Every product journey begins at the front door. At SoFi, where our core goal is helping members get their money right, that front door is the app onboarding experience. When a new member opens the app, every screen and prompt sets the tone for a relationship built on trust and financial empowerment.
Finding out what makes that initial experience click requires empathy, testing, and fresh eyes. That challenge became the focal point for this summer’s dynamic partnership between Madeline Winer, Staff User Researcher, and Ashley Wu, User Research Intern.
A High-Stakes Onboarding Challenge
Bringing early-career talent into SoFi’s User Research team is an intentional investment in new perspectives. When Ashley joined, the quantitative data revealed an opportunity: she saw members skip product selection during onboarding, and more than half of those members never complete registration.
"When Ashley joined, we were focused on improving the onboarding and activation experience across SoFi's products," Madeline shares. "Adding Ashley helped us move more of that work forward at once."
"The onboarding experience is our app’s first impression with members," Ashley explains. "If members are skipping onboarding, that means SoFi’s onboarding isn’t matching what members need from SoFi when they first sign up."
Madeline gave Ashley full ownership to explore future-state concepts, balancing independence with weekly review sessions, and encouraged her to ask questions.
From Research Brief to User Storytelling
Ashley guided her project through every phase of the research lifecycle: writing screeners, moderating live member interviews, and analyzing complex feedback patterns. Beyond her main study, she shadowed team members, pulled Snowflake data, and created personas.
A major breakthrough occurred when Ashley realized that delivering insights wasn't enough, she needed to tell a compelling story. When her initial presentation of member segments left her design partner with questions, Ashley pivoted.
"I spent time iterating on my explanation of the member segments," Ashley recalls. "At our next session, I paired them with user stories. Together, we had our 'aha' moment and were able to design an onboarding mechanism that could cater towards multiple segments at once."
All the while, Madeline was creating a safe space for Ashley to move forward with confidence.
“It was important that Ashley had real ownership of her work while knowing the team was behind her. At the start of her internship, I gave her a project brief covering the business and member problems we wanted to solve. Within those guardrails, she had the autonomy to design the research approach she thought would best get us to that outcome.”
Making A Lasting Impact
Ashley’s summer study culminated in a cross-functional workshop bringing together designers, PMs, engineers, and researchers to map out SoFi's onboarding roadmap for 2027.
"As a new SoFi member herself, Ashley brought a fresh perspective shaped by her own onboarding experience," Madeline notes. "Her project culminated in a cross-functional workshop where she shared findings from member interviews. Those insights shaped further iterations of SoFi's onboarding concepts, and the team plans to implement many of them in 2027."
For future interns, Madeline and Ashley stress the power of asking questions, speaking up in group settings, and building relationships across teams.
"My advice to future SoFi interns is to have as many 1:1s as possible and ask questions," Ashley offers. "And my other piece of advice is to go on food crawls with your fellow interns! It’s the best way to explore SF and bond with each other."
Similar to Ashley, Madeline mirrors the sentiment of bringing your curiosity to work.
“I’d offer two pieces of advice to make your internship impactful. First, don’t be afraid to ask questions! We don’t expect you to know everything and asking questions and soliciting feedback is only going to make your work stronger and impact larger. Second, don't hold back your ideas in group settings. You see our products with fresh eyes, often as a new member yourself, and that perspective is exactly what helps us build better experiences for our members.”
