Designing a guided onboarding flow that helped new restaurant partners publish accurate information and go live without delays.
Results
Faster Onboarding
Restaurants moved through setup more quickly once they could enter details themselves.
Less Support Load
Support teams spent less time retyping restaurant details and more time on verification.
Better Listing Quality
Listings improved because managers uploaded their own hours, photos and instructions.
Clearer Guidance
Step by step direction helped restaurants see what was required and what came next.
Context
As Grubhub’s restaurant network expanded, onboarding became a significant operational strain. Every new partner relied on support teams to gather, verify and enter core business details which slowed activation and stretched internal capacity. Restaurants often waited without clear direction while support teams worked through long backlogs. Grubhub needed a guided self service flow that helped partners submit accurate information and reduced the manual effort required to bring them live at scale.
Core Challenges
1. Many restaurants with different operational models
Onboarding needed to account for delivery, pickup and catering with each requiring different details and schedules. A single flow had to stay simple for small restaurants while still supporting more complex setups. This required designing a structure that adapted based on what the partner offered without adding friction.
2. Manual processes that slowed activation
Support teams spent significant time collecting and reformatting information sent through email threads. Hours, menus and photos arrived in inconsistent formats which led to delays and errors. The new experience had to reduce this manual work while still fitting within legacy systems and existing data pipelines.
3. Partners who needed clarity while juggling daily tasks
Restaurant managers often handled onboarding between rushes, deliveries and staffing tasks. They needed a flow they could complete quickly and return to later without losing context. Guidance had to be clear, concise and predictable so partners never felt stuck or unsure about next steps.
4. Accuracy and simplicity working together
Onboarding required precise data to support downstream features like scheduling, delivery estimates and restaurant search. At the same time the interface needed to feel light and approachable. The challenge was hiding technical requirements behind an experience that felt straightforward and human.
Who We Served
Restaurant Managers
Owners and operators responsible for getting their restaurant live while managing day to day tasks. Many completed onboarding between rushes or from a back office computer which meant the experience needed to be simple, steady and easy to return to. They needed clear guidance and a predictable path through each requirement.
Internal Data and Support Teams
Teams responsible for verifying details, resolving inconsistencies and ensuring each listing met platform standards. They needed a process that reduced the amount of manual entry and back and forth communication so they could focus on quality checks instead of retyping content.
Grubhub Operations and Leadership
Stakeholders focused on efficiency and growth who needed a system that could onboard restaurants faster, lower operational costs and build trust with partners through transparency and autonomy.
Design Strategy
Our goal was to create an onboarding experience that helped restaurants move through setup with confidence while reducing the manual effort placed on internal teams. Partners needed a guided path that felt simple and predictable. Grubhub needed data that stayed accurate as the platform scaled. The strategy centered on building a flow that supported different restaurant models, clarified each requirement and removed the uncertainty that slowed activation.
Guide partners with clear structure
We designed a step based flow that walked restaurants through each requirement at a steady pace. Progress indicators and contextual hints made the experience predictable so partners always knew what to do next.
Reduce manual work through self service
By shifting key tasks to restaurant managers we removed the bottleneck of collecting information over email. Managers could upload hours, instructions, photos and menu files themselves which eased the load on support teams.
Adapt to different business needs
Onboarding adjusted based on service models like delivery, pickup or catering. This kept the flow short for simple operations while still supporting more complex restaurants without overwhelming them.
Improve accuracy with guidance at each step
We paired every input with clear language and validation to help restaurants submit complete and reliable details. This strengthened downstream systems and reduced rework for internal teams.
Definition of Success
Success for the onboarding experience was not about replacing a form or adding a new workflow. It was about reshaping how Grubhub activated restaurants at scale. The company needed to move away from manual, service-heavy onboarding and toward a guided flow that helped partners submit accurate details with minimal support. Every design decision focused on creating confidence for restaurants while reducing the operational load on internal teams.
Our success criteria focused on three areas: lowering support dependency, improving data quality and creating a smoother path to activation. These goals aligned design, engineering and operations around a shared definition of what an effective onboarding system should deliver.
1. Reduce dependency on manual support
Before this project, support teams gathered hours, menus, instructions and photos through long back-and-forth email threads. This slowed activation and created inconsistent data. A successful outcome meant giving restaurants the ability to provide complete information on their own without relying on support for basic tasks.
From a design perspective this required:
- Clear input patterns that replaced unstructured submissions and kept details clean
- Inline checks and helpful explanations so partners corrected issues in the moment
- A predictable sequence that guided users through each requirement without confusion
Success meant letting support teams shift from data entry to quality review. Restaurants would complete the setup confidently while internal teams focused on verification instead of retyping information.
2. Improve onboarding speed
We started by stepping back and looking at onboarding from the restaurant’s point of view rather than the system’s. The existing process was spread across emails, internal tools and handoffs that were invisible to partners. Restaurants did not experience onboarding as a sequence. They experienced it as uncertainty. The first goal of discovery was to understand where that uncertainty showed up and why.
To do this, I focused on mapping the end to end onboarding journey as a restaurant manager would experience it, from contract signature to their first live order. Instead of jumping directly into requirements, we documented each step, decision point and moment of hesitation. This helped us see how expectations formed early and where confusion compounded as the process moved forward.
3. Increase accuracy at launch
Restaurant data influenced everything from search to delivery estimates. Errors in hours, instructions or photos affected both diners and operations. Success meant giving partners autonomy without increasing the risk of incorrect or incomplete information.
Design supported this goal through:
- Structured components that kept inputs clean and compatible with downstream systems
- Confirmation steps that helped restaurants review their details before submitting
- Friendly guidance that warned users when an action might lead to inconsistencies
Success meant scale without instability. Restaurants could complete onboarding on their own while Grubhub preserved the accuracy required to maintain trust and operational reliability.
How We Worked
Our team for onboarding was larger and more cross functional than most projects I’ve led. It included multiple product managers, several engineering teams and designers from different parts of the organization. Onboarding touched hours, menus, delivery logistics, photography guidelines and partner operations, so the work involved input from ICs across support, data, compliance and marketplace operations. It required alignment across many domains while keeping a single, coherent experience for restaurants.
As Lead Designer I owned the product vision, user experience and the structure of the onboarding flow from the earliest concepts through delivery. I shaped how the steps connected, how guidance should appear and how the flow adapted to different restaurant models. I worked with designers from adjacent teams to ensure our patterns stayed consistent with the broader platform and partnered with PMs to keep priorities aligned across engineering groups that were implementing different parts of the system.
Collaboration happened daily. Engineers joined design reviews early to confirm feasibility and highlight system constraints that shaped our decisions. Weekly working sessions with support, data and operations teams grounded the work in real processes and helped us refine the experience so each step matched what partners needed to provide. The scale of collaboration made the design stronger and kept the entire flow anchored to real operational needs.
I also worked closely with our UX writer to create straightforward language that kept partners confident through the process. This mattered most in steps where errors or uncertainty could cause hesitation. Testing was ongoing. We ran reviews with internal teams and sessions with restaurant managers in the field which gave us clear signals about where users hesitated or felt unsure. We iterated quickly on these insights and refined the flow until it felt predictable and approachable.
This rhythm kept the team aligned. It also ensured that every decision supported the shared goal of helping restaurants complete onboarding smoothly while reducing the manual load on internal teams.
Process
Our process moved fast but stayed deeply rooted in understanding how restaurant partners actually think and work. With an eight week timeline I structured the effort around clear goals and rapid decision cycles. Research, design and validation acted as overlapping lenses I used to get inside the mindset of restaurant managers, uncover where uncertainty crept in and test whether each step truly made sense in the moment. This approach reduced guesswork, kept the team aligned and helped us shape an onboarding flow that felt intuitive for partners and dependable for internal teams.
Research
Design
Validation
Discovery
We started by stepping back and looking at onboarding from the restaurant’s point of view rather than the system’s. The existing process was spread across emails, internal tools and handoffs that were invisible to partners. Restaurants did not experience onboarding as a sequence. They experienced it as uncertainty. The first goal of discovery was to understand where that uncertainty showed up and why.
To do this, I focused on mapping the end to end onboarding journey as a restaurant manager would experience it, from contract signature to their first live order. Instead of jumping directly into requirements, we documented each step, decision point and moment of hesitation. This helped us see how expectations formed early and where confusion compounded as the process moved forward.
These journey maps surfaced several important patterns.
Restaurants were rarely blocked by effort. They were blocked by ambiguity. Managers wanted to move quickly but were unsure what was required, what could wait and what would prevent them from going live. Many steps felt disconnected. Entering hours, uploading a menu or providing delivery instructions did not feel like part of a single flow. They felt like isolated tasks with unclear consequences.
From the internal side, support and operations teams described a different but related problem. Information arrived out of order, in inconsistent formats and often incomplete. Teams spent significant time clarifying basic details, translating attachments and following up on missing items. This slowed activation and created friction on both sides.
Rather than treating onboarding as a form or checklist, we reframed it as a guided decision making process. The key question became: what does a restaurant need to understand at each moment to feel confident moving forward?
Because onboarding touched many domains, including hours, menus, delivery setup and branding, traditional IA diagrams were less useful early on. The problem was not navigation depth. It was cognitive load. Journey mapping allowed us to focus on mental models, sequencing and expectations instead of screens.
From these maps, we identified a few core themes that guided the rest of the work:
- Restaurants needed to know where they were, how much remained and what would happen next
- Steps had to feel connected rather than transactional
- Guidance needed to appear at the moment of uncertainty, not as documentation
- Progress had to feel earned and visible
Once those themes were clear, we moved into low fidelity wireframes to test whether the journey we mapped could actually work as a product experience.
Design & Prototyping
With discovery insights grounded in real restaurant workflows, I moved into low fidelity wireframes to shape the onboarding experience step by step. The goal was not visual polish. It was to translate a fragmented, service driven process into a guided flow that felt clear, calm and achievable. Each concept focused on sequencing, pacing and removing moments where uncertainty slowed progress.
Rather than designing screens in isolation, I treated the flow as a continuous conversation with the restaurant. Every step needed to answer three questions immediately: what is this asking me to do, why does it matter and what happens next.
Key patterns emerged early:
- A structured, step based flow that grouped related tasks and reduced decision fatigue
- Persistent progress indicators that made completion feel visible and earned
- Inline guidance that explained requirements at the moment they were needed rather than pushing users to external documentation
- Flexible inputs that adapted based on service type so restaurants only saw what applied to their business
These wireframes allowed us to pressure test the experience quickly. We reviewed whether a manager could complete steps between daily tasks, pause without losing confidence and return without reorienting themselves. The work also helped engineering teams understand how data needed to flow across systems while maintaining a single, coherent experience for the user.
This phase clarified where structure created confidence and where additional guidance was necessary. It also established the interaction patterns that carried through into higher fidelity design and implementation.
Once the core flow and interactions proved sound, I moved into higher fidelity prototypes to refine behavior and clarity. I partnered closely with our UX writer to shape language that reduced hesitation and made each step feel approachable. In parallel, I worked with engineering to confirm layouts, edge cases and responsiveness across common screen sizes. This phase tightened intent, resolved ambiguity and established the interaction patterns that guided development across the onboarding experience.
Testing & Iteration
We validated the onboarding experience through ongoing reviews with restaurant managers and internal teams as the flow took shape. Sessions combined walkthroughs of low and high fidelity prototypes, open discussion and scenario based testing focused on real onboarding moments. The goal was to understand where hesitation appeared and whether the experience reduced uncertainty rather than adding it.
The feedback consistently echoed what surfaced during discovery. Restaurant managers were operating under time pressure and wanted reassurance that they were completing the right steps in the right order. Confusion rarely came from individual fields. It came from not knowing what was required to go live or whether something could be skipped or fixed later.
Several patterns stood out:
- Managers wanted to understand progress at a glance and know how close they were to completion
- Steps that lacked context caused hesitation even when the input itself was simple
- Clear confirmation and next step messaging reduced second guessing and repeated questions
- Internal teams valued seeing cleaner submissions that required less clarification
These insights reinforced the direction of the design. Onboarding needed to feel guided, not instructional. The experience had to remove decision making wherever possible and replace it with structure, clarity and reassurance.
We refined the flow to emphasize momentum and confidence. Progress indicators became more prominent. Language was tightened to explain why each step mattered. Guidance was moved closer to the moment of action so users did not have to pause or search for answers.
Each iteration focused on a simple question: would this still make sense if someone was doing it quickly between other tasks. Could they move forward without worrying they were missing something important.
This feedback loop kept the work practical and focused. By validating decisions through real conversations and repeated walkthroughs, we gained confidence that the onboarding experience addressed the root causes of delay and confusion rather than just reshaping the surface of the workflow.
Delivery
As the work moved toward build, I partnered closely with engineering to make sure every flow behaved the way it was designed. We reviewed interaction details, loading states and edge cases together so nothing was left to interpretation. The goal was simple. If a restaurant manager clicked or typed or paused, the system should respond in a way that felt calm and predictable.
The prototypes were fully interactive and we tested each major step across screen sizes to confirm that the experience held up outside of perfect design conditions. Small details mattered, like how progress indicators responded between steps or how guidance appeared when something was entered incorrectly. Those moments shaped the level of trust partners would feel using the tool.
I also worked with our UX writer to refine system messaging, especially in areas that could cause hesitation or concern. We focused on language that was direct, kind and clear so restaurants always understood what was happening and why. Clarity reduced anxiety. Anxiety slowed onboarding. Getting this right was critical.
By the time we reached handoff, the product vision, interactions and tone were fully defined. Engineering had the detail they needed to implement with confidence and the onboarding experience felt cohesive from first step to submission.
The screens that follow reflect the final state of the experience and the patterns that guided development across the product.
After signing their contract, restaurant managers receive an email link that brings them to the onboarding landing page. This screen confirms key contact details and sets expectations for what they’ll complete in the wizard so nothing feels unexpected once they begin.
The first step of onboarding asks restaurant managers to enter their service hours. They can define delivery, pickup and catering schedules so diners always see the right availability when placing an order.
In the next step, restaurant managers provide prep time estimates and any helpful instructions for drivers. This ensures orders are picked up smoothly and gives partners control over how their operations are represented on the platform.
In this step, restaurant managers have the option to upload their existing menu files so Grubhub can begin structuring the content. If they’d rather create the menu manually after onboarding using the Menu Editor, they can skip for now and move forward.
In this step, restaurant managers upload photos of their restaurant along with a single featured food image. These images are used across search results and the restaurant page, helping diners recognize the brand and build confidence before placing an order.
Once setup is complete, restaurant managers can review their information and make any final edits before submitting. This step gives partners confidence that their listing will appear exactly as intended when it goes live.
Once onboarding is complete, restaurant managers are guided to a resource hub with links, tips and next steps. This helps them get comfortable with Grubhub’s self service features before orders start coming in.
Impact
The onboarding experience shifted Grubhub away from a support-driven setup model and toward a guided, self service flow that scaled across the restaurant network. Instead of relying on long email threads and manual data entry, partners could now complete key onboarding steps on their own with clarity and confidence. Early validation showed that restaurants were able to move through setup faster and submit cleaner, more complete information at the point of activation.
Internal teams felt the difference. Support and operations reported fewer repetitive clarification requests and less time spent retyping core business details. This allowed specialists to focus on review and quality control rather than administrative work. The improvement in submission quality helped reduce the back and forth that previously slowed activation.
The onboarding flow also improved listing quality at launch. Restaurant managers uploaded their own photos, hours and guidance for drivers which led to more accurate and consistent partner profiles. That accuracy supported downstream systems like search, delivery routing and diner expectations, strengthening trust across the experience.
Most importantly, the work created a clearer, more predictable path for new partners. Restaurants understood what was required, what came next and how close they were to going live. That transparency set the tone for a stronger relationship with the platform and laid the foundation for a suite of self service tools that empowered restaurants while reducing operational strain inside the business.
Reflection
This project changed how I think about designing for experiences that cut across many systems, teams and responsibilities. Onboarding seems simple on the surface, but it holds the first real impression a restaurant has of the platform. Working closely with operations, support and restaurant managers made it clear that the right design choices do more than simplify a form. They remove uncertainty, reduce pressure and create trust at a critical moment in the relationship.
It also deepened my belief that clarity is a form of care. Restaurant managers were not asking for advanced tools. They wanted to know what to do, why it mattered and whether they were on the right track. When the product answered those questions in the flow instead of through email threads, confidence increased on both sides. That realization guided every decision we made.
This was also one of the most collaborative efforts I have led. Multiple PMs, engineering groups and designers were involved because onboarding touched so many domains. The challenge was not only designing the product, but aligning people around a shared understanding of how it should feel to go live on Grubhub. That work required systems thinking, patience and clear storytelling so teams could see how their decisions connected to the user experience.
What stayed with me most was how small details shaped trust. A line of copy that calmed a moment of hesitation. A progress indicator that made the path feel real. A confirmation step that helped someone feel confident before submitting. None of these pieces were flashy, but together they created the sense that the platform was on the restaurant’s side.
The work set a foundation that could grow with the business. It proved that onboarding is not just data collection. It is the beginning of a long partnership. And when design treats it that way, the experience becomes clearer for restaurants and stronger for the organization as a whole.
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Designing a guided onboarding flow that helped new restaurant partners publish accurate information and go live without delays.
Results
Faster Onboarding
Restaurants moved through setup more quickly once they could enter details themselves.
Less Support Load
Support teams spent less time retyping restaurant details and more time on verification.
Better Listing Quality
Listings improved because managers uploaded their own hours, photos and instructions.
Clearer Guidance
Step by step direction helped restaurants see what was required and what came next.
Context
As Grubhub’s restaurant network expanded, onboarding became a significant operational strain. Every new partner relied on support teams to gather, verify and enter core business details which slowed activation and stretched internal capacity. Restaurants often waited without clear direction while support teams worked through long backlogs. Grubhub needed a guided self service flow that helped partners submit accurate information and reduced the manual effort required to bring them live at scale.
Core Challenges
1. Many restaurants with different operational models
Onboarding needed to account for delivery, pickup and catering with each requiring different details and schedules. A single flow had to stay simple for small restaurants while still supporting more complex setups. This required designing a structure that adapted based on what the partner offered without adding friction.
2. Manual processes that slowed activation
Support teams spent significant time collecting and reformatting information sent through email threads. Hours, menus and photos arrived in inconsistent formats which led to delays and errors. The new experience had to reduce this manual work while still fitting within legacy systems and existing data pipelines.
3. Partners who needed clarity while juggling daily tasks
Restaurant managers often handled onboarding between rushes, deliveries and staffing tasks. They needed a flow they could complete quickly and return to later without losing context. Guidance had to be clear, concise and predictable so partners never felt stuck or unsure about next steps.
4. Accuracy and simplicity working together
Onboarding required precise data to support downstream features like scheduling, delivery estimates and restaurant search. At the same time the interface needed to feel light and approachable. The challenge was hiding technical requirements behind an experience that felt straightforward and human.
Who We Served
Restaurant Managers
Owners and operators responsible for getting their restaurant live while managing day to day tasks. Many completed onboarding between rushes or from a back office computer which meant the experience needed to be simple, steady and easy to return to. They needed clear guidance and a predictable path through each requirement.
Internal Data and Support Teams
Teams responsible for verifying details, resolving inconsistencies and ensuring each listing met platform standards. They needed a process that reduced the amount of manual entry and back and forth communication so they could focus on quality checks instead of retyping content.
Grubhub Operations and Leadership
Stakeholders focused on efficiency and growth who needed a system that could onboard restaurants faster, lower operational costs and build trust with partners through transparency and autonomy.
Design Strategy
Our goal was to create an onboarding experience that helped restaurants move through setup with confidence while reducing the manual effort placed on internal teams. Partners needed a guided path that felt simple and predictable. Grubhub needed data that stayed accurate as the platform scaled. The strategy centered on building a flow that supported different restaurant models, clarified each requirement and removed the uncertainty that slowed activation.
Guide partners with clear structure
We designed a step based flow that walked restaurants through each requirement at a steady pace. Progress indicators and contextual hints made the experience predictable so partners always knew what to do next.
Reduce manual work through self service
By shifting key tasks to restaurant managers we removed the bottleneck of collecting information over email. Managers could upload hours, instructions, photos and menu files themselves which eased the load on support teams.
Adapt to different business needs
Onboarding adjusted based on service models like delivery, pickup or catering. This kept the flow short for simple operations while still supporting more complex restaurants without overwhelming them.
Improve accuracy with guidance at each step
We paired every input with clear language and validation to help restaurants submit complete and reliable details. This strengthened downstream systems and reduced rework for internal teams.
Definition of Success
Success for the onboarding experience was not about replacing a form or adding a new workflow. It was about reshaping how Grubhub activated restaurants at scale. The company needed to move away from manual, service-heavy onboarding and toward a guided flow that helped partners submit accurate details with minimal support. Every design decision focused on creating confidence for restaurants while reducing the operational load on internal teams.
Our success criteria focused on three areas: lowering support dependency, improving data quality and creating a smoother path to activation. These goals aligned design, engineering and operations around a shared definition of what an effective onboarding system should deliver.
1. Reduce dependency on manual support
Before this project, support teams gathered hours, menus, instructions and photos through long back-and-forth email threads. This slowed activation and created inconsistent data. A successful outcome meant giving restaurants the ability to provide complete information on their own without relying on support for basic tasks.
From a design perspective this required:
- Clear input patterns that replaced unstructured submissions and kept details clean
- Inline checks and helpful explanations so partners corrected issues in the moment
- A predictable sequence that guided users through each requirement without confusion
Success meant letting support teams shift from data entry to quality review. Restaurants would complete the setup confidently while internal teams focused on verification instead of retyping information.
2. Improve onboarding speed
Time to activation had a direct impact on how quickly restaurants could begin taking orders. The old workflow created delays because every detail had to pass through internal teams. Success meant shortening the path from contract to live listing by keeping onboarding focused, structured and easy to complete.
To achieve this we designed:
- Guided steps that contained only what was essential for activation
- Progress indicators that reduced uncertainty and helped partners stay oriented
- Task flows that aligned with operational review so information moved cleanly into internal systems
The true measure of success was an onboarding process that felt smooth for restaurants and removed unnecessary waiting. Partners would move through setup faster with fewer handoffs and fewer reasons to pause the process.
3. Increase accuracy at launch
Restaurant data influenced everything from search to delivery estimates. Errors in hours, instructions or photos affected both diners and operations. Success meant giving partners autonomy without increasing the risk of incorrect or incomplete information.
Design supported this goal through:
- Structured components that kept inputs clean and compatible with downstream systems
- Confirmation steps that helped restaurants review their details before submitting
- Friendly guidance that warned users when an action might lead to inconsistencies
Success meant scale without instability. Restaurants could complete onboarding on their own while Grubhub preserved the accuracy required to maintain trust and operational reliability.
How We Worked
Our team for onboarding was larger and more cross functional than most projects I’ve led. It included multiple product managers, several engineering teams and designers from different parts of the organization. Onboarding touched hours, menus, delivery logistics, photography guidelines and partner operations, so the work involved input from ICs across support, data, compliance and marketplace operations. It required alignment across many domains while keeping a single, coherent experience for restaurants.
As Lead Designer I owned the product vision, user experience and the structure of the onboarding flow from the earliest concepts through delivery. I shaped how the steps connected, how guidance should appear and how the flow adapted to different restaurant models. I worked with designers from adjacent teams to ensure our patterns stayed consistent with the broader platform and partnered with PMs to keep priorities aligned across engineering groups that were implementing different parts of the system.
Collaboration happened daily. Engineers joined design reviews early to confirm feasibility and highlight system constraints that shaped our decisions. Weekly working sessions with support, data and operations teams grounded the work in real processes and helped us refine the experience so each step matched what partners needed to provide. The scale of collaboration made the design stronger and kept the entire flow anchored to real operational needs.
I also worked closely with our UX writer to create straightforward language that kept partners confident through the process. This mattered most in steps where errors or uncertainty could cause hesitation. Testing was ongoing. We ran reviews with internal teams and sessions with restaurant managers in the field which gave us clear signals about where users hesitated or felt unsure. We iterated quickly on these insights and refined the flow until it felt predictable and approachable.
This rhythm kept the team aligned. It also ensured that every decision supported the shared goal of helping restaurants complete onboarding smoothly while reducing the manual load on internal teams.
Process
Our process moved fast but stayed deeply rooted in understanding how restaurant partners actually think and work. With an eight week timeline I structured the effort around clear goals and rapid decision cycles. Research, design and validation acted as overlapping lenses I used to get inside the mindset of restaurant managers, uncover where uncertainty crept in and test whether each step truly made sense in the moment. This approach reduced guesswork, kept the team aligned and helped us shape an onboarding flow that felt intuitive for partners and dependable for internal teams.
Research
Design
Validation
Discovery
We started by stepping back and looking at onboarding from the restaurant’s point of view rather than the system’s. The existing process was spread across emails, internal tools and handoffs that were invisible to partners. Restaurants did not experience onboarding as a sequence. They experienced it as uncertainty. The first goal of discovery was to understand where that uncertainty showed up and why.
To do this, I focused on mapping the end to end onboarding journey as a restaurant manager would experience it, from contract signature to their first live order. Instead of jumping directly into requirements, we documented each step, decision point and moment of hesitation. This helped us see how expectations formed early and where confusion compounded as the process moved forward.
These journey maps surfaced several important patterns.
Restaurants were rarely blocked by effort. They were blocked by ambiguity. Managers wanted to move quickly but were unsure what was required, what could wait and what would prevent them from going live. Many steps felt disconnected. Entering hours, uploading a menu or providing delivery instructions did not feel like part of a single flow. They felt like isolated tasks with unclear consequences.
From the internal side, support and operations teams described a different but related problem. Information arrived out of order, in inconsistent formats and often incomplete. Teams spent significant time clarifying basic details, translating attachments and following up on missing items. This slowed activation and created friction on both sides.
Rather than treating onboarding as a form or checklist, we reframed it as a guided decision making process. The key question became: what does a restaurant need to understand at each moment to feel confident moving forward?
Because onboarding touched many domains, including hours, menus, delivery setup and branding, traditional IA diagrams were less useful early on. The problem was not navigation depth. It was cognitive load. Journey mapping allowed us to focus on mental models, sequencing and expectations instead of screens.
From these maps, we identified a few core themes that guided the rest of the work:
- Restaurants needed to know where they were, how much remained and what would happen next
- Steps had to feel connected rather than transactional
- Guidance needed to appear at the moment of uncertainty, not as documentation
- Progress had to feel earned and visible
Once those themes were clear, we moved into low fidelity wireframes to test whether the journey we mapped could actually work as a product experience.
Design & Prototyping
With discovery insights grounded in real restaurant workflows, I moved into low fidelity wireframes to shape the onboarding experience step by step. The goal was not visual polish. It was to translate a fragmented, service driven process into a guided flow that felt clear, calm and achievable. Each concept focused on sequencing, pacing and removing moments where uncertainty slowed progress.
Rather than designing screens in isolation, I treated the flow as a continuous conversation with the restaurant. Every step needed to answer three questions immediately: what is this asking me to do, why does it matter and what happens next.
Key patterns emerged early:
- A structured, step based flow that grouped related tasks and reduced decision fatigue
- Persistent progress indicators that made completion feel visible and earned
- Inline guidance that explained requirements at the moment they were needed rather than pushing users to external documentation
- Flexible inputs that adapted based on service type so restaurants only saw what applied to their business
These wireframes allowed us to pressure test the experience quickly. We reviewed whether a manager could complete steps between daily tasks, pause without losing confidence and return without reorienting themselves. The work also helped engineering teams understand how data needed to flow across systems while maintaining a single, coherent experience for the user.
This phase clarified where structure created confidence and where additional guidance was necessary. It also established the interaction patterns that carried through into higher fidelity design and implementation.
Once the core flow and interactions proved sound, I moved into higher fidelity prototypes to refine behavior and clarity. I partnered closely with our UX writer to shape language that reduced hesitation and made each step feel approachable. In parallel, I worked with engineering to confirm layouts, edge cases and responsiveness across common screen sizes. This phase tightened intent, resolved ambiguity and established the interaction patterns that guided development across the onboarding experience.
Testing & Iteration
We validated the onboarding experience through ongoing reviews with restaurant managers and internal teams as the flow took shape. Sessions combined walkthroughs of low and high fidelity prototypes, open discussion and scenario based testing focused on real onboarding moments. The goal was to understand where hesitation appeared and whether the experience reduced uncertainty rather than adding it.
The feedback consistently echoed what surfaced during discovery. Restaurant managers were operating under time pressure and wanted reassurance that they were completing the right steps in the right order. Confusion rarely came from individual fields. It came from not knowing what was required to go live or whether something could be skipped or fixed later.
Several patterns stood out:
- Managers wanted to understand progress at a glance and know how close they were to completion
- Steps that lacked context caused hesitation even when the input itself was simple
- Clear confirmation and next step messaging reduced second guessing and repeated questions
- Internal teams valued seeing cleaner submissions that required less clarification
These insights reinforced the direction of the design. Onboarding needed to feel guided, not instructional. The experience had to remove decision making wherever possible and replace it with structure, clarity and reassurance.
We refined the flow to emphasize momentum and confidence. Progress indicators became more prominent. Language was tightened to explain why each step mattered. Guidance was moved closer to the moment of action so users did not have to pause or search for answers.
Each iteration focused on a simple question: would this still make sense if someone was doing it quickly between other tasks. Could they move forward without worrying they were missing something important.
This feedback loop kept the work practical and focused. By validating decisions through real conversations and repeated walkthroughs, we gained confidence that the onboarding experience addressed the root causes of delay and confusion rather than just reshaping the surface of the workflow.
Delivery
As the work moved toward build, I partnered closely with engineering to make sure every flow behaved the way it was designed. We reviewed interaction details, loading states and edge cases together so nothing was left to interpretation. The goal was simple. If a restaurant manager clicked or typed or paused, the system should respond in a way that felt calm and predictable.
The prototypes were fully interactive and we tested each major step across screen sizes to confirm that the experience held up outside of perfect design conditions. Small details mattered, like how progress indicators responded between steps or how guidance appeared when something was entered incorrectly. Those moments shaped the level of trust partners would feel using the tool.
I also worked with our UX writer to refine system messaging, especially in areas that could cause hesitation or concern. We focused on language that was direct, kind and clear so restaurants always understood what was happening and why. Clarity reduced anxiety. Anxiety slowed onboarding. Getting this right was critical.
By the time we reached handoff, the product vision, interactions and tone were fully defined. Engineering had the detail they needed to implement with confidence and the onboarding experience felt cohesive from first step to submission.
The screens that follow reflect the final state of the experience and the patterns that guided development across the product.
After signing their contract, restaurant managers receive an email link that brings them to the onboarding landing page. This screen confirms key contact details and sets expectations for what they’ll complete in the wizard so nothing feels unexpected once they begin.
The first step of onboarding asks restaurant managers to enter their service hours. They can define delivery, pickup and catering schedules so diners always see the right availability when placing an order.
In the next step, restaurant managers provide prep time estimates and any helpful instructions for drivers. This ensures orders are picked up smoothly and gives partners control over how their operations are represented on the platform.
In this step, restaurant managers have the option to upload their existing menu files so Grubhub can begin structuring the content. If they’d rather create the menu manually after onboarding using the Menu Editor, they can skip for now and move forward.
In this step, restaurant managers upload photos of their restaurant along with a single featured food image. These images are used across search results and the restaurant page, helping diners recognize the brand and build confidence before placing an order.
Once setup is complete, restaurant managers can review their information and make any final edits before submitting. This step gives partners confidence that their listing will appear exactly as intended when it goes live.
Once onboarding is complete, restaurant managers are guided to a resource hub with links, tips and next steps. This helps them get comfortable with Grubhub’s self service features before orders start coming in.
Impact
The onboarding experience shifted Grubhub away from a support-driven setup model and toward a guided, self service flow that scaled across the restaurant network. Instead of relying on long email threads and manual data entry, partners could now complete key onboarding steps on their own with clarity and confidence. Early validation showed that restaurants were able to move through setup faster and submit cleaner, more complete information at the point of activation.
Internal teams felt the difference. Support and operations reported fewer repetitive clarification requests and less time spent retyping core business details. This allowed specialists to focus on review and quality control rather than administrative work. The improvement in submission quality helped reduce the back and forth that previously slowed activation.
The onboarding flow also improved listing quality at launch. Restaurant managers uploaded their own photos, hours and guidance for drivers which led to more accurate and consistent partner profiles. That accuracy supported downstream systems like search, delivery routing and diner expectations, strengthening trust across the experience.
Most importantly, the work created a clearer, more predictable path for new partners. Restaurants understood what was required, what came next and how close they were to going live. That transparency set the tone for a stronger relationship with the platform and laid the foundation for a suite of self service tools that empowered restaurants while reducing operational strain inside the business.
Reflection
This project changed how I think about designing for experiences that cut across many systems, teams and responsibilities. Onboarding seems simple on the surface, but it holds the first real impression a restaurant has of the platform. Working closely with operations, support and restaurant managers made it clear that the right design choices do more than simplify a form. They remove uncertainty, reduce pressure and create trust at a critical moment in the relationship.
It also deepened my belief that clarity is a form of care. Restaurant managers were not asking for advanced tools. They wanted to know what to do, why it mattered and whether they were on the right track. When the product answered those questions in the flow instead of through email threads, confidence increased on both sides. That realization guided every decision we made.
This was also one of the most collaborative efforts I have led. Multiple PMs, engineering groups and designers were involved because onboarding touched so many domains. The challenge was not only designing the product, but aligning people around a shared understanding of how it should feel to go live on Grubhub. That work required systems thinking, patience and clear storytelling so teams could see how their decisions connected to the user experience.
What stayed with me most was how small details shaped trust. A line of copy that calmed a moment of hesitation. A progress indicator that made the path feel real. A confirmation step that helped someone feel confident before submitting. None of these pieces were flashy, but together they created the sense that the platform was on the restaurant’s side.
The work set a foundation that could grow with the business. It proved that onboarding is not just data collection. It is the beginning of a long partnership. And when design treats it that way, the experience becomes clearer for restaurants and stronger for the organization as a whole.
Let’s talk!
If you’re looking for thoughtful, outcomes-driven product design, I’d love to hear what you’re working on.
Say hi!
Designing a guided onboarding flow that helped new restaurant partners publish accurate information and go live without delays.
Results
Faster Onboarding
Restaurants moved through setup more quickly once they could enter details themselves.
Less Support Load
Support teams spent less time retyping restaurant details and more time on verification.
Better Listing Quality
Listings improved because managers uploaded their own hours, photos and instructions.
Clearer Guidance
Step by step direction helped restaurants see what was required and what came next.
Context
As Grubhub’s restaurant network expanded, onboarding became a significant operational strain. Every new partner relied on support teams to gather, verify and enter core business details which slowed activation and stretched internal capacity. Restaurants often waited without clear direction while support teams worked through long backlogs. Grubhub needed a guided self service flow that helped partners submit accurate information and reduced the manual effort required to bring them live at scale.
Core Challenges
1. Many restaurants with different operational models
Onboarding needed to account for delivery, pickup and catering with each requiring different details and schedules. A single flow had to stay simple for small restaurants while still supporting more complex setups. This required designing a structure that adapted based on what the partner offered without adding friction.
2. Manual processes that slowed activation
Support teams spent significant time collecting and reformatting information sent through email threads. Hours, menus and photos arrived in inconsistent formats which led to delays and errors. The new experience had to reduce this manual work while still fitting within legacy systems and existing data pipelines.
3. Partners who needed clarity while juggling daily tasks
Restaurant managers often handled onboarding between rushes, deliveries and staffing tasks. They needed a flow they could complete quickly and return to later without losing context. Guidance had to be clear, concise and predictable so partners never felt stuck or unsure about next steps.
4. Accuracy and simplicity working together
Onboarding required precise data to support downstream features like scheduling, delivery estimates and restaurant search. At the same time the interface needed to feel light and approachable. The challenge was hiding technical requirements behind an experience that felt straightforward and human.
Who We Served
Restaurant Managers
Owners and operators responsible for getting their restaurant live while managing day to day tasks. Many completed onboarding between rushes or from a back office computer which meant the experience needed to be simple, steady and easy to return to. They needed clear guidance and a predictable path through each requirement.
Internal Data and Support Teams
Teams responsible for verifying details, resolving inconsistencies and ensuring each listing met platform standards. They needed a process that reduced the amount of manual entry and back and forth communication so they could focus on quality checks instead of retyping content.
Grubhub Operations and Leadership
Stakeholders focused on efficiency and growth who needed a system that could onboard restaurants faster, lower operational costs and build trust with partners through transparency and autonomy.
Design Strategy
Our goal was to create an onboarding experience that helped restaurants move through setup with confidence while reducing the manual effort placed on internal teams. Partners needed a guided path that felt simple and predictable. Grubhub needed data that stayed accurate as the platform scaled. The strategy centered on building a flow that supported different restaurant models, clarified each requirement and removed the uncertainty that slowed activation.
Guide partners with clear structure
We designed a step based flow that walked restaurants through each requirement at a steady pace. Progress indicators and contextual hints made the experience predictable so partners always knew what to do next.
Reduce manual work through self service
By shifting key tasks to restaurant managers we removed the bottleneck of collecting information over email. Managers could upload hours, instructions, photos and menu files themselves which eased the load on support teams.
Adapt to different business needs
Onboarding adjusted based on service models like delivery, pickup or catering. This kept the flow short for simple operations while still supporting more complex restaurants without overwhelming them.
Improve accuracy with guidance at each step
We paired every input with clear language and validation to help restaurants submit complete and reliable details. This strengthened downstream systems and reduced rework for internal teams.
Definition of Success
Success for the onboarding experience was not about replacing a form or adding a new workflow. It was about reshaping how Grubhub activated restaurants at scale. The company needed to move away from manual, service-heavy onboarding and toward a guided flow that helped partners submit accurate details with minimal support. Every design decision focused on creating confidence for restaurants while reducing the operational load on internal teams.
Our success criteria focused on three areas: lowering support dependency, improving data quality and creating a smoother path to activation. These goals aligned design, engineering and operations around a shared definition of what an effective onboarding system should deliver.
1. Reduce dependency on manual support
Before this project, support teams gathered hours, menus, instructions and photos through long back-and-forth email threads. This slowed activation and created inconsistent data. A successful outcome meant giving restaurants the ability to provide complete information on their own without relying on support for basic tasks.
From a design perspective this required:
- Clear input patterns that replaced unstructured submissions and kept details clean
- Inline checks and helpful explanations so partners corrected issues in the moment
- A predictable sequence that guided users through each requirement without confusion
Success meant letting support teams shift from data entry to quality review. Restaurants would complete the setup confidently while internal teams focused on verification instead of retyping information.
2. Improve onboarding speed
Time to activation had a direct impact on how quickly restaurants could begin taking orders. The old workflow created delays because every detail had to pass through internal teams. Success meant shortening the path from contract to live listing by keeping onboarding focused, structured and easy to complete.
To achieve this we designed:
- Guided steps that contained only what was essential for activation
- Progress indicators that reduced uncertainty and helped partners stay oriented
- Task flows that aligned with operational review so information moved cleanly into internal systems
The true measure of success was an onboarding process that felt smooth for restaurants and removed unnecessary waiting. Partners would move through setup faster with fewer handoffs and fewer reasons to pause the process.
3. Increase accuracy at launch
Restaurant data influenced everything from search to delivery estimates. Errors in hours, instructions or photos affected both diners and operations. Success meant giving partners autonomy without increasing the risk of incorrect or incomplete information.
Design supported this goal through:
- Structured components that kept inputs clean and compatible with downstream systems
- Confirmation steps that helped restaurants review their details before submitting
- Friendly guidance that warned users when an action might lead to inconsistencies
Success meant scale without instability. Restaurants could complete onboarding on their own while Grubhub preserved the accuracy required to maintain trust and operational reliability.
How We Worked
Our team for onboarding was larger and more cross functional than most projects I’ve led. It included multiple product managers, several engineering teams and designers from different parts of the organization. Onboarding touched hours, menus, delivery logistics, photography guidelines and partner operations, so the work involved input from ICs across support, data, compliance and marketplace operations. It required alignment across many domains while keeping a single, coherent experience for restaurants.
As Lead Designer I owned the product vision, user experience and the structure of the onboarding flow from the earliest concepts through delivery. I shaped how the steps connected, how guidance should appear and how the flow adapted to different restaurant models. I worked with designers from adjacent teams to ensure our patterns stayed consistent with the broader platform and partnered with PMs to keep priorities aligned across engineering groups that were implementing different parts of the system.
Collaboration happened daily. Engineers joined design reviews early to confirm feasibility and highlight system constraints that shaped our decisions. Weekly working sessions with support, data and operations teams grounded the work in real processes and helped us refine the experience so each step matched what partners needed to provide. The scale of collaboration made the design stronger and kept the entire flow anchored to real operational needs.
I also worked closely with our UX writer to create straightforward language that kept partners confident through the process. This mattered most in steps where errors or uncertainty could cause hesitation. Testing was ongoing. We ran reviews with internal teams and sessions with restaurant managers in the field which gave us clear signals about where users hesitated or felt unsure. We iterated quickly on these insights and refined the flow until it felt predictable and approachable.
This rhythm kept the team aligned. It also ensured that every decision supported the shared goal of helping restaurants complete onboarding smoothly while reducing the manual load on internal teams.
Process
Our process moved fast but stayed deeply rooted in understanding how restaurant partners actually think and work. With an eight week timeline I structured the effort around clear goals and rapid decision cycles. Research, design and validation acted as overlapping lenses I used to get inside the mindset of restaurant managers, uncover where uncertainty crept in and test whether each step truly made sense in the moment. This approach reduced guesswork, kept the team aligned and helped us shape an onboarding flow that felt intuitive for partners and dependable for internal teams.
Research
Design
Validation
Discovery
We started by stepping back and looking at onboarding from the restaurant’s point of view rather than the system’s. The existing process was spread across emails, internal tools and handoffs that were invisible to partners. Restaurants did not experience onboarding as a sequence. They experienced it as uncertainty. The first goal of discovery was to understand where that uncertainty showed up and why.
To do this, I focused on mapping the end to end onboarding journey as a restaurant manager would experience it, from contract signature to their first live order. Instead of jumping directly into requirements, we documented each step, decision point and moment of hesitation. This helped us see how expectations formed early and where confusion compounded as the process moved forward.
These journey maps surfaced several important patterns.
Restaurants were rarely blocked by effort. They were blocked by ambiguity. Managers wanted to move quickly but were unsure what was required, what could wait and what would prevent them from going live. Many steps felt disconnected. Entering hours, uploading a menu or providing delivery instructions did not feel like part of a single flow. They felt like isolated tasks with unclear consequences.
From the internal side, support and operations teams described a different but related problem. Information arrived out of order, in inconsistent formats and often incomplete. Teams spent significant time clarifying basic details, translating attachments and following up on missing items. This slowed activation and created friction on both sides.
Rather than treating onboarding as a form or checklist, we reframed it as a guided decision making process. The key question became: what does a restaurant need to understand at each moment to feel confident moving forward?
Because onboarding touched many domains, including hours, menus, delivery setup and branding, traditional IA diagrams were less useful early on. The problem was not navigation depth. It was cognitive load. Journey mapping allowed us to focus on mental models, sequencing and expectations instead of screens.
From these maps, we identified a few core themes that guided the rest of the work:
- Restaurants needed to know where they were, how much remained and what would happen next
- Steps had to feel connected rather than transactional
- Guidance needed to appear at the moment of uncertainty, not as documentation
- Progress had to feel earned and visible
Once those themes were clear, we moved into low fidelity wireframes to test whether the journey we mapped could actually work as a product experience.
Design & Prototyping
With discovery insights grounded in real restaurant workflows, I moved into low fidelity wireframes to shape the onboarding experience step by step. The goal was not visual polish. It was to translate a fragmented, service driven process into a guided flow that felt clear, calm and achievable. Each concept focused on sequencing, pacing and removing moments where uncertainty slowed progress.
Rather than designing screens in isolation, I treated the flow as a continuous conversation with the restaurant. Every step needed to answer three questions immediately: what is this asking me to do, why does it matter and what happens next.
Key patterns emerged early:
- A structured, step based flow that grouped related tasks and reduced decision fatigue
- Persistent progress indicators that made completion feel visible and earned
- Inline guidance that explained requirements at the moment they were needed rather than pushing users to external documentation
- Flexible inputs that adapted based on service type so restaurants only saw what applied to their business
These wireframes allowed us to pressure test the experience quickly. We reviewed whether a manager could complete steps between daily tasks, pause without losing confidence and return without reorienting themselves. The work also helped engineering teams understand how data needed to flow across systems while maintaining a single, coherent experience for the user.
This phase clarified where structure created confidence and where additional guidance was necessary. It also established the interaction patterns that carried through into higher fidelity design and implementation.
Once the core flow and interactions proved sound, I moved into higher fidelity prototypes to refine behavior and clarity. I partnered closely with our UX writer to shape language that reduced hesitation and made each step feel approachable. In parallel, I worked with engineering to confirm layouts, edge cases and responsiveness across common screen sizes. This phase tightened intent, resolved ambiguity and established the interaction patterns that guided development across the onboarding experience.
Testing & Iteration
We validated the onboarding experience through ongoing reviews with restaurant managers and internal teams as the flow took shape. Sessions combined walkthroughs of low and high fidelity prototypes, open discussion and scenario based testing focused on real onboarding moments. The goal was to understand where hesitation appeared and whether the experience reduced uncertainty rather than adding it.
The feedback consistently echoed what surfaced during discovery. Restaurant managers were operating under time pressure and wanted reassurance that they were completing the right steps in the right order. Confusion rarely came from individual fields. It came from not knowing what was required to go live or whether something could be skipped or fixed later.
Several patterns stood out:
- Managers wanted to understand progress at a glance and know how close they were to completion
- Steps that lacked context caused hesitation even when the input itself was simple
- Clear confirmation and next step messaging reduced second guessing and repeated questions
- Internal teams valued seeing cleaner submissions that required less clarification
These insights reinforced the direction of the design. Onboarding needed to feel guided, not instructional. The experience had to remove decision making wherever possible and replace it with structure, clarity and reassurance.
We refined the flow to emphasize momentum and confidence. Progress indicators became more prominent. Language was tightened to explain why each step mattered. Guidance was moved closer to the moment of action so users did not have to pause or search for answers.
Each iteration focused on a simple question: would this still make sense if someone was doing it quickly between other tasks. Could they move forward without worrying they were missing something important.
This feedback loop kept the work practical and focused. By validating decisions through real conversations and repeated walkthroughs, we gained confidence that the onboarding experience addressed the root causes of delay and confusion rather than just reshaping the surface of the workflow.
Delivery
As the work moved toward build, I partnered closely with engineering to make sure every flow behaved the way it was designed. We reviewed interaction details, loading states and edge cases together so nothing was left to interpretation. The goal was simple. If a restaurant manager clicked or typed or paused, the system should respond in a way that felt calm and predictable.
The prototypes were fully interactive and we tested each major step across screen sizes to confirm that the experience held up outside of perfect design conditions. Small details mattered, like how progress indicators responded between steps or how guidance appeared when something was entered incorrectly. Those moments shaped the level of trust partners would feel using the tool.
I also worked with our UX writer to refine system messaging, especially in areas that could cause hesitation or concern. We focused on language that was direct, kind and clear so restaurants always understood what was happening and why. Clarity reduced anxiety. Anxiety slowed onboarding. Getting this right was critical.
By the time we reached handoff, the product vision, interactions and tone were fully defined. Engineering had the detail they needed to implement with confidence and the onboarding experience felt cohesive from first step to submission.
The screens that follow reflect the final state of the experience and the patterns that guided development across the product.
After signing their contract, restaurant managers receive an email link that brings them to the onboarding landing page. This screen confirms key contact details and sets expectations for what they’ll complete in the wizard so nothing feels unexpected once they begin.
The first step of onboarding asks restaurant managers to enter their service hours. They can define delivery, pickup and catering schedules so diners always see the right availability when placing an order.
In the next step, restaurant managers provide prep time estimates and any helpful instructions for drivers. This ensures orders are picked up smoothly and gives partners control over how their operations are represented on the platform.
In this step, restaurant managers have the option to upload their existing menu files so Grubhub can begin structuring the content. If they’d rather create the menu manually after onboarding using the Menu Editor, they can skip for now and move forward.
In this step, restaurant managers upload photos of their restaurant along with a single featured food image. These images are used across search results and the restaurant page, helping diners recognize the brand and build confidence before placing an order.
Once setup is complete, restaurant managers can review their information and make any final edits before submitting. This step gives partners confidence that their listing will appear exactly as intended when it goes live.
Once onboarding is complete, restaurant managers are guided to a resource hub with links, tips and next steps. This helps them get comfortable with Grubhub’s self service features before orders start coming in.
Impact
The onboarding experience shifted Grubhub away from a support-driven setup model and toward a guided, self service flow that scaled across the restaurant network. Instead of relying on long email threads and manual data entry, partners could now complete key onboarding steps on their own with clarity and confidence. Early validation showed that restaurants were able to move through setup faster and submit cleaner, more complete information at the point of activation.
Internal teams felt the difference. Support and operations reported fewer repetitive clarification requests and less time spent retyping core business details. This allowed specialists to focus on review and quality control rather than administrative work. The improvement in submission quality helped reduce the back and forth that previously slowed activation.
The onboarding flow also improved listing quality at launch. Restaurant managers uploaded their own photos, hours and guidance for drivers which led to more accurate and consistent partner profiles. That accuracy supported downstream systems like search, delivery routing and diner expectations, strengthening trust across the experience.
Most importantly, the work created a clearer, more predictable path for new partners. Restaurants understood what was required, what came next and how close they were to going live. That transparency set the tone for a stronger relationship with the platform and laid the foundation for a suite of self service tools that empowered restaurants while reducing operational strain inside the business.
Reflection
This project changed how I think about designing for experiences that cut across many systems, teams and responsibilities. Onboarding seems simple on the surface, but it holds the first real impression a restaurant has of the platform. Working closely with operations, support and restaurant managers made it clear that the right design choices do more than simplify a form. They remove uncertainty, reduce pressure and create trust at a critical moment in the relationship.
It also deepened my belief that clarity is a form of care. Restaurant managers were not asking for advanced tools. They wanted to know what to do, why it mattered and whether they were on the right track. When the product answered those questions in the flow instead of through email threads, confidence increased on both sides. That realization guided every decision we made.
This was also one of the most collaborative efforts I have led. Multiple PMs, engineering groups and designers were involved because onboarding touched so many domains. The challenge was not only designing the product, but aligning people around a shared understanding of how it should feel to go live on Grubhub. That work required systems thinking, patience and clear storytelling so teams could see how their decisions connected to the user experience.
What stayed with me most was how small details shaped trust. A line of copy that calmed a moment of hesitation. A progress indicator that made the path feel real. A confirmation step that helped someone feel confident before submitting. None of these pieces were flashy, but together they created the sense that the platform was on the restaurant’s side.
The work set a foundation that could grow with the business. It proved that onboarding is not just data collection. It is the beginning of a long partnership. And when design treats it that way, the experience becomes clearer for restaurants and stronger for the organization as a whole.
Let’s talk!
If you’re looking for thoughtful, outcomes-driven product design, I’d love to hear what you’re working on.
Say hi!
Designing a guided onboarding flow that helped new restaurant partners publish accurate information and go live without delays.
Results
Faster Onboarding
Restaurants moved through setup more quickly once they could enter details themselves.
Less Support Load
Support teams spent less time retyping restaurant details and more time on verification.
Better Listing Quality
Listings improved because managers uploaded their own hours, photos and instructions.
Clearer Guidance
Step by step direction helped restaurants see what was required and what came next.
Context
As Grubhub’s restaurant network expanded, onboarding became a significant operational strain. Every new partner relied on support teams to gather, verify and enter core business details which slowed activation and stretched internal capacity. Restaurants often waited without clear direction while support teams worked through long backlogs. Grubhub needed a guided self service flow that helped partners submit accurate information and reduced the manual effort required to bring them live at scale.
Core Challenges
1. Many restaurants with different operational models
Onboarding needed to account for delivery, pickup and catering with each requiring different details and schedules. A single flow had to stay simple for small restaurants while still supporting more complex setups. This required designing a structure that adapted based on what the partner offered without adding friction.
2. Manual processes that slowed activation
Support teams spent significant time collecting and reformatting information sent through email threads. Hours, menus and photos arrived in inconsistent formats which led to delays and errors. The new experience had to reduce this manual work while still fitting within legacy systems and existing data pipelines.
3. Partners who needed clarity while juggling daily tasks
Restaurant managers often handled onboarding between rushes, deliveries and staffing tasks. They needed a flow they could complete quickly and return to later without losing context. Guidance had to be clear, concise and predictable so partners never felt stuck or unsure about next steps.
4. Accuracy and simplicity working together
Onboarding required precise data to support downstream features like scheduling, delivery estimates and restaurant search. At the same time the interface needed to feel light and approachable. The challenge was hiding technical requirements behind an experience that felt straightforward and human.
Who We Served
Restaurant Managers
Owners and operators responsible for getting their restaurant live while managing day to day tasks. Many completed onboarding between rushes or from a back office computer which meant the experience needed to be simple, steady and easy to return to. They needed clear guidance and a predictable path through each requirement.
Internal Data and Support Teams
Teams responsible for verifying details, resolving inconsistencies and ensuring each listing met platform standards. They needed a process that reduced the amount of manual entry and back and forth communication so they could focus on quality checks instead of retyping content.
Grubhub Operations and Leadership
Stakeholders focused on scaling restaurant acquisition and lowering operational load. They needed a system that helped partners move through onboarding without heavy support involvement while improving accuracy and speeding up the time it took to activate new restaurants.
Design Strategy
Our goal was to create an onboarding experience that helped restaurants move through setup with confidence while reducing the manual effort placed on internal teams. Partners needed a guided path that felt simple and predictable. Grubhub needed data that stayed accurate as the platform scaled. The strategy centered on building a flow that supported different restaurant models, clarified each requirement and removed the uncertainty that slowed activation.
Guide partners with clear structure
We designed a step based flow that walked restaurants through each requirement at a steady pace. Progress indicators and contextual hints made the experience predictable so partners always knew what to do next.
Reduce manual work through self service
By shifting key tasks to restaurant managers we removed the bottleneck of collecting information over email. Managers could upload hours, instructions, photos and menu files themselves which eased the load on support teams.
Adapt to different business needs
Onboarding adjusted based on service models like delivery, pickup or catering. This kept the flow short for simple operations while still supporting more complex restaurants without overwhelming them.
Improve accuracy with guidance at each step
We paired every input with clear language and validation to help restaurants submit complete and reliable details. This strengthened downstream systems and reduced rework for internal teams.
Definition of Success
Success for the onboarding experience was not about replacing a form or adding a new workflow. It was about reshaping how Grubhub activated restaurants at scale. The company needed to move away from manual, service-heavy onboarding and toward a guided flow that helped partners submit accurate details with minimal support. Every design decision focused on creating confidence for restaurants while reducing the operational load on internal teams.
Our success criteria focused on three areas: lowering support dependency, improving data quality and creating a smoother path to activation. These goals aligned design, engineering and operations around a shared definition of what an effective onboarding system should deliver.
1. Reduce dependency on manual support
Before this project, support teams gathered hours, menus, instructions and photos through long back-and-forth email threads. This slowed activation and created inconsistent data. A successful outcome meant giving restaurants the ability to provide complete information on their own without relying on support for basic tasks.
From a design perspective this required:
- Clear input patterns that replaced unstructured submissions and kept details clean
- Inline checks and helpful explanations so partners corrected issues in the moment
- A predictable sequence that guided users through each requirement without confusion
Success meant letting support teams shift from data entry to quality review. Restaurants would complete the setup confidently while internal teams focused on verification instead of retyping information.
2. Improve onboarding speed
Time to activation had a direct impact on how quickly restaurants could begin taking orders. The old workflow created delays because every detail had to pass through internal teams. Success meant shortening the path from contract to live listing by keeping onboarding focused, structured and easy to complete.
To achieve this we designed:
- Guided steps that contained only what was essential for activation
- Progress indicators that reduced uncertainty and helped partners stay oriented
- Task flows that aligned with operational review so information moved cleanly into internal systems
The true measure of success was an onboarding process that felt smooth for restaurants and removed unnecessary waiting. Partners would move through setup faster with fewer handoffs and fewer reasons to pause the process.
3. Increase accuracy at launch
Restaurant data influenced everything from search to delivery estimates. Errors in hours, instructions or photos affected both diners and operations. Success meant giving partners autonomy without increasing the risk of incorrect or incomplete information.
Design supported this goal through:
- Structured components that kept inputs clean and compatible with downstream systems
- Confirmation steps that helped restaurants review their details before submitting
- Friendly guidance that warned users when an action might lead to inconsistencies
Success meant scale without instability. Restaurants could complete onboarding on their own while Grubhub preserved the accuracy required to maintain trust and operational reliability.
How We Worked
Our team for onboarding was larger and more cross functional than most projects I’ve led. It included multiple product managers, several engineering teams and designers from different parts of the organization. Onboarding touched hours, menus, delivery logistics, photography guidelines and partner operations, so the work involved input from ICs across support, data, compliance and marketplace operations. It required alignment across many domains while keeping a single, coherent experience for restaurants.
As Lead Designer I owned the product vision, user experience and the structure of the onboarding flow from the earliest concepts through delivery. I shaped how the steps connected, how guidance should appear and how the flow adapted to different restaurant models. I worked with designers from adjacent teams to ensure our patterns stayed consistent with the broader platform and partnered with PMs to keep priorities aligned across engineering groups that were implementing different parts of the system.
Collaboration happened daily. Engineers joined design reviews early to confirm feasibility and highlight system constraints that shaped our decisions. Weekly working sessions with support, data and operations teams grounded the work in real processes and helped us refine the experience so each step matched what partners needed to provide. The scale of collaboration made the design stronger and kept the entire flow anchored to real operational needs.
I also worked closely with our UX writer to create straightforward language that kept partners confident through the process. This mattered most in steps where errors or uncertainty could cause hesitation. Testing was ongoing. We ran reviews with internal teams and sessions with restaurant managers in the field which gave us clear signals about where users hesitated or felt unsure. We iterated quickly on these insights and refined the flow until it felt predictable and approachable.
This rhythm kept the team aligned. It also ensured that every decision supported the shared goal of helping restaurants complete onboarding smoothly while reducing the manual load on internal teams.
Process
Our process moved fast but stayed deeply rooted in understanding how restaurant partners actually think and work. With an eight week timeline I structured the effort around clear goals and rapid decision cycles. Research, design and validation acted as overlapping lenses I used to get inside the mindset of restaurant managers, uncover where uncertainty crept in and test whether each step truly made sense in the moment. This approach reduced guesswork, kept the team aligned and helped us shape an onboarding flow that felt intuitive for partners and dependable for internal teams.
Research
Design
Validation
Discovery
We started by stepping back and looking at onboarding from the restaurant’s point of view rather than the system’s. The existing process was spread across emails, internal tools and handoffs that were invisible to partners. Restaurants did not experience onboarding as a sequence. They experienced it as uncertainty. The first goal of discovery was to understand where that uncertainty showed up and why.
To do this, I focused on mapping the end to end onboarding journey as a restaurant manager would experience it, from contract signature to their first live order. Instead of jumping directly into requirements, we documented each step, decision point and moment of hesitation. This helped us see how expectations formed early and where confusion compounded as the process moved forward.
These journey maps surfaced several important patterns.
Restaurants were rarely blocked by effort. They were blocked by ambiguity. Managers wanted to move quickly but were unsure what was required, what could wait and what would prevent them from going live. Many steps felt disconnected. Entering hours, uploading a menu or providing delivery instructions did not feel like part of a single flow. They felt like isolated tasks with unclear consequences.
From the internal side, support and operations teams described a different but related problem. Information arrived out of order, in inconsistent formats and often incomplete. Teams spent significant time clarifying basic details, translating attachments and following up on missing items. This slowed activation and created friction on both sides.
Rather than treating onboarding as a form or checklist, we reframed it as a guided decision making process. The key question became: what does a restaurant need to understand at each moment to feel confident moving forward?
Because onboarding touched many domains, including hours, menus, delivery setup and branding, traditional IA diagrams were less useful early on. The problem was not navigation depth. It was cognitive load. Journey mapping allowed us to focus on mental models, sequencing and expectations instead of screens.
From these maps, we identified a few core themes that guided the rest of the work:
- Restaurants needed to know where they were, how much remained and what would happen next
- Steps had to feel connected rather than transactional
- Guidance needed to appear at the moment of uncertainty, not as documentation
- Progress had to feel earned and visible
Once those themes were clear, we moved into low fidelity wireframes to test whether the journey we mapped could actually work as a product experience.
Design & Prototyping
With discovery insights grounded in real restaurant workflows, I moved into low fidelity wireframes to shape the onboarding experience step by step. The goal was not visual polish. It was to translate a fragmented, service driven process into a guided flow that felt clear, calm and achievable. Each concept focused on sequencing, pacing and removing moments where uncertainty slowed progress.
Rather than designing screens in isolation, I treated the flow as a continuous conversation with the restaurant. Every step needed to answer three questions immediately: what is this asking me to do, why does it matter and what happens next.
Key patterns emerged early:
- A structured, step based flow that grouped related tasks and reduced decision fatigue
- Persistent progress indicators that made completion feel visible and earned
- Inline guidance that explained requirements at the moment they were needed rather than pushing users to external documentation
- Flexible inputs that adapted based on service type so restaurants only saw what applied to their business
These wireframes allowed us to pressure test the experience quickly. We reviewed whether a manager could complete steps between daily tasks, pause without losing confidence and return without reorienting themselves. The work also helped engineering teams understand how data needed to flow across systems while maintaining a single, coherent experience for the user.
This phase clarified where structure created confidence and where additional guidance was necessary. It also established the interaction patterns that carried through into higher fidelity design and implementation.
Once the core flow and interactions proved sound, I moved into higher fidelity prototypes to refine behavior and clarity. I partnered closely with our UX writer to shape language that reduced hesitation and made each step feel approachable. In parallel, I worked with engineering to confirm layouts, edge cases and responsiveness across common screen sizes. This phase tightened intent, resolved ambiguity and established the interaction patterns that guided development across the onboarding experience.
Testing & Iteration
We validated the onboarding experience through ongoing reviews with restaurant managers and internal teams as the flow took shape. Sessions combined walkthroughs of low and high fidelity prototypes, open discussion and scenario based testing focused on real onboarding moments. The goal was to understand where hesitation appeared and whether the experience reduced uncertainty rather than adding it.
The feedback consistently echoed what surfaced during discovery. Restaurant managers were operating under time pressure and wanted reassurance that they were completing the right steps in the right order. Confusion rarely came from individual fields. It came from not knowing what was required to go live or whether something could be skipped or fixed later.
Several patterns stood out:
- Managers wanted to understand progress at a glance and know how close they were to completion
- Steps that lacked context caused hesitation even when the input itself was simple
- Clear confirmation and next step messaging reduced second guessing and repeated questions
- Internal teams valued seeing cleaner submissions that required less clarification
These insights reinforced the direction of the design. Onboarding needed to feel guided, not instructional. The experience had to remove decision making wherever possible and replace it with structure, clarity and reassurance.
We refined the flow to emphasize momentum and confidence. Progress indicators became more prominent. Language was tightened to explain why each step mattered. Guidance was moved closer to the moment of action so users did not have to pause or search for answers.
Each iteration focused on a simple question: would this still make sense if someone was doing it quickly between other tasks. Could they move forward without worrying they were missing something important.
This feedback loop kept the work practical and focused. By validating decisions through real conversations and repeated walkthroughs, we gained confidence that the onboarding experience addressed the root causes of delay and confusion rather than just reshaping the surface of the workflow.
Delivery
As the work moved toward build, I partnered closely with engineering to make sure every flow behaved the way it was designed. We reviewed interaction details, loading states and edge cases together so nothing was left to interpretation. The goal was simple. If a restaurant manager clicked or typed or paused, the system should respond in a way that felt calm and predictable.
The prototypes were fully interactive and we tested each major step across screen sizes to confirm that the experience held up outside of perfect design conditions. Small details mattered, like how progress indicators responded between steps or how guidance appeared when something was entered incorrectly. Those moments shaped the level of trust partners would feel using the tool.
I also worked with our UX writer to refine system messaging, especially in areas that could cause hesitation or concern. We focused on language that was direct, kind and clear so restaurants always understood what was happening and why. Clarity reduced anxiety. Anxiety slowed onboarding. Getting this right was critical.
By the time we reached handoff, the product vision, interactions and tone were fully defined. Engineering had the detail they needed to implement with confidence and the onboarding experience felt cohesive from first step to submission.
The screens that follow reflect the final state of the experience and the patterns that guided development across the product.
After signing their contract, restaurant managers receive an email link that brings them to the onboarding landing page. This screen confirms key contact details and sets expectations for what they’ll complete in the wizard so nothing feels unexpected once they begin.
The first step of onboarding asks restaurant managers to enter their service hours. They can define delivery, pickup and catering schedules so diners always see the right availability when placing an order.
In the next step, restaurant managers provide prep time estimates and any helpful instructions for drivers. This ensures orders are picked up smoothly and gives partners control over how their operations are represented on the platform.
In this step, restaurant managers have the option to upload their existing menu files so Grubhub can begin structuring the content. If they’d rather create the menu manually after onboarding using the Menu Editor, they can skip for now and move forward.
In this step, restaurant managers upload photos of their restaurant along with a single featured food image. These images are used across search results and the restaurant page, helping diners recognize the brand and build confidence before placing an order.
Once setup is complete, restaurant managers can review their information and make any final edits before submitting. This step gives partners confidence that their listing will appear exactly as intended when it goes live.
Once onboarding is complete, restaurant managers are guided to a resource hub with links, tips and next steps. This helps them get comfortable with Grubhub’s self service features before orders start coming in.
Impact
The onboarding experience shifted Grubhub away from a support-driven setup model and toward a guided, self service flow that scaled across the restaurant network. Instead of relying on long email threads and manual data entry, partners could now complete key onboarding steps on their own with clarity and confidence. Early validation showed that restaurants were able to move through setup faster and submit cleaner, more complete information at the point of activation.
Internal teams felt the difference. Support and operations reported fewer repetitive clarification requests and less time spent retyping core business details. This allowed specialists to focus on review and quality control rather than administrative work. The improvement in submission quality helped reduce the back and forth that previously slowed activation.
The onboarding flow also improved listing quality at launch. Restaurant managers uploaded their own photos, hours and guidance for drivers which led to more accurate and consistent partner profiles. That accuracy supported downstream systems like search, delivery routing and diner expectations, strengthening trust across the experience.
Most importantly, the work created a clearer, more predictable path for new partners. Restaurants understood what was required, what came next and how close they were to going live. That transparency set the tone for a stronger relationship with the platform and laid the foundation for a suite of self service tools that empowered restaurants while reducing operational strain inside the business.
Reflection
This project changed how I think about designing for experiences that cut across many systems, teams and responsibilities. Onboarding seems simple on the surface, but it holds the first real impression a restaurant has of the platform. Working closely with operations, support and restaurant managers made it clear that the right design choices do more than simplify a form. They remove uncertainty, reduce pressure and create trust at a critical moment in the relationship.
It also deepened my belief that clarity is a form of care. Restaurant managers were not asking for advanced tools. They wanted to know what to do, why it mattered and whether they were on the right track. When the product answered those questions in the flow instead of through email threads, confidence increased on both sides. That realization guided every decision we made.
This was also one of the most collaborative efforts I have led. Multiple PMs, engineering groups and designers were involved because onboarding touched so many domains. The challenge was not only designing the product, but aligning people around a shared understanding of how it should feel to go live on Grubhub. That work required systems thinking, patience and clear storytelling so teams could see how their decisions connected to the user experience.
What stayed with me most was how small details shaped trust. A line of copy that calmed a moment of hesitation. A progress indicator that made the path feel real. A confirmation step that helped someone feel confident before submitting. None of these pieces were flashy, but together they created the sense that the platform was on the restaurant’s side.
The work set a foundation that could grow with the business. It proved that onboarding is not just data collection. It is the beginning of a long partnership. And when design treats it that way, the experience becomes clearer for restaurants and stronger for the organization as a whole.
Let’s talk!
If you’re looking for thoughtful, outcomes-driven product design, I’d love to hear what you’re working on.
Say hi!
Designing a guided onboarding flow that helped new restaurant partners publish accurate information and go live without delays.
Results
Faster Onboarding
Restaurants moved through setup more quickly once they could enter details themselves.
Less Support Load
Support teams spent less time retyping restaurant details and more time on verification.
Better Listing Quality
Listings improved because managers uploaded their own hours, photos and instructions.
Clearer Guidance
Step by step direction helped restaurants see what was required and what came next.
Context
As Grubhub’s restaurant network expanded, onboarding became a significant operational strain. Every new partner relied on support teams to gather, verify and enter core business details which slowed activation and stretched internal capacity. Restaurants often waited without clear direction while support teams worked through long backlogs. Grubhub needed a guided self service flow that helped partners submit accurate information and reduced the manual effort required to bring them live at scale.
Core Challenges
1. Many restaurants with different operational models
Onboarding needed to account for delivery, pickup and catering with each requiring different details and schedules. A single flow had to stay simple for small restaurants while still supporting more complex setups. This required designing a structure that adapted based on what the partner offered without adding friction.
2. Manual processes that slowed activation
Support teams spent significant time collecting and reformatting information sent through email threads. Hours, menus and photos arrived in inconsistent formats which led to delays and errors. The new experience had to reduce this manual work while still fitting within legacy systems and existing data pipelines.
3. Partners who needed clarity while juggling daily tasks
Restaurant managers often handled onboarding between rushes, deliveries and staffing tasks. They needed a flow they could complete quickly and return to later without losing context. Guidance had to be clear, concise and predictable so partners never felt stuck or unsure about next steps.
4. Accuracy and simplicity working together
Onboarding required precise data to support downstream features like scheduling, delivery estimates and restaurant search. At the same time the interface needed to feel light and approachable. The challenge was hiding technical requirements behind an experience that felt straightforward and human.
Who We Served
Restaurant Managers
Owners and operators responsible for getting their restaurant live while managing day to day tasks. Many completed onboarding between rushes or from a back office computer which meant the experience needed to be simple, steady and easy to return to. They needed clear guidance and a predictable path through each requirement.
Internal Data and Support Teams
Teams responsible for verifying details, resolving inconsistencies and ensuring each listing met platform standards. They needed a process that reduced the amount of manual entry and back and forth communication so they could focus on quality checks instead of retyping content.
Grubhub Operations and Leadership
Stakeholders focused on efficiency and growth who needed a system that could onboard restaurants faster, lower operational costs and build trust with partners through transparency and autonomy.
Design Strategy
Our goal was to create an onboarding experience that helped restaurants move through setup with confidence while reducing the manual effort placed on internal teams. Partners needed a guided path that felt simple and predictable. Grubhub needed data that stayed accurate as the platform scaled. The strategy centered on building a flow that supported different restaurant models, clarified each requirement and removed the uncertainty that slowed activation.
Guide partners with clear structure
We designed a step based flow that walked restaurants through each requirement at a steady pace. Progress indicators and contextual hints made the experience predictable so partners always knew what to do next.
Reduce manual work through self service
By shifting key tasks to restaurant managers we removed the bottleneck of collecting information over email. Managers could upload hours, instructions, photos and menu files themselves which eased the load on support teams.
Adapt to different business needs
Onboarding adjusted based on service models like delivery, pickup or catering. This kept the flow short for simple operations while still supporting more complex restaurants without overwhelming them.
Improve accuracy with guidance at each step
We paired every input with clear language and validation to help restaurants submit complete and reliable details. This strengthened downstream systems and reduced rework for internal teams.
Definition of Success
Success for the onboarding experience was not about replacing a form or adding a new workflow. It was about reshaping how Grubhub activated restaurants at scale. The company needed to move away from manual, service-heavy onboarding and toward a guided flow that helped partners submit accurate details with minimal support. Every design decision focused on creating confidence for restaurants while reducing the operational load on internal teams.
Our success criteria focused on three areas: lowering support dependency, improving data quality and creating a smoother path to activation. These goals aligned design, engineering and operations around a shared definition of what an effective onboarding system should deliver.
1. Reduce dependency on manual support
Before this project, support teams gathered hours, menus, instructions and photos through long back-and-forth email threads. This slowed activation and created inconsistent data. A successful outcome meant giving restaurants the ability to provide complete information on their own without relying on support for basic tasks.
From a design perspective this required:
- Clear input patterns that replaced unstructured submissions and kept details clean
- Inline checks and helpful explanations so partners corrected issues in the moment
- A predictable sequence that guided users through each requirement without confusion
Success meant letting support teams shift from data entry to quality review. Restaurants would complete the setup confidently while internal teams focused on verification instead of retyping information.
2. Improve onboarding speed
Time to activation had a direct impact on how quickly restaurants could begin taking orders. The old workflow created delays because every detail had to pass through internal teams. Success meant shortening the path from contract to live listing by keeping onboarding focused, structured and easy to complete.
To achieve this we designed:
- Guided steps that contained only what was essential for activation
- Progress indicators that reduced uncertainty and helped partners stay oriented
- Task flows that aligned with operational review so information moved cleanly into internal systems
The true measure of success was an onboarding process that felt smooth for restaurants and removed unnecessary waiting. Partners would move through setup faster with fewer handoffs and fewer reasons to pause the process.
3. Increase accuracy at launch
Restaurant data influenced everything from search to delivery estimates. Errors in hours, instructions or photos affected both diners and operations. Success meant giving partners autonomy without increasing the risk of incorrect or incomplete information.
Design supported this goal through:
- Structured components that kept inputs clean and compatible with downstream systems
- Confirmation steps that helped restaurants review their details before submitting
- Friendly guidance that warned users when an action might lead to inconsistencies
Success meant scale without instability. Restaurants could complete onboarding on their own while Grubhub preserved the accuracy required to maintain trust and operational reliability.
How We Worked
Our team for onboarding was larger and more cross functional than most projects I’ve led. It included multiple product managers, several engineering teams and designers from different parts of the organization. Onboarding touched hours, menus, delivery logistics, photography guidelines and partner operations, so the work involved input from ICs across support, data, compliance and marketplace operations. It required alignment across many domains while keeping a single, coherent experience for restaurants.
As Lead Designer I owned the product vision, user experience and the structure of the onboarding flow from the earliest concepts through delivery. I shaped how the steps connected, how guidance should appear and how the flow adapted to different restaurant models. I worked with designers from adjacent teams to ensure our patterns stayed consistent with the broader platform and partnered with PMs to keep priorities aligned across engineering groups that were implementing different parts of the system.
Collaboration happened daily. Engineers joined design reviews early to confirm feasibility and highlight system constraints that shaped our decisions. Weekly working sessions with support, data and operations teams grounded the work in real processes and helped us refine the experience so each step matched what partners needed to provide. The scale of collaboration made the design stronger and kept the entire flow anchored to real operational needs.
I also worked closely with our UX writer to create straightforward language that kept partners confident through the process. This mattered most in steps where errors or uncertainty could cause hesitation. Testing was ongoing. We ran reviews with internal teams and sessions with restaurant managers in the field which gave us clear signals about where users hesitated or felt unsure. We iterated quickly on these insights and refined the flow until it felt predictable and approachable.
This rhythm kept the team aligned. It also ensured that every decision supported the shared goal of helping restaurants complete onboarding smoothly while reducing the manual load on internal teams.
Process
Our process moved fast but stayed deeply rooted in understanding how restaurant partners actually think and work. With an eight week timeline I structured the effort around clear goals and rapid decision cycles. Research, design and validation acted as overlapping lenses I used to get inside the mindset of restaurant managers, uncover where uncertainty crept in and test whether each step truly made sense in the moment. This approach reduced guesswork, kept the team aligned and helped us shape an onboarding flow that felt intuitive for partners and dependable for internal teams.
Research
Design
Validation
Discovery
We started by stepping back and looking at onboarding from the restaurant’s point of view rather than the system’s. The existing process was spread across emails, internal tools and handoffs that were invisible to partners. Restaurants did not experience onboarding as a sequence. They experienced it as uncertainty. The first goal of discovery was to understand where that uncertainty showed up and why.
To do this, I focused on mapping the end to end onboarding journey as a restaurant manager would experience it, from contract signature to their first live order. Instead of jumping directly into requirements, we documented each step, decision point and moment of hesitation. This helped us see how expectations formed early and where confusion compounded as the process moved forward.
These journey maps surfaced several important patterns.
Restaurants were rarely blocked by effort. They were blocked by ambiguity. Managers wanted to move quickly but were unsure what was required, what could wait and what would prevent them from going live. Many steps felt disconnected. Entering hours, uploading a menu or providing delivery instructions did not feel like part of a single flow. They felt like isolated tasks with unclear consequences.
From the internal side, support and operations teams described a different but related problem. Information arrived out of order, in inconsistent formats and often incomplete. Teams spent significant time clarifying basic details, translating attachments and following up on missing items. This slowed activation and created friction on both sides.
Rather than treating onboarding as a form or checklist, we reframed it as a guided decision making process. The key question became: what does a restaurant need to understand at each moment to feel confident moving forward?
Because onboarding touched many domains, including hours, menus, delivery setup and branding, traditional IA diagrams were less useful early on. The problem was not navigation depth. It was cognitive load. Journey mapping allowed us to focus on mental models, sequencing and expectations instead of screens.
From these maps, we identified a few core themes that guided the rest of the work:
- Restaurants needed to know where they were, how much remained and what would happen next
- Steps had to feel connected rather than transactional
- Guidance needed to appear at the moment of uncertainty, not as documentation
- Progress had to feel earned and visible
Once those themes were clear, we moved into low fidelity wireframes to test whether the journey we mapped could actually work as a product experience.
Design & Prototyping
With discovery insights grounded in real restaurant workflows, I moved into low fidelity wireframes to shape the onboarding experience step by step. The goal was not visual polish. It was to translate a fragmented, service driven process into a guided flow that felt clear, calm and achievable. Each concept focused on sequencing, pacing and removing moments where uncertainty slowed progress.
Rather than designing screens in isolation, I treated the flow as a continuous conversation with the restaurant. Every step needed to answer three questions immediately: what is this asking me to do, why does it matter and what happens next.
Key patterns emerged early:
- A structured, step based flow that grouped related tasks and reduced decision fatigue
- Persistent progress indicators that made completion feel visible and earned
- Inline guidance that explained requirements at the moment they were needed rather than pushing users to external documentation
- Flexible inputs that adapted based on service type so restaurants only saw what applied to their business
These wireframes allowed us to pressure test the experience quickly. We reviewed whether a manager could complete steps between daily tasks, pause without losing confidence and return without reorienting themselves. The work also helped engineering teams understand how data needed to flow across systems while maintaining a single, coherent experience for the user.
This phase clarified where structure created confidence and where additional guidance was necessary. It also established the interaction patterns that carried through into higher fidelity design and implementation.
Once the core flow and interactions proved sound, I moved into higher fidelity prototypes to refine behavior and clarity. I partnered closely with our UX writer to shape language that reduced hesitation and made each step feel approachable. In parallel, I worked with engineering to confirm layouts, edge cases and responsiveness across common screen sizes. This phase tightened intent, resolved ambiguity and established the interaction patterns that guided development across the onboarding experience.
Testing & Iteration
We validated the onboarding experience through ongoing reviews with restaurant managers and internal teams as the flow took shape. Sessions combined walkthroughs of low and high fidelity prototypes, open discussion and scenario based testing focused on real onboarding moments. The goal was to understand where hesitation appeared and whether the experience reduced uncertainty rather than adding it.
The feedback consistently echoed what surfaced during discovery. Restaurant managers were operating under time pressure and wanted reassurance that they were completing the right steps in the right order. Confusion rarely came from individual fields. It came from not knowing what was required to go live or whether something could be skipped or fixed later.
Several patterns stood out:
- Managers wanted to understand progress at a glance and know how close they were to completion
- Steps that lacked context caused hesitation even when the input itself was simple
- Clear confirmation and next step messaging reduced second guessing and repeated questions
- Internal teams valued seeing cleaner submissions that required less clarification
These insights reinforced the direction of the design. Onboarding needed to feel guided, not instructional. The experience had to remove decision making wherever possible and replace it with structure, clarity and reassurance.
We refined the flow to emphasize momentum and confidence. Progress indicators became more prominent. Language was tightened to explain why each step mattered. Guidance was moved closer to the moment of action so users did not have to pause or search for answers.
Each iteration focused on a simple question: would this still make sense if someone was doing it quickly between other tasks. Could they move forward without worrying they were missing something important.
This feedback loop kept the work practical and focused. By validating decisions through real conversations and repeated walkthroughs, we gained confidence that the onboarding experience addressed the root causes of delay and confusion rather than just reshaping the surface of the workflow.
Delivery
As the work moved toward build, I partnered closely with engineering to make sure every flow behaved the way it was designed. We reviewed interaction details, loading states and edge cases together so nothing was left to interpretation. The goal was simple. If a restaurant manager clicked or typed or paused, the system should respond in a way that felt calm and predictable.
The prototypes were fully interactive and we tested each major step across screen sizes to confirm that the experience held up outside of perfect design conditions. Small details mattered, like how progress indicators responded between steps or how guidance appeared when something was entered incorrectly. Those moments shaped the level of trust partners would feel using the tool.
I also worked with our UX writer to refine system messaging, especially in areas that could cause hesitation or concern. We focused on language that was direct, kind and clear so restaurants always understood what was happening and why. Clarity reduced anxiety. Anxiety slowed onboarding. Getting this right was critical.
By the time we reached handoff, the product vision, interactions and tone were fully defined. Engineering had the detail they needed to implement with confidence and the onboarding experience felt cohesive from first step to submission.
The screens that follow reflect the final state of the experience and the patterns that guided development across the product.
After signing their contract, restaurant managers receive an email link that brings them to the onboarding landing page. This screen confirms key contact details and sets expectations for what they’ll complete in the wizard so nothing feels unexpected once they begin.
The first step of onboarding asks restaurant managers to enter their service hours. They can define delivery, pickup and catering schedules so diners always see the right availability when placing an order.
In the next step, restaurant managers provide prep time estimates and any helpful instructions for drivers. This ensures orders are picked up smoothly and gives partners control over how their operations are represented on the platform.
In this step, restaurant managers have the option to upload their existing menu files so Grubhub can begin structuring the content. If they’d rather create the menu manually after onboarding using the Menu Editor, they can skip for now and move forward.
In this step, restaurant managers upload photos of their restaurant along with a single featured food image. These images are used across search results and the restaurant page, helping diners recognize the brand and build confidence before placing an order.
Once setup is complete, restaurant managers can review their information and make any final edits before submitting. This step gives partners confidence that their listing will appear exactly as intended when it goes live.
Once onboarding is complete, restaurant managers are guided to a resource hub with links, tips and next steps. This helps them get comfortable with Grubhub’s self service features before orders start coming in.
Impact
The onboarding experience shifted Grubhub away from a support-driven setup model and toward a guided, self service flow that scaled across the restaurant network. Instead of relying on long email threads and manual data entry, partners could now complete key onboarding steps on their own with clarity and confidence. Early validation showed that restaurants were able to move through setup faster and submit cleaner, more complete information at the point of activation.
Internal teams felt the difference. Support and operations reported fewer repetitive clarification requests and less time spent retyping core business details. This allowed specialists to focus on review and quality control rather than administrative work. The improvement in submission quality helped reduce the back and forth that previously slowed activation.
The onboarding flow also improved listing quality at launch. Restaurant managers uploaded their own photos, hours and guidance for drivers which led to more accurate and consistent partner profiles. That accuracy supported downstream systems like search, delivery routing and diner expectations, strengthening trust across the experience.
Most importantly, the work created a clearer, more predictable path for new partners. Restaurants understood what was required, what came next and how close they were to going live. That transparency set the tone for a stronger relationship with the platform and laid the foundation for a suite of self service tools that empowered restaurants while reducing operational strain inside the business.
Reflection
This project changed how I think about designing for experiences that cut across many systems, teams and responsibilities. Onboarding seems simple on the surface, but it holds the first real impression a restaurant has of the platform. Working closely with operations, support and restaurant managers made it clear that the right design choices do more than simplify a form. They remove uncertainty, reduce pressure and create trust at a critical moment in the relationship.
It also deepened my belief that clarity is a form of care. Restaurant managers were not asking for advanced tools. They wanted to know what to do, why it mattered and whether they were on the right track. When the product answered those questions in the flow instead of through email threads, confidence increased on both sides. That realization guided every decision we made.
This was also one of the most collaborative efforts I have led. Multiple PMs, engineering groups and designers were involved because onboarding touched so many domains. The challenge was not only designing the product, but aligning people around a shared understanding of how it should feel to go live on Grubhub. That work required systems thinking, patience and clear storytelling so teams could see how their decisions connected to the user experience.
What stayed with me most was how small details shaped trust. A line of copy that calmed a moment of hesitation. A progress indicator that made the path feel real. A confirmation step that helped someone feel confident before submitting. None of these pieces were flashy, but together they created the sense that the platform was on the restaurant’s side.
The work set a foundation that could grow with the business. It proved that onboarding is not just data collection. It is the beginning of a long partnership. And when design treats it that way, the experience becomes clearer for restaurants and stronger for the organization as a whole.
Let’s talk!
If you’re looking for thoughtful, outcomes-driven product design, I’d love to hear what you’re working on.
Say hi!
Designing a guided onboarding flow that helped new restaurant partners publish accurate information and go live without delays.
Results
Faster Onboarding
Restaurants moved through setup more quickly once they could enter details themselves.
Less Support Load
Support teams spent less time retyping restaurant details and more time on verification.
Better Listing Quality
Listings improved because managers uploaded their own hours, photos and instructions.
Clearer Guidance
Step by step direction helped restaurants see what was required and what came next.
Context
As Grubhub’s restaurant network expanded, onboarding became a significant operational strain. Every new partner relied on support teams to gather, verify and enter core business details which slowed activation and stretched internal capacity. Restaurants often waited without clear direction while support teams worked through long backlogs. Grubhub needed a guided self service flow that helped partners submit accurate information and reduced the manual effort required to bring them live at scale.
Core Challenges
1. Many restaurants with different operational models
Onboarding needed to account for delivery, pickup and catering with each requiring different details and schedules. A single flow had to stay simple for small restaurants while still supporting more complex setups. This required designing a structure that adapted based on what the partner offered without adding friction.
2. Manual processes that slowed activation
Support teams spent significant time collecting and reformatting information sent through email threads. Hours, menus and photos arrived in inconsistent formats which led to delays and errors. The new experience had to reduce this manual work while still fitting within legacy systems and existing data pipelines.
3. Partners who needed clarity while juggling daily tasks
Restaurant managers often handled onboarding between rushes, deliveries and staffing tasks. They needed a flow they could complete quickly and return to later without losing context. Guidance had to be clear, concise and predictable so partners never felt stuck or unsure about next steps.
4. Accuracy and simplicity working together
Onboarding required precise data to support downstream features like scheduling, delivery estimates and restaurant search. At the same time the interface needed to feel light and approachable. The challenge was hiding technical requirements behind an experience that felt straightforward and human.
Who We Served
Restaurant Managers
Owners and operators responsible for getting their restaurant live while managing day to day tasks. Many completed onboarding between rushes or from a back office computer which meant the experience needed to be simple, steady and easy to return to. They needed clear guidance and a predictable path through each requirement.
Internal Data and Support Teams
Teams responsible for verifying details, resolving inconsistencies and ensuring each listing met platform standards. They needed a process that reduced the amount of manual entry and back and forth communication so they could focus on quality checks instead of retyping content.
Grubhub Operations and Leadership
Stakeholders focused on efficiency and growth who needed a system that could onboard restaurants faster, lower operational costs and build trust with partners through transparency and autonomy.
Design Strategy
Our goal was to create an onboarding experience that helped restaurants move through setup with confidence while reducing the manual effort placed on internal teams. Partners needed a guided path that felt simple and predictable. Grubhub needed data that stayed accurate as the platform scaled. The strategy centered on building a flow that supported different restaurant models, clarified each requirement and removed the uncertainty that slowed activation.
Guide partners with clear structure
We designed a step based flow that walked restaurants through each requirement at a steady pace. Progress indicators and contextual hints made the experience predictable so partners always knew what to do next.
Reduce manual work through self service
By shifting key tasks to restaurant managers we removed the bottleneck of collecting information over email. Managers could upload hours, instructions, photos and menu files themselves which eased the load on support teams.
Adapt to different business needs
Onboarding adjusted based on service models like delivery, pickup or catering. This kept the flow short for simple operations while still supporting more complex restaurants without overwhelming them.
Improve accuracy with guidance at each step
We paired every input with clear language and validation to help restaurants submit complete and reliable details. This strengthened downstream systems and reduced rework for internal teams.
Definition of Success
Success for the onboarding experience was not about replacing a form or adding a new workflow. It was about reshaping how Grubhub activated restaurants at scale. The company needed to move away from manual, service-heavy onboarding and toward a guided flow that helped partners submit accurate details with minimal support. Every design decision focused on creating confidence for restaurants while reducing the operational load on internal teams.
Our success criteria focused on three areas: lowering support dependency, improving data quality and creating a smoother path to activation. These goals aligned design, engineering and operations around a shared definition of what an effective onboarding system should deliver.
1. Reduce dependency on manual support
Before this project, support teams gathered hours, menus, instructions and photos through long back-and-forth email threads. This slowed activation and created inconsistent data. A successful outcome meant giving restaurants the ability to provide complete information on their own without relying on support for basic tasks.
From a design perspective this required:
- Clear input patterns that replaced unstructured submissions and kept details clean
- Inline checks and helpful explanations so partners corrected issues in the moment
- A predictable sequence that guided users through each requirement without confusion
Success meant letting support teams shift from data entry to quality review. Restaurants would complete the setup confidently while internal teams focused on verification instead of retyping information.
2. Improve onboarding speed
Time to activation had a direct impact on how quickly restaurants could begin taking orders. The old workflow created delays because every detail had to pass through internal teams. Success meant shortening the path from contract to live listing by keeping onboarding focused, structured and easy to complete.
To achieve this we designed:
- Guided steps that contained only what was essential for activation
- Progress indicators that reduced uncertainty and helped partners stay oriented
- Task flows that aligned with operational review so information moved cleanly into internal systems
The true measure of success was an onboarding process that felt smooth for restaurants and removed unnecessary waiting. Partners would move through setup faster with fewer handoffs and fewer reasons to pause the process.
3. Increase accuracy at launch
Restaurant data influenced everything from search to delivery estimates. Errors in hours, instructions or photos affected both diners and operations. Success meant giving partners autonomy without increasing the risk of incorrect or incomplete information.
Design supported this goal through:
- Structured components that kept inputs clean and compatible with downstream systems
- Confirmation steps that helped restaurants review their details before submitting
- Friendly guidance that warned users when an action might lead to inconsistencies
Success meant scale without instability. Restaurants could complete onboarding on their own while Grubhub preserved the accuracy required to maintain trust and operational reliability.
How We Worked
Our team for onboarding was larger and more cross functional than most projects I’ve led. It included multiple product managers, several engineering teams and designers from different parts of the organization. Onboarding touched hours, menus, delivery logistics, photography guidelines and partner operations, so the work involved input from ICs across support, data, compliance and marketplace operations. It required alignment across many domains while keeping a single, coherent experience for restaurants.
As Lead Designer I owned the product vision, user experience and the structure of the onboarding flow from the earliest concepts through delivery. I shaped how the steps connected, how guidance should appear and how the flow adapted to different restaurant models. I worked with designers from adjacent teams to ensure our patterns stayed consistent with the broader platform and partnered with PMs to keep priorities aligned across engineering groups that were implementing different parts of the system.
Collaboration happened daily. Engineers joined design reviews early to confirm feasibility and highlight system constraints that shaped our decisions. Weekly working sessions with support, data and operations teams grounded the work in real processes and helped us refine the experience so each step matched what partners needed to provide. The scale of collaboration made the design stronger and kept the entire flow anchored to real operational needs.
I also worked closely with our UX writer to create straightforward language that kept partners confident through the process. This mattered most in steps where errors or uncertainty could cause hesitation. Testing was ongoing. We ran reviews with internal teams and sessions with restaurant managers in the field which gave us clear signals about where users hesitated or felt unsure. We iterated quickly on these insights and refined the flow until it felt predictable and approachable.
This rhythm kept the team aligned. It also ensured that every decision supported the shared goal of helping restaurants complete onboarding smoothly while reducing the manual load on internal teams.
Process
Our process moved fast but stayed deeply rooted in understanding how restaurant partners actually think and work. With an eight week timeline I structured the effort around clear goals and rapid decision cycles. Research, design and validation acted as overlapping lenses I used to get inside the mindset of restaurant managers, uncover where uncertainty crept in and test whether each step truly made sense in the moment. This approach reduced guesswork, kept the team aligned and helped us shape an onboarding flow that felt intuitive for partners and dependable for internal teams.
Research
Design
Validation
Discovery
We started by stepping back and looking at onboarding from the restaurant’s point of view rather than the system’s. The existing process was spread across emails, internal tools and handoffs that were invisible to partners. Restaurants did not experience onboarding as a sequence. They experienced it as uncertainty. The first goal of discovery was to understand where that uncertainty showed up and why.
To do this, I focused on mapping the end to end onboarding journey as a restaurant manager would experience it, from contract signature to their first live order. Instead of jumping directly into requirements, we documented each step, decision point and moment of hesitation. This helped us see how expectations formed early and where confusion compounded as the process moved forward.
These journey maps surfaced several important patterns.
Restaurants were rarely blocked by effort. They were blocked by ambiguity. Managers wanted to move quickly but were unsure what was required, what could wait and what would prevent them from going live. Many steps felt disconnected. Entering hours, uploading a menu or providing delivery instructions did not feel like part of a single flow. They felt like isolated tasks with unclear consequences.
From the internal side, support and operations teams described a different but related problem. Information arrived out of order, in inconsistent formats and often incomplete. Teams spent significant time clarifying basic details, translating attachments and following up on missing items. This slowed activation and created friction on both sides.
Rather than treating onboarding as a form or checklist, we reframed it as a guided decision making process. The key question became: what does a restaurant need to understand at each moment to feel confident moving forward?
Because onboarding touched many domains, including hours, menus, delivery setup and branding, traditional IA diagrams were less useful early on. The problem was not navigation depth. It was cognitive load. Journey mapping allowed us to focus on mental models, sequencing and expectations instead of screens.
From these maps, we identified a few core themes that guided the rest of the work:
- Restaurants needed to know where they were, how much remained and what would happen next
- Steps had to feel connected rather than transactional
- Guidance needed to appear at the moment of uncertainty, not as documentation
- Progress had to feel earned and visible
Once those themes were clear, we moved into low fidelity wireframes to test whether the journey we mapped could actually work as a product experience.
Design & Prototyping
With discovery insights grounded in real restaurant workflows, I moved into low fidelity wireframes to shape the onboarding experience step by step. The goal was not visual polish. It was to translate a fragmented, service driven process into a guided flow that felt clear, calm and achievable. Each concept focused on sequencing, pacing and removing moments where uncertainty slowed progress.
Rather than designing screens in isolation, I treated the flow as a continuous conversation with the restaurant. Every step needed to answer three questions immediately: what is this asking me to do, why does it matter and what happens next.
Key patterns emerged early:
- A structured, step based flow that grouped related tasks and reduced decision fatigue
- Persistent progress indicators that made completion feel visible and earned
- Inline guidance that explained requirements at the moment they were needed rather than pushing users to external documentation
- Flexible inputs that adapted based on service type so restaurants only saw what applied to their business
These wireframes allowed us to pressure test the experience quickly. We reviewed whether a manager could complete steps between daily tasks, pause without losing confidence and return without reorienting themselves. The work also helped engineering teams understand how data needed to flow across systems while maintaining a single, coherent experience for the user.
This phase clarified where structure created confidence and where additional guidance was necessary. It also established the interaction patterns that carried through into higher fidelity design and implementation.
Once the core flow and interactions proved sound, I moved into higher fidelity prototypes to refine behavior and clarity. I partnered closely with our UX writer to shape language that reduced hesitation and made each step feel approachable. In parallel, I worked with engineering to confirm layouts, edge cases and responsiveness across common screen sizes. This phase tightened intent, resolved ambiguity and established the interaction patterns that guided development across the onboarding experience.
Testing & Iteration
We validated the onboarding experience through ongoing reviews with restaurant managers and internal teams as the flow took shape. Sessions combined walkthroughs of low and high fidelity prototypes, open discussion and scenario based testing focused on real onboarding moments. The goal was to understand where hesitation appeared and whether the experience reduced uncertainty rather than adding it.
The feedback consistently echoed what surfaced during discovery. Restaurant managers were operating under time pressure and wanted reassurance that they were completing the right steps in the right order. Confusion rarely came from individual fields. It came from not knowing what was required to go live or whether something could be skipped or fixed later.
Several patterns stood out:
- Managers wanted to understand progress at a glance and know how close they were to completion
- Steps that lacked context caused hesitation even when the input itself was simple
- Clear confirmation and next step messaging reduced second guessing and repeated questions
- Internal teams valued seeing cleaner submissions that required less clarification
These insights reinforced the direction of the design. Onboarding needed to feel guided, not instructional. The experience had to remove decision making wherever possible and replace it with structure, clarity and reassurance.
We refined the flow to emphasize momentum and confidence. Progress indicators became more prominent. Language was tightened to explain why each step mattered. Guidance was moved closer to the moment of action so users did not have to pause or search for answers.
Each iteration focused on a simple question: would this still make sense if someone was doing it quickly between other tasks. Could they move forward without worrying they were missing something important.
This feedback loop kept the work practical and focused. By validating decisions through real conversations and repeated walkthroughs, we gained confidence that the onboarding experience addressed the root causes of delay and confusion rather than just reshaping the surface of the workflow.
Delivery
As the work moved toward build, I partnered closely with engineering to make sure every flow behaved the way it was designed. We reviewed interaction details, loading states and edge cases together so nothing was left to interpretation. The goal was simple. If a restaurant manager clicked or typed or paused, the system should respond in a way that felt calm and predictable.
The prototypes were fully interactive and we tested each major step across screen sizes to confirm that the experience held up outside of perfect design conditions. Small details mattered, like how progress indicators responded between steps or how guidance appeared when something was entered incorrectly. Those moments shaped the level of trust partners would feel using the tool.
I also worked with our UX writer to refine system messaging, especially in areas that could cause hesitation or concern. We focused on language that was direct, kind and clear so restaurants always understood what was happening and why. Clarity reduced anxiety. Anxiety slowed onboarding. Getting this right was critical.
By the time we reached handoff, the product vision, interactions and tone were fully defined. Engineering had the detail they needed to implement with confidence and the onboarding experience felt cohesive from first step to submission.
The screens that follow reflect the final state of the experience and the patterns that guided development across the product.
After signing their contract, restaurant managers receive an email link that brings them to the onboarding landing page. This screen confirms key contact details and sets expectations for what they’ll complete in the wizard so nothing feels unexpected once they begin.
The first step of onboarding asks restaurant managers to enter their service hours. They can define delivery, pickup and catering schedules so diners always see the right availability when placing an order.
In the next step, restaurant managers provide prep time estimates and any helpful instructions for drivers. This ensures orders are picked up smoothly and gives partners control over how their operations are represented on the platform.
In this step, restaurant managers have the option to upload their existing menu files so Grubhub can begin structuring the content. If they’d rather create the menu manually after onboarding using the Menu Editor, they can skip for now and move forward.
In this step, restaurant managers upload photos of their restaurant along with a single featured food image. These images are used across search results and the restaurant page, helping diners recognize the brand and build confidence before placing an order.
Once setup is complete, restaurant managers can review their information and make any final edits before submitting. This step gives partners confidence that their listing will appear exactly as intended when it goes live.
Once onboarding is complete, restaurant managers are guided to a resource hub with links, tips and next steps. This helps them get comfortable with Grubhub’s self service features before orders start coming in.
Impact
The onboarding experience shifted Grubhub away from a support-driven setup model and toward a guided, self service flow that scaled across the restaurant network. Instead of relying on long email threads and manual data entry, partners could now complete key onboarding steps on their own with clarity and confidence. Early validation showed that restaurants were able to move through setup faster and submit cleaner, more complete information at the point of activation.
Internal teams felt the difference. Support and operations reported fewer repetitive clarification requests and less time spent retyping core business details. This allowed specialists to focus on review and quality control rather than administrative work. The improvement in submission quality helped reduce the back and forth that previously slowed activation.
The onboarding flow also improved listing quality at launch. Restaurant managers uploaded their own photos, hours and guidance for drivers which led to more accurate and consistent partner profiles. That accuracy supported downstream systems like search, delivery routing and diner expectations, strengthening trust across the experience.
Most importantly, the work created a clearer, more predictable path for new partners. Restaurants understood what was required, what came next and how close they were to going live. That transparency set the tone for a stronger relationship with the platform and laid the foundation for a suite of self service tools that empowered restaurants while reducing operational strain inside the business.
Reflection
This project changed how I think about designing for experiences that cut across many systems, teams and responsibilities. Onboarding seems simple on the surface, but it holds the first real impression a restaurant has of the platform. Working closely with operations, support and restaurant managers made it clear that the right design choices do more than simplify a form. They remove uncertainty, reduce pressure and create trust at a critical moment in the relationship.
It also deepened my belief that clarity is a form of care. Restaurant managers were not asking for advanced tools. They wanted to know what to do, why it mattered and whether they were on the right track. When the product answered those questions in the flow instead of through email threads, confidence increased on both sides. That realization guided every decision we made.
This was also one of the most collaborative efforts I have led. Multiple PMs, engineering groups and designers were involved because onboarding touched so many domains. The challenge was not only designing the product, but aligning people around a shared understanding of how it should feel to go live on Grubhub. That work required systems thinking, patience and clear storytelling so teams could see how their decisions connected to the user experience.
What stayed with me most was how small details shaped trust. A line of copy that calmed a moment of hesitation. A progress indicator that made the path feel real. A confirmation step that helped someone feel confident before submitting. None of these pieces were flashy, but together they created the sense that the platform was on the restaurant’s side.
The work set a foundation that could grow with the business. It proved that onboarding is not just data collection. It is the beginning of a long partnership. And when design treats it that way, the experience becomes clearer for restaurants and stronger for the organization as a whole.
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