2022-2026

How I Transformed Subscriptions Growth at Business Insider

Over the past 4 years, I drove conversion growth by redesigning Business Insider’s checkout experience, introducing a seamless experience by reducing the number of steps required for users to complete checkout and optimizing the funnel through A/B testing. These changes drove measurable conversion growth across our subscription funnel.

6%

Increase in conversion

24%

Improvement in trial to paid conversion

36k

new subscribers

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The Problem

Subscriptions were powered by a rigid third-party vendor that blocked UX improvements, A/B testing, and layout changes. On top of that, users were dropping off after account creation, and only a fraction were completing checkout, especially on mobile.

Technical Limitations

Our legacy payment vendor imposed severe constraints. We couldn't modify layouts, customize input fields, or run pricing experiments. This inflexibility not only caused design inconsistencies but also prevented us from optimizing our most critical conversion points.

Friction-Heavy Flow

Users had to create an account before subscribing, creating an unnecessary barrier. Data showed significant drop-off between account creation and checkout completion.

Technical Limitations

Our legacy payment vendor imposed severe constraints. We couldn’t modify layouts, customize input fields, or run pricing experiments. This inflexibility caused design inconsistencies and limited conversion testing.

Friction-Heavy Flow

Users had to create an account before subscribing, creating an unnecessary barrier. Data showed significant drop-off between account creation and checkout completion.

Research & Testing

How I navigated ambiguity

Before jumping into solutions, I worked to understand where and why users were dropping off.

Competitive research

I studied checkout patterns across brands like Nike, Walmart, and Target to validate design decisions and spot industry norms worth borrowing.

Evaluating user's psych level

I surveyed the user flows to identify friction points, diving into customer's minds, and understanding what was driving drop-off vs. action.

User testing

I created many user tests and surveys to ensure the design meets actual user needs, and make faster design decisions.

Stakeholder feedback

I looped in stakeholders early and throughout the process, to keep goals aligned as the project evolved.

Competitive research

I studied checkout patterns across brands like Nike, Walmart, and Target to validate design decisions and spot industry norms worth borrowing.

Evaluating user’s psych level

I surveyed the user flows to identify friction points, diving into customers’ minds and understanding what was driving drop-off vs. action.

User testing

I created many user tests and surveys to ensure the design met actual user needs and supported faster design decisions.

Stakeholder feedback

I looped in stakeholders early and throughout the process to keep goals aligned as the project evolved.

Discovery

Planning our approach

Before tackling the whole redesign of our subscription checkout experience, I worked with my team to surface priorities and business goals. We sequenced the work deliberately to minimize risk and build momentum.

Test launch with Corporate Subscription

We wanted to kick off the project where we would be able to introduce a new payment system into our code base without affecting live data. Then slowly deprecating our existing vendor.

Test launch with Corporate Subscription

We wanted to kick off the project where we would be able to introduce a new payment system into our code base without affecting live data. Then slowly deprecating our existing vendor.

Focusing on Consumer Subscription

With Corporate built, I reused the same components and patterns to keep the experience consistent and reduce engineering lift.

Focusing on Consumer Subscription

With Corporate built, I reused the same components and patterns to keep the experience consistent and reduce engineering lift.

Paywall Experimentation

We ran many paywall A/B tests, testing variants like layout, copy, pricing to see what moved conversion.

Paywall Experimentation

We ran many paywall A/B tests, testing variants like layout, copy, pricing to see what moved conversion.

Design decisions

Key decisions that reduced user friction and increase conversion

While traffic coming from mobile sources has been increasing with the advent of Google Discover, these users tend not to convert as easily as desktop users. We have found only ~7% of users that enter our checkout flow on mobile devices actually completes it.

Launching a "self-serve" experience on Corporate Subscriptions

We replaced the back-and-forth pricing quotation process with a redesigned landing page that made pricing transparent and let admins subscribe and onboard their teams independently.

Launching a "self-serve" experience on Corporate Subscriptions

We replaced the back-and-forth pricing quotation process with a redesigned landing page that made pricing transparent and let admins subscribe and onboard their teams independently.

Removed user friction with "Delayed account creation"

Instead of requiring account setup upfront, we moved it after payment. Users only needed an email to get started. This change drove a 6% increase in checkout completion — roughly 2,500 more subscribers per month.

1-click checkout

Once Stripe was in place, we enabled Apple Pay and Google Pay, making it significantly easier to capture mobile users at the moment of intent.

1-click checkout

Once Stripe was in place, we enabled Apple Pay and Google Pay, making it significantly easier to capture mobile users at the moment of intent.

Other highlights

While we updated the main checkout experience, I also led the redesign of our onboarding, subscription management, landing pages and many subscriber activation strategies.

Achievements:

Checkout completion rate increased from 8% to 14%

Onboarding redesign lifted completion from 16% to 58%

Subscription landing page boosted clicks from 7.6% to 14.19%

INMA (International News Media Association) 3rd place for Best Subscription or Registration Experience

Before

After

Reflections & takeaways

This project pushed me to think across the entire subscription experience — from first touchpoint to retention. The biggest lesson: sequencing matters. Starting with Corporate gave us a low-risk path to modernize the stack, and that foundation made everything downstream move faster.

Working on this huge project was truly an honor and I’m able to establish myself as a well rounded designer who was able to create delightful experiences at every touchpoint: from vision and strategy, to brand awareness, marketing, to product and development. It enabled me to push for a higher craft and generate impact towards business goals.

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