Onboarding and KYC communications

Context

Admirals supports complex onboarding and activation flows across multiple regulated financial products, including CFD and Invest accounts. A large part of the onboarding experience depended on transactional and lifecycle communications — users needed guidance during registration, KYC verification, appropriateness testing, account setup, and activation.

Onboarding emails already existed, but the communication ecosystem was fragmented and inconsistent. Different departments managed different parts of the flow, triggers were unclear or undocumented, and users often received messaging that didn’t match their actual lifecycle stage. As a result, onboarding communications functioned more like disconnected operational emails than a structured product experience.

In this role, I rebuilt onboarding communications into a centralised event-driven product communication system — designed to improve progression between onboarding stages, reduce drop-offs, and make communications part of the product itself, not isolated CRM activity.

Problem

Users were dropping out during onboarding and activation because communication logic was fragmented and difficult to scale.

Communication flows were fragmented across teams. Different departments owned different onboarding emails, which produced inconsistent user experiences — unclear trigger logic, duplicated or overlapping emails, inconsistent tone, missing follow-ups for critical stages, and no centralised ownership. Onboarding progression was difficult to optimise as a result.

There was no structured lifecycle communication system. Although emails existed, there was no unified event-driven communication architecture. Users abandoned onboarding without follow-ups, received reminders too late or not at all, or got irrelevant messaging after completing actions. Onboarding analytics were limited too — it was hard to see where drop-offs happened or which communications influenced progression.

Approach

1. Built a centralised trigger architecture

I mapped the onboarding journey end-to-end and restructured communications around real product events and lifecycle states:

• identified critical onboarding stages and product events,
• documented trigger logic and follow-up conditions,
• defined inactivity and abandonment scenarios,
• centralised lifecycle communication ownership,
• aligned emails with actual user progression,
• and standardised onboarding communication logic across teams.

The focus shifted from sending isolated operational emails to building a structured onboarding communication system.

2. Rebuilt onboarding communications around user progression

I redesigned onboarding emails based on actual user intent and onboarding behavior — rewrote emails around clear next-step actions, improved message hierarchy and scanability, reduced friction and confusion, removed duplicated or conflicting messaging, standardised terminology and tone of voice, created more contextual onboarding guidance, and improved lifecycle messaging around incomplete or abandoned stages.

The focus shifted from explaining internal processes to helping users successfully progress through the product.

3. Introduced lifecycle analytics and optimization

The biggest analytical impact came from connecting communication flows with onboarding funnel analytics. I introduced visibility into:

• onboarding progression,
• stage-to-stage conversion,
• completion rates,
• drop-off points,
• send and engagement metrics,
• time-to-conversion,
• and lifecycle bottlenecks.

This made it possible to identify where users abandoned onboarding, which communications underperformed, whether issues were UX or messaging, and which triggers, delays, or sequences needed optimisation.

4. Optimised communication flows through A/B testing

Once onboarding communications became measurable, I introduced continuous optimisation cycles: testing trigger timing and follow-up delays, optimising CTA structure and messaging hierarchy, testing educational vs action-oriented copy, improving subject lines and reminder sequences, and refining onboarding progression logic.

Optimisation decisions were grounded in onboarding completion rates, stage progression, KYC completion, appropriateness test completion, activation rates, re-engagement, and conversion velocity.

Results

The onboarding communication redesign transformed fragmented operational emails into a scalable product communication system:

• centralised lifecycle communication architecture,
• improved onboarding visibility and ownership,
• clearer onboarding progression,
• stronger alignment between product, CRM, and operations,
• improved scalability for future onboarding flows,
• and higher conversion between onboarding stages.

Most importantly, onboarding communications became integrated into the product experience itself, rather than functioning as disconnected CRM messaging.

Overall impact

The project transformed onboarding communications from reactive operational messaging into a structured lifecycle system driven by user behavior. Users received more relevant onboarding guidance, progression became measurable and optimised, gaps and drop-offs became visible, and onboarding flows became easier to scale and improve over time.

My contribution

• Mapping onboarding and activation journeys end-to-end
• Building event-driven lifecycle communication architecture
• Centralising onboarding trigger logic across teams
• Redesigning onboarding and activation email flows
• Rewriting lifecycle communications around user progression
• Improving onboarding clarity and reducing friction
• Defining onboarding messaging principles and tone of voice
• Introducing lifecycle analytics and funnel visibility
• Analysing onboarding drop-offs and behavioral patterns
• Creating optimisation and A/B testing frameworks
• Improving onboarding progression through communication design
• Aligning product, CRM, and operational communication flows

This case describes work I led at Admirals between 2025 and 2026 across onboarding lifecycle communications. Copy and trigger examples are paraphrased to respect employer confidentiality.