill your business details

80%
Time Reduction
25 min → 5 min
91%
Fewer Steps
34 → 3 stages
+40%
Completion Rate
Expected improvement
+20%
NPS Improvement
Target goal

Key Improvements in This Design

  • • Progress indicator shows completion status
  • • ABN auto-fill reduces manual data entry
  • • Smart feature recommendations based on business type
  • • Skip options for non-essential steps
  • • Visual feature selection with icons
  • • Streamlined bank account connection
Next Steps & Implementation

Immediate Actions (1-2 weeks)

  • Finalize onboarding prototype design
  • Develop profiling questionnaire
  • Create progress indicator system

Medium-term Goals (1-3 months)

  • Implement banking reconciliation improvements
  • Enhance transaction auto-tagging with AI
  • Redesign website navigation and pricing
Target: >20% NPS Improvement

Based on addressing top 5 prioritized pain points