Redesigned the cloud security onboarding experience to unify fragmented multi-step processes into an elegant 3-step flow. Through strategic research with Cloud Security Engineers, IT Operations, Super Admins, and System Administrators, I identified critical pain points in onboarding across AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud. The result: a 57% reduction in touch points, 8X improvement in customer sentiment, and 150% growth in credit consumption within 6 weeks.
Role: Principal Product Designer leading user research, competitive strategy analysis, and design solution across 4 distinct personas, collaborating with Product, Engineering, and Customer Success to define a unified onboarding standard.
Onboarding felt fragmented. Existing flows lacked immediate gratification. Too many steps for a process that should feel seamless. Customers needed to onboard faster with multi-cloud accounts, yet there was no single place to handle everything. And crucially, post-onboarding education was scattered—users didn't understand why or how to configure features after they signed up.
The underlying issue wasn't complexity; it was cognitive overhead. Each decision point required users to jump between systems, remember settings, and understand how disconnected modules related to each other.
Users delay onboarding when the value is unclear. By surfacing "First Time Value" immediately—showing what they can accomplish in 3 steps—we reduced the cognitive friction and decision paralysis. Consolidating fragmented settings into unified screens eliminated context-switching fatigue. Progressive disclosure meant showing only relevant options at the right moment, not overwhelming with all 50 configuration choices upfront.
Unification reduces cognitive load. By bringing all onboarding and permissions into a single, coherent experience, users build a mental model of how the system works. They stop thinking about "AWS onboarding" and "permissions management" as separate tasks. They think: "Activate my cloud, configure security, review." Simple. Linear. Clear.
This principle shaped the entire solution and influenced how future onboarding workflows are built at Palo Alto Networks.
The design was iterative and informed by continuous user feedback. Started by mapping the "As Is" journey across all cloud providers, identified pain points in permissions and error handling, then designed a unified modal-based solution that could be accessed from any page.
Mapped the existing "As Is" journey from CSP Marketplace through Confirmation Email, Home Page, Dashboard, and into the platform. Identified that users lacked immediate gratification. Security Foundations and Security Advisories were scattered. Cloud Accounts, Repositories, and onboarding capabilities were disconnected.
Deep dive into onboarding complexity: AWS (8-10 steps), Azure (6-8 steps), Google Cloud (8-10 steps). Discovered key pain points: visibility of options unclear, too many security features to configure, terminology barriers, and error remediation paths not clear.
After testing multiple approaches, designed a larger-sized modal that could be accessed from any page. Cards-based approach for security modules. Consolidated "Get Started" → "Configure Details" → "Review Status" into 3 cohesive steps. Each step built collaboratively with Engineering Head and UI Managers, requiring API rewrites to support single-screen configurations instead of multi-page wizards.
"My idea was to have a unified page design to onboard all providers. It was challenging to get all product owners to agree, but I succeeded through collaborative efforts and persuasive skills." This breakthrough design removed the cognitive burden of learning different wizards for each cloud provider.
Tested design options that kept all choices available based on contextual inquiries and customer interviews. Key findings: Users appreciated cards for security modules (quick comprehension), single screens for ease of use, and clear error messaging with remediation steps.
After initial onboarding, customers land in a basic configuration view. The redesigned "Land and Expand" interface helps them discover and enable advanced security capabilities without overwhelming complexity. Transformed a dense, error-prone configuration form into an organized, status-aware dashboard.
Before: Dense Configuration Form → After: Organized Dashboard with Status Indicators
The evolved design provides clear account overview, health status for each security capability, and organized access controls. Users can now easily discover what's enabled, what has errors, and what's available to activate.
Key Improvements:
Analyzed WIZ's onboarding approach as the market leader. They display cloud providers and connectors at a unified place, onboard accounts in 2 steps with clear communication, and connect with CloudTrail for fast data ingestion. Their win: simplifying multi-step processes into clear workflows with transparent options.
Across all cloud providers, the redesigned 3-step process dramatically reduced complexity:
| Provider | Deployment Scope | Wizards: Before → After | % Reduction | Clicks: Before → After | % Reduction |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| AWS | Standalone | 5 → 3 | 40% | 10 → 6 | 40% |
| Organization | 6 → 3 | 50% | 15 → 6 | 60% | |
| GCP | Project | 6 → 3 | 50% | 11 → 6 | 45.45% |
| Organization | 7 → 3 | 57.1% | 17 → 9 | 47.06% | |
| Azure | Subscription | 6 → 3 | 50% | 16 → 10 | 37.5% |
| Tenant | 7 → 3 | 57.1% | 19 → 8 | 57.89% |
All cloud deployments now share the same 3-step modal experience, eliminating the need to learn different interaction patterns.
Consolidating fragmented wizards into a single modal wasn't about making things prettier. It was about reducing cognitive load at a psychological level. When users build one mental model instead of four, they become more confident and efficient.
Getting product owners to agree on a unified experience required more than sketches. It required framing the problem through their lens: customer satisfaction, support costs, competitive positioning. Design + business language = alignment.
Progressive disclosure and "First Time Value" drove adoption more than exposing all options. Understanding user decision fatigue and cognitive load is as important as understanding feature requirements.
Designs are only as good as their execution. Working closely with Engineering to rewrite APIs and rebuild the modal architecture ensured the vision became reality, not a design artifact.
Real customer feedback from enterprise organizations that experienced the new unified onboarding:
"This is exactly what builds our confidence in Prisma Cloud, we really feel Prisma Cloud is listening to customers and improving what matters to us. This simplifies our effort as we plan to add more accounts in the next few months."
Informatica
"We currently have a 10-step onboarding checklist for each cloud type and based on what we see currently, I can reduce that to just a couple for each cloud. This is a huge improvement for us in terms of how we enable different capabilities Prisma Cloud offers."
Unacademy
"Unified Onboarding experience in PCEE was very positive experience. Everything just worked."
NVIDIA POC Team
Internal recognition from Engineering leadership, Product, and UX teams across multiple regions:
Director Engineering, India
Quadir Kareemullah
Collaboration & execution for the fabulous cloud account onboarding UX
UX Researcher, USA
Stephanie Chen
Thank you for walking through the complexity of cloud account onboarding
Reporting Manager, USA
Jason Davila
Onboarding efforts deserve an award for most feedback ever from the most people
UI Development Principal
Rahul Kumar
Consistent help to deliver Cloud Account onboarding UX faster
Senior Director Engineering, USA
Hari Srinivasan
Hard work bringing screens to this level. Makes it easy for review.
UX Manager, USA
Justin Lancaster
Love working with you on Prisma Cloud Onboarding UX
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