Stav Lipman – Strategic Product Designer

Deel · Growth · 2024

Reframing Compliance Coverage to drive growth

Role

Design End to End

timeline

1 Month

Impact

$2.2M–$4.4M Projected ARR

collaborators

Overview

Compliance made simple

Reframing Deel’s compliance coverage experience improved conversions by shifting the focus from “add-ons” to clear, risk-aware product messaging. This helped clients make informed decisions while driving measurable business growth. I led the project end-to-end - from research and strategy to design and delivery - partnering closely with product, compliance, and growth teams.

Reframed Deel’s compliance coverages to make options clearer and easier to understand.
Shifted the experience from “add-ons” to transparent, risk-aware product messaging.
Helped clients make more informed, confident decisions during contract creation.
Delivered measurable impact on conversion and projected ARR.
Led the project end-to-end - research, strategy, design, and delivery - in close partnership with compliance and growth teams.

Reframed Deel’s compliance coverages to make options clearer and easier to understand.
Shifted the experience from “add-ons” to transparent, risk-aware product messaging.
Helped clients make more informed, confident decisions during contract creation.
Delivered measurable impact on conversion and projected ARR.
Led the project end-to-end - research, strategy, design, and delivery - in close partnership with compliance and growth teams.

Deel makes it simple to onboard global talent. But with this reach comes complexity: every country has its own rules, risks, and compliance traps.

A Hidden Risk

Many clients weren’t even aware of the potential fines and penalties - and when the option for coverage appeared mid-flow, it felt like an upsell rather than protection.

Users were ignoring compliance protection during contract creation

The Challenge

How might we help clients understand the risks of worker misclassification so they can make confident, informed choices about compliance coverage - while also increasing adoption of protection plans and reducing business exposure?

The Solution

Instead of selling products, I reframed the moment around risk and protection

This redesign projected up to $4.4M in incremental ARR, with a midpoint of $2.2M, over 12 months at a 90% confidence level and no downside risk.

Leading with risk

Showing the risk upfront helps clients see the real cost of misclassification before making a choice.

Leading with risk

Clients can now choose coverage that fits their needs - framed as protection, not an upsell. And if they don’t want it, they explicitly specify it, turning it into a conscious decision.

Reframe as protection,not upsell

Reframe as protection,
not upsell

Clients can now choose coverage that fits their needs - framed as protection, not an upsell. And if they don’t want it, they explicitly specify it, turning it into a conscious decision.

EMPATHIZE

Defining target audience for the AB test

We targeted small and medium businesses: fast-growing, hiring globally, and moving quickly. Unlike enterprises, SMBs lack dedicated compliance teams - making them more exposed to misclassification risks.

Hearing from SMB Owners

Through interviews, we learned SMB owners value speed and simplicity but often struggle to understand compliance risks. They want protection - without the legal jargon or extra admin.

“I didn’t even realize there was a compliance risk here”.

man in white crew neck shirt wearing black framed eyeglasses

Brian Doe

Sales (New joiner), Deel

“Compliance sounds important, but honestly, I don’t know what I really need until something goes wrong.”

Sarah Johnson

Senior Sales Rep, Deel

DEFINE

Turning Insights into oppertunities

From our conversations with SMB owners, we uncovered recurring pain points around compliance during contract creation. While speed and cost drive their decisions, compliance feels complex, abstract, and often ignored until risks surface.

Insights

Compliance feels invisible and abstract.

Coverage options feel like upsells.

Contract creation feels like extra admin.

Opportunities

Highlight risks in plain language.

Reframe protections as essentials, tied to real-world business risks.

Streamline the flow so compliance checks feel integrated, not separated.

IDEATE

Early Explorations

The original flow worked like a checkout: users filled out compliance inputs first, then saw coverage options at the end. But if coverage was chosen, those inputs weren’t needed at all - making the process redundant and confusing.

Focusing on better information hierarchy

Focusing on optimal framing

Opportunities

Highlight risks in plain language.

Reframe protections as essentials, tied to real-world business risks.

Streamline the flow so compliance checks feel integrated, not separated.

Insights

Compliance feels invisible and abstract.

Coverage options feel like upsells.

Contract creation feels like extra admin.

PROTOTYPE

Turning risk into confident choices

Design decisions

💾

Leading with risk

Risk messaging comes first, helping clients understand the stakes and make a conscious, informed decision

📈

Value over features

Coverage options reframed as protection benefits, not product names turning abstract features into clear value.

⚡

Reassurance

Active states confirm the user’s selection, giving confidence they’ve made the right choice.

👁️

Progressive disclosure

Extra inputs appear only if “I don’t want protection” is chosen - collecting key info without overwhelming upfront.

IMPACT

Design impact in real numbers

+$2.2M – $4.4M

Based on the improvements, we projected the incremental ARR driven by releasing this feature would be of an upper limit of $4.4M USD to midpoint at $2.2M USD and no negative impact at lower limit over 12 months at a 90% confidence level.

Self reflection

🎉

What surprised me

I was surprised by how little awareness clients had around compliance risk. Many weren’t ignoring it on purpose - they simply didn’t realize it was a real threat. Once framed clearly, the value clicked immediately.

✍️

Main lesson

The biggest impact often comes not from adding more, but from reframing what’s already there. By shifting the story from “extra products” to “protection,” we unlocked both clarity for users and growth for the business.