Buddee · Product case · Sander Stricker

Onboarding a new HR and payroll customer

Stage 1Goal

01Goal description

New customers operational faster, with less work for them and for us, and working independently afterwards without much explanation.

02KPIs

Less work for us Buddee hours per onboarding
Today8 h
→
Target4 h
-50%
Time customer success and payroll spend per new customer, from contract to first correct payslip.
Less work for them Customer hours per onboarding
Today31 h
→
Target15 h
-52%
Time the customer spends on data, setup and questions, from contract to first correct payslip.
Independent afterwards Support questions in the first 90 days
Today9
→
Target4
-56%
Questions per customer by email, chat or phone in the first 90 days after go-live.
Discovery
Stage 2Inputs

03The current flow

Map every step from first contact to operational: who does it, in which tool, the hand-offs and the waiting. Based on the call with customer success, the Valuecase portal and my own signup.

HR onboarding

#StepWhoWhere
1Contract signed, portal sentSalesBuddee, Valuecase
2Company details filled inCustomerValuecase
3Employee template uploadedCustomerValuecase, Excel
4Template checked and importedCustomer successBuddee
5Leave, roles and workflows setCustomer, customer successBuddee, call
6Employees invited (go-live)CustomerBuddee

Payroll onboarding

#StepWhoWhere
1Contract signedSales–
2Payroll data deliveredCustomer–
3Payroll rebuilt in NmbrsPayroll specialistNmbrs
4CAO questions and checks doneCustomer, payroll specialistCall
5First payroll runPayroll teamNmbrs
6First correct payslip (end of onboarding)CustomerBuddee

04Measurements

Put numbers on the flow from block 03, starting at contract signing: how many customers reach each step, how fast, and at what effort. Split by where the data comes from. Not finished within 3 months counts as lost.

Key measurements

8 hBuddee hours per onboarding (4 HR + 4 payroll)
31 hCustomer hours per onboarding
39Median days, contract to first correct payslip
4%Share lost (not finished within 3 months)

HR onboarding

StepReachedMedian daysLost hereBuddee hours
Contract signed, portal sent100%00%0.5 h
Company details filled in99%3 +31%0 h
Employee template uploaded97%16 +132%0.5 h
Template checked and imported97%24 +80%1.5 h
Leave, roles and workflows set96%33 +91%1.5 h
Employees invited (go-live)96%36 +30%0 h
Back in Valuecase after go-live (within 6 months)12%–––

Payroll onboarding

StepReachedMedian daysLost hereBuddee hours
Contract signed100%00%0 h
Payroll data delivered99%10 +101%0.5 h
Payroll rebuilt in Nmbrs99%17 +70%1.5 h
CAO questions and checks done97%29 +122%1 h
First payroll run97%36 +70%0.5 h
First correct payslip (end of onboarding)96%39 +31%0.5 h
GoodNeutralNeeds attentionProblem

05Internal input

Talk to the people who run onboarding every day, customer success and payroll, and read the meeting transcripts and internally reported tickets in Jira. Claude clusters the questions and pain points per step.

Key findings

  • The real onboarding happens outside the product: portal, email and people.
  • Biggest hurdles: employee data, then leave balances, then roles, permissions and workflows.
  • Payroll is a separate track with its own specialist and a rebuild in Nmbrs.
  • His one wish: "fewer choices and more explanation in the system".

Examples

06Customer interactions

Read the emails, chats and calls with customers during onboarding and their first 90 days. Each contact is tagged with its step, so Claude can count topics per step and per week.

Examples

07Observations and assumptions

Go and look for myself. I signed up as a new customer and went through the onboarding portal with a test space from customer success. What I found are observations and assumptions to test, not a list of fixes.

08Competitor analysis

How the closest competitors in the Dutch market take a new customer from signup to the first payslip, based on their public websites and help pages.

Stage 3Analysis

09Key friction points and opportunities

Claude does the heavy reading: every input from blocks 03 to 08, clustered per step with sources. I then use it for follow-up questions, to challenge each finding and to bring up input we missed. This is not a process product does in isolation: it is a discussion and a collaboration with all stakeholders involved.

Buddee hours per onboarding 8 h → 4 h

Customer hours per onboarding 31 h → 15 h

Support questions in the first 90 days 9 → 4

10Focus

From eight findings, we pick three to start with, compared on three criteria.

1Impact on a KPIHow much it moves one of the three targets.
2Customers affectedHow many new customers run into it.
3Within our controlProduct can change it without depending on Nmbrs or payroll specialists.

Focus issues

Stage 4Ideation

11Solutions

For each focus issue, a few possible solutions, from small changes to bigger ideas. Quick to sketch, cheap to throw away.

The data import goes through a person

Instructions in one tool, the work in another

Nobody goes back to the portal after go-live

12Solution validation

Before building, test whether a solution solves the problem. Prefer real customers and real data; mockups and pitches are cheaper but weaker evidence.

A simple version, as an A/B testStrongest evidenceShip a minimal version to part of the new customers and compare with the rest on days and drop-off. Real customers, real data.
Fake door testStrong evidenceShow the solution in the product, for example a button or a banner, without building it fully. Measure how many customers click, then explain and follow up.
Mockup shared with customersMedium evidenceA clickable mockup for five to eight recent customers. Watch where they hesitate and what they expect next.
Pitch to a customerLight evidenceDescribe the solution and ask for a reaction. Quick and cheap, but what people say is weaker than what they do.
Delivery
Stage 5Rollout

13Prioritization

With the validated solutions on the table, this is where we decide which to build first. Each solution is scored on effort and on expected impact on the main metric. What waits, or does not happen at all, is part of the decision.

SolutionEffortExpected impactScore
The data import goes through a person
1AI-powered uploadsHighVery high13
2More integrations to migrate from older systemsVery highMedium6
Instructions in one tool, the work in another
4Valuecase steps inside BuddeeHighHigh10
5A personalised, focused to-do listLowHigh20
6A proactive AI assistantHighVery high13
Nobody goes back to the portal after go-live
7Onboarding content stays available in BuddeeLowHigh20

14Build

Engineering builds what we prioritised, in small slices that can each go live on their own. Customer success and payroll stay close, so what we build matches how onboarding really works.

1Spec
2Design
3Build MVP
4Improve

15Release

Going live is only half of it. Tell customers and the team what changed, update the help content, and follow adoption so the new way of working actually lands.

Stage 6Outcome

16Results analysis

Compare the main metric and guardrails with the baseline, with decision points set in advance: scale up, adjust or stop.

17Iteration

Feed what we learn back in: adjust the solutions, pick the next friction point and run the cycle again against a new baseline.

Other

How I used AI

The brief asks for it: what I used AI for in this case, and where the judgement stayed mine.