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Simplifying Zoom Phone deployment for SMB administrators
Designed a centralized setup experience that guided administrators through deployment with clear tasks and progress tracking.
Initially focused on Zoom Phone administration, the project later expanded into a broader setup framework for Zoom SMB products.
Project Overview
Timeline: 2021–2022
Platform: Web Admin Portal
Users: SMB Administrators
Role: Product Designer
Team: PM · Engineering · Research · Design
Reduced setup time by ~ 40%
Contributed components to Zoom's design system
Increased monetization through setup flow integration
Impact
My Contributions
Led end-to-end UX design for Zoom Phone onboarding and deployment.
Simplified complex enterprise workflows through information architecture, interaction design, and user-centered task organization.
Partnered with cross-functional teams to deliver scalable solutions aligned with user and business needs.
What is Zoom Phone?
Zoom Phone is a cloud-based business communication system on the Zoom platform.
Zoom Phone now serves over 10 million seats worldwide. 17% of them are Small Business (SMB) Users.
Who are the users?
The SMB (Small Business) admins are the primary users. SMB Admins who purchase phone plans need to assign these plans to their employees.
The Challenge
01 — Fragmented workflows
Admins had to jump between multiple pages to complete setup.
02 — Limited progress visibility
There was no clear overview of completed and pending tasks.
03 — Steep learning curve
SMB admins struggled to understand where to start.
Add users?
User management
No Setup Guide
Phone system management
Add users?
Key Decisions
1. Why did we create a Setup Guide for admins?
Admins had to jump between multiple pages to complete setup.
Before Setup Guide, administrators needed to switch between different sections of the admin portal to activate services, invite users, assign licenses, and configure phone settings. The fragmented experience made it difficult to understand the setup process and track progress.
2. How did we organize setup tasks?
Breaking setup into manageable steps.
I grouped related tasks into a clear setup flow based on users’ goals and task dependencies. Each step focused on a specific objective, helping administrators complete the setup process in a logical order instead of navigating across multiple disconnected pages.
3. How did we simplify complex workflows?
Making complex setup easier to understand.
To reduce confusion, I organized setup tasks into clear categories, surfaced progress and completion states, and prioritized essential steps before advanced configuration. This helped administrators understand what to do next without navigating the full complexity of the phone system at once.
Clear task grouping
Progress & completion states
Guided step-by-step actions
Solution
Design Process
Research
I worked with the research team to reach their goals:
Understand the unique onboarding needs for Zoom Phone Admins with the SMB space. As well as, help address the current gap in the onboarding experience.
I worked with the content designer to align design and content: Craft the content to be polite, approachable, and conversational.
Communicating with the Research Team and Content Designer
Research result
Design goals
-
Help more SMB admins set up their phone plans by themselves
-
Reduce Zoom support time
1. Flowchart
The Zoom Phone setup process is complex. I created a design flowchart to clearly structure all the user flows and steps.
2. User scenario
Narrative for "Welcome page"
As an admin, after I purchase phone plans for my company, I am taken to a new page called “Guided setup”. The guided setup page has a friendly welcome message that makes me feel my purchase is appreciated. The page informs me of what I need to do to get my phone system working. It also lets me know what is required of me in terms of time, documents, etc. I can start the setup process at that time or come back to it later. There is also easy access to support if I need it.
The story also can be used for testing.
Compare a design solution against the requirements
Design requirements
a. Welcome message, including the name of the feature
b. Some delights (image, animation, etc.)
c. Thank you message
d. Overview of the steps that are needed to complete
e. Estimated time commitment
f. CTA to start the process
g. Link to support
Future-proofing: Using this Setup Guide for all kinds of Zoom products in the future
As a design owner, I expand my design scope to help more users and achieve more business goals. All the Small Business (SMB) Zoom users will use this Setup Guide. It will positively impact products such as Zoom Meeting, Zoom Apps, Zoom Chat, Zoom Marketplace, etc.
Setup Guide for:
Zoom Meeting, Zoom Apps, Zoom Chat, Zoom Marketplace, etc.
I discussed with the PM and scheduled multiple meetings with other Zoom product teams to confirm if we can use this Setup Guide for all Small Business (SMB) Zoom users. It was exciting to know that all SMB users can use this Setup Guide. This is a great approach and convenience for both Zoom and users.
After finishing this Phone Onboarding design, I will focus on this bigger scope.
Communicating with PM and other Zoom product teams
To create an admin onboarding center.
Consolidate all admin jobs-to-be-done into a centralized page in the web portal and build a framework that will support the admin onboarding of Zoom Phone.
3. Wireframes & sketches
Make initial explorations without using high-fidelity visuals.
Focus on the information architecture and interaction and not on the specific controls.
Think about flow, responsive design, accessibility, etc.
To create an admin onboarding center.
Consolidate all admin jobs-to-be-done into a centralized page in the web portal and build a framework that will support the admin onboarding of Zoom Phone.
Version 1 - Cards
I used cards to organize all the steps for users to follow.
Being pushed back by the Front-end engineers
I showed this low-fidelity design to the engineers for discussion to make sure there were no technical issues in their development process. Their feedback surprised me. I got two important pieces of information from them:
1. The onboarding process must be orderly.
2. The user must complete a step before starting the next or next two steps.
Communicating with Engineering team and Hardware team
I worked with the Zoom Phone engineering team to learn more about the onboarding experience technically.
I worked with the Zoom Phone hardware team to learn more about different devices and their unique onboarding user experiences. Using all of that knowledge to iterate my design.
Version 1
Version 2 - Rows
After communicating with the engineering team and Phone hardware team to get more details. I created version 2 that meets more user needs.
Validate that the design is meeting requirements
Design requirements
a. Title, reminding the user of a section name and purpose
b. List of all current guided setup steps available
c. The step itself. This can be "Start", "In progress" or "Completed" state
d. Icon or image for the step
e. Title of the step
f. Description of the step, purpose
g. CTA
h. Scroll bar, if necessary
Version 2
Version 2
Translate into design system components for validation
"Landing page" states
Start
In progress / completed
Three generic forms for onboarding mock-ups
I created three generic forms that all onboarding mock-ups must adhere to.
Designed a new Step Indicator for design system
In the Zoom Design system, we only have one horizontal step indicator, and it doesn’t work for this feature :(
I designed a new component, which was developed and contributed to the design system for all product teams.
Before:
After:
Communicating with other product teams and design system team
After discussing with other product teams, they may want to include more steps in this onboarding process. I decided to change this component and convinced the design system team to incorporate it into the Zoom design system. This iteration not only shorts the step indicator but also saves time for other design teams in the future.
4. Mockups - Key screens - demo
Growth opportunity discovered: Adding a purchase CTA for users during the Setup Phone process
During the Assign Zoom Phone process, users may need to purchase more phone numbers for their employees. Can I add a purchase CTA for users during that process? This would also be good for our business.
Communicating with the Zoom Monetization team
After discussing with the Zoom Monetization team, they allowed me to add a CTA to go directly to the buyer and pricing page. We will add this feature soon.
Impact
• Reduced setup time by approximately 40%.
• Simplified onboarding and deployment workflows.
• Improved visibility into setup progress.
• Supported SMB administrators in managing complex phone configurations.
Before - 1:
Admins had to jump across multiple pages.
After - 1:
One guided workflow with clear task organization.
User Management
Phone System Management
No Setup Guide
Account Management
New Setup Guide
Clear task grouping
Before - 2 :
Setup tasks lacked visibility.
After - 2 :
Progress was surfaced through clear status indicators.
Add users
Manage license
Clear progress & status indicators
Bigger scope in the future
Before - 3 :
Complex configuration overwhelmed new admins.
After - 3 :
Setup was broken into manageable, guided steps.
Add users
Manage license
User Management
Guided step-by-step actions
After finishing the "Activate Zoom Phone" flow, the admin unlocked the "Invite Users to Zoom". Admins can add users here.
Reflection
Designing enterprise products is not about simplifying the product itself, but simplifying complexity for users while balancing technical constraints and business needs.
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