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Delivering a Dynamic Customer Onboarding Experience with Optimizely Forms, for a Finance industry client

Project Overview

In a recent project, we leveraged Optimizely Forms to build a dynamic customer onboarding journey that seamlessly integrated with the client's CRM. The project required a flexible, data-driven approach, as both business requirements and regulatory considerations evolved throughout development. As a hybrid Project Manager and Business Analyst, I played a pivotal role in shaping the requirements, managing scope, and ensuring the technical feasibility of our solution.

Defining the Requirements & Strategy

From the outset, I led requirements workshops and produced briefs for the UX team to design wireframes and UI elements that aligned with digital best practices. Working closely with the client's Business Analyst and Content Lead, I fielded practical questions daily while liaising with technical leads to validate feasibility.

One of the primary challenges was ensuring customer permissions were captured early in the onboarding process and stored securely in the CRM. Additionally, the system needed to track user progress so that partially submitted data could be retained for up to 90 days, allowing customers to return and complete their application without starting over. This required careful planning around data retention policies, ensuring compliance while maintaining a smooth user experience.

Another significant consideration was scope management. As we refined the design and requirements, numerous possible use cases emerged. To prevent scope creep while maintaining flexibility, I introduced a structured approach using Optimizely's experimentation module. We documented conditions and variations, deferring certain potential issues to A/B testing rather than investing development resources prematurely. This approach allowed us to focus engineering effort on solving only validated problems, optimizing efficiency without compromising functionality.

Hands-On Delivery & Stakeholder Collaboration

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Unlike traditional PM roles, I functioned in a pseudo-product owner capacity, often playing back design changes and guiding the client through UX and UI updates. A critical early decision was prioritizing between a custom CRM integration and a simpler data submission solution. This was influenced by broader architectural considerations, approval timelines, and the client's internal processes.

Late-stage requirement changes added further complexity, requiring negotiations to determine what could be delivered as part of the MVP. We established a clear backlog for Phase 2 features, ensuring that late-stage adjustments did not derail project timelines.

Technical Challenges & Development Collaboration

One of the most complex development challenges arose when we introduced partial data submission mid-project. The technical team designed a solution to capture and submit onboarding data progressively. Still, a key hurdle emerged when the client’s CRM team struggled to retrieve the partially submitted data without creating duplicate records. Anticipating delays in their resolution, we implemented a configurable submission parameter, allowing the system to toggle between partial and full data submission. Currently, the system is set to single submission until a long-term CRM solution is found—ensuring continued functionality without technical debt.

Optimizely Forms & CRM Integration

The system featured multi-step flows with variations in user experience based on form inputs. Custom validation rules were applied to enforce age-based eligibility, ensuring compliance with industry regulations. While the platform integrated with the client’s CRM (specific details omitted for security reasons), the flexibility of Optimizely Forms allowed for a seamless data flow and an enhanced customer experience.

Key Learnings & Takeaways

One of the most valuable lessons from this project was managing scope within an inherently flexible development process. Unlike traditional fixed-scope projects, we knew from the outset that not all requirements were fully defined. While this allowed for adaptability, it also made timeline commitments challenging.

By maintaining transparency with stakeholders and enforcing structured prioritization, we successfully balanced responsiveness with delivery predictability. The use of Optimizely’s experimentation module further enabled us to validate potential issues before committing development resources, reinforcing the importance of data-driven decision-making.

Ultimately, the project’s biggest success was delivering a robust, adaptable onboarding experience that met business needs while allowing room for future enhancements. By integrating strategy, stakeholder management, and technical flexibility, we achieved an outcome that was not only effective but scalable for long-term use.