Ecosystem Improvment
Increasing Clarity and Context in Customer's Document Upload Experience
COMPANY
Bench Accounting
My Focus
Service Design
Product Design
Service Design
Product Design
Service Design
Product Design
Team
Renee N. - Product Design
Cher M. - Staff Engineer
Vijay B. - Product Manager
Rob D. - Lead Accountant
Renee N. - Product Design
Cher M. - Staff Engineer
Vijay B. - Product Manager
Rob D. - Lead Accountant
Renee N. - Product Design
Cher M. - Staff Engineer
Vijay B. - Product Manager
Rob D. - Lead Accountant
YEAR
2024
Bench is the largest bookkeeping provider for small businesses in the U.S. Each month, we request customers’ financial documents to keep their books up to date. However, this automated system—and the customer-facing upload experience—didn’t explain why these documents were needed or exactly what we were looking for. Once customers uploaded a file, our bookkeepers often couldn’t locate it due to internal processes and legacy UI issues. This caused repeated asks and frustrated everyone involved.
I led the service design effort to improve the entire journey—from the moment a customer uploads a document to when our internal teams complete their work accurately.
Bench is the largest bookkeeping provider for small businesses in the U.S. Each month, we request customers’ financial documents to keep their books up to date. However, this automated system—and the customer-facing upload experience—didn’t explain why these documents were needed or exactly what we were looking for. Once customers uploaded a file, our bookkeepers often couldn’t locate it due to internal processes and legacy UI issues. This caused repeated asks and frustrated everyone involved.
I led the service design effort to improve the entire journey—from the moment a customer uploads a document to when our internal teams complete their work accurately.
Bench is the largest bookkeeping provider for small businesses in the U.S. Each month, we request customers’ financial documents to keep their books up to date. However, this automated system—and the customer-facing upload experience—didn’t explain why these documents were needed or exactly what we were looking for. Once customers uploaded a file, our bookkeepers often couldn’t locate it due to internal processes and legacy UI issues. This caused repeated asks and frustrated everyone involved.
I led the service design effort to improve the entire journey—from the moment a customer uploads a document to when our internal teams complete their work accurately.
Role
Role
Role
As the Service Designer, my responsibilities went well beyond visual updates or interface tweaks. I also streamlined the end-to-end customer journey for document ingestion—from the moment a customer uploads a document to the point where our bookkeeping teams complete their work accurately. In this project, I combined research, design thinking, and collaboration to improve the end-to-end loan document process for customers and bookkeepers.
I facilitated cross-department workshops: we walked through customer interactions step by step, identified each system or individual involved, and traced when and why errors or frustrations popped up. This collaboration fostered a more unified approach, which became essential for managing the journey end to end.
As the Service Designer, my responsibilities went well beyond visual updates or interface tweaks. I also streamlined the end-to-end customer journey for document ingestion—from the moment a customer uploads a document to the point where our bookkeeping teams complete their work accurately. In this project, I combined research, design thinking, and collaboration to improve the end-to-end loan document process for customers and bookkeepers.
I facilitated cross-department workshops: we walked through customer interactions step by step, identified each system or individual involved, and traced when and why errors or frustrations popped up. This collaboration fostered a more unified approach, which became essential for managing the journey end to end.
As the Service Designer, my responsibilities went well beyond visual updates or interface tweaks. I also streamlined the end-to-end customer journey for document ingestion—from the moment a customer uploads a document to the point where our bookkeeping teams complete their work accurately. In this project, I combined research, design thinking, and collaboration to improve the end-to-end loan document process for customers and bookkeepers.
I facilitated cross-department workshops: we walked through customer interactions step by step, identified each system or individual involved, and traced when and why errors or frustrations popped up. This collaboration fostered a more unified approach, which became essential for managing the journey end to end.
Research Led Design
Research Led Design
Research Led Design
Although I initially discovered these document-upload issues in the midst of a different project’s research, that discovery changed our direction entirely. The data told us we had a much larger challenge: we were unable to meet core service targets because customers were unable to provide critical data. I identified KPIs that were impacted by this, such as the percentage of customers completing our requests, total time taken, and quality of documents. Once I shared the initial insights with leadership, we agreed to reprioritize the upload-experience project over what we had originally planned.
To deepen our understanding, I:
Although I initially discovered these document-upload issues in the midst of a different project’s research, that discovery changed our direction entirely. The data told us we had a much larger challenge: we were unable to meet core service targets because customers were unable to provide critical data. I identified KPIs that were impacted by this, such as the percentage of customers completing our requests, total time taken, and quality of documents. Once I shared the initial insights with leadership, we agreed to reprioritize the upload-experience project over what we had originally planned.
To deepen our understanding, I:
Although I initially discovered these document-upload issues in the midst of a different project’s research, that discovery changed our direction entirely. The data told us we had a much larger challenge: we were unable to meet core service targets because customers were unable to provide critical data. I identified KPIs that were impacted by this, such as the percentage of customers completing our requests, total time taken, and quality of documents. Once I shared the initial insights with leadership, we agreed to reprioritize the upload-experience project over what we had originally planned.
To deepen our understanding, I:
Research & Workshops
Conducted qualitative interviews with bookkeeping teams. Their stories revealed how difficult it was to keep track of uploaded documents without consistent file naming or a standardized organization system.
Interviewed the customer support team to uncover what confused customers about our requests. They shared that many customers often questioned why certain documents mattered or how to select the right ones when so many looked alike.
Service Blueprinting
Organized service blueprint workshops to walk stakeholders through each step of the process, identifying exactly where communication broke down and discussed solutions.
Challenge
Challenge
Challenge
Bench was in the midst of moving away from multiple legacy systems toward a more unified data architecture. This limited the kinds of solutions we could implement immediately, because integrating new features with old systems often proved unfeasible. Engineering wanted to build more robust, future-ready solutions, but they already had a full schedule for the year.
In response, I took a lean approach. Working closely with the Product Manager, we pinpointed which metrics to prioritize for the biggest business impact and identified success indicators that could help us make a stronger case for future resources. Then, I collaborated with engineers to squeeze as much benefit as possible out of our fragmented systems and UI, aiming for low-effort, high-impact changes that would still move the needle on user experience.
Bench was in the midst of moving away from multiple legacy systems toward a more unified data architecture. This limited the kinds of solutions we could implement immediately, because integrating new features with old systems often proved unfeasible. Engineering wanted to build more robust, future-ready solutions, but they already had a full schedule for the year.
In response, I took a lean approach. Working closely with the Product Manager, we pinpointed which metrics to prioritize for the biggest business impact and identified success indicators that could help us make a stronger case for future resources. Then, I collaborated with engineers to squeeze as much benefit as possible out of our fragmented systems and UI, aiming for low-effort, high-impact changes that would still move the needle on user experience.
Bench was in the midst of moving away from multiple legacy systems toward a more unified data architecture. This limited the kinds of solutions we could implement immediately, because integrating new features with old systems often proved unfeasible. Engineering wanted to build more robust, future-ready solutions, but they already had a full schedule for the year.
In response, I took a lean approach. Working closely with the Product Manager, we pinpointed which metrics to prioritize for the biggest business impact and identified success indicators that could help us make a stronger case for future resources. Then, I collaborated with engineers to squeeze as much benefit as possible out of our fragmented systems and UI, aiming for low-effort, high-impact changes that would still move the needle on user experience.
Small Changes Big Impact
I added context of why Bench needs these documents and how our clients can retrieve them with small UI changes fitting the limited engineering resources available. 1) Access to ‘how to’ material matching the account when hover over item row. 2) Provide context of ‘why’ these documents are needed. 3) Reduced mental load by reformatting table to aid quick eye scanning of what accounts need documents for what months. These changes reduced time to serve for our bookkeepers and increase accuracy of documents uploaded.
Huge Pain Point for Customers
Customers are often under the impression that Bench can do it all for them, so much so 3 of 4 FAQ questions on Bench’s homepage is about uploading documents. We would send automated request to them every month, even for accounts they have told us there is no such document available.
Small Changes Big Impact
I added context of why Bench needs these documents and how our clients can retrieve them with small UI changes fitting the limited engineering resources available. 1) Access to ‘how to’ material matching the account when hover over item row. 2) Provide context of ‘why’ these documents are needed. 3) Reduced mental load by reformatting table to aid quick eye scanning of what accounts need documents for what months. These changes reduced time to serve for our bookkeepers and increase accuracy of documents uploaded.
Huge Pain Point for Customers
Customers are often under the impression that Bench can do it all for them, so much so 3 of 4 FAQ questions on Bench’s homepage is about uploading documents. We would send automated request to them every month, even for accounts they have told us there is no such document available.
Small Changes Big Impact
I added context of why Bench needs these documents and how our clients can retrieve them with small UI changes fitting the limited engineering resources available. 1) Access to ‘how to’ material matching the account when hover over item row. 2) Provide context of ‘why’ these documents are needed. 3) Reduced mental load by reformatting table to aid quick eye scanning of what accounts need documents for what months. These changes reduced time to serve for our bookkeepers and increase accuracy of documents uploaded.
Huge Pain Point for Customers
Customers are often under the impression that Bench can do it all for them, so much so 3 of 4 FAQ questions on Bench’s homepage is about uploading documents. We would send automated request to them every month, even for accounts they have told us there is no such document available.
Small Changes Big Impact
I added context of why Bench needs these documents and how our clients can retrieve them with small UI changes fitting the limited engineering resources available. 1) Access to ‘how to’ material matching the account when hover over item row. 2) Provide context of ‘why’ these documents are needed. 3) Reduced mental load by reformatting table to aid quick eye scanning of what accounts need documents for what months. These changes reduced time to serve for our bookkeepers and increase accuracy of documents uploaded.
Huge Pain Point for Customers
Customers are often under the impression that Bench can do it all for them, so much so 3 of 4 FAQ questions on Bench’s homepage is about uploading documents. We would send automated request to them every month, even for accounts they have told us there is no such document available.
Small Changes Big Impact
I added context of why Bench needs these documents and how our clients can retrieve them with small UI changes fitting the limited engineering resources available. 1) Access to ‘how to’ material matching the account when hover over item row. 2) Provide context of ‘why’ these documents are needed. 3) Reduced mental load by reformatting table to aid quick eye scanning of what accounts need documents for what months. These changes reduced time to serve for our bookkeepers and increase accuracy of documents uploaded.
Huge Pain Point for Customers
Customers are often under the impression that Bench can do it all for them, so much so 3 of 4 FAQ questions on Bench’s homepage is about uploading documents. We would send automated request to them every month, even for accounts they have told us there is no such document available.
Small Changes Big Impact
I added context of why Bench needs these documents and how our clients can retrieve them with small UI changes fitting the limited engineering resources available. 1) Access to ‘how to’ material matching the account when hover over item row. 2) Provide context of ‘why’ these documents are needed. 3) Reduced mental load by reformatting table to aid quick eye scanning of what accounts need documents for what months. These changes reduced time to serve for our bookkeepers and increase accuracy of documents uploaded.
Huge Pain Point for Customers
Customers are often under the impression that Bench can do it all for them, so much so 3 of 4 FAQ questions on Bench’s homepage is about uploading documents. We would send automated request to them every month, even for accounts they have told us there is no such document available.
Small Changes Big Impact
I added context of why Bench needs these documents and how our clients can retrieve them with small UI changes fitting the limited engineering resources available. 1) Access to ‘how to’ material matching the account when hover over item row. 2) Provide context of ‘why’ these documents are needed. 3) Reduced mental load by reformatting table to aid quick eye scanning of what accounts need documents for what months. These changes reduced time to serve for our bookkeepers and increase accuracy of documents uploaded.
Huge Pain Point for Customers
Customers are often under the impression that Bench can do it all for them, so much so 3 of 4 FAQ questions on Bench’s homepage is about uploading documents. We would send automated request to them every month, even for accounts they have told us there is no such document available.
Small Changes Big Impact
I added context of why Bench needs these documents and how our clients can retrieve them with small UI changes fitting the limited engineering resources available. 1) Access to ‘how to’ material matching the account when hover over item row. 2) Provide context of ‘why’ these documents are needed. 3) Reduced mental load by reformatting table to aid quick eye scanning of what accounts need documents for what months. These changes reduced time to serve for our bookkeepers and increase accuracy of documents uploaded.
Huge Pain Point for Customers
Customers are often under the impression that Bench can do it all for them, so much so 3 of 4 FAQ questions on Bench’s homepage is about uploading documents. We would send automated request to them every month, even for accounts they have told us there is no such document available.
Key Improvements
Key Improvements
Key Improvements
By iterating on both the internal workflow and the customer-facing interface, I helped reduce repeated document requests and improved overall customer satisfaction. Here’s how:
By iterating on both the internal workflow and the customer-facing interface, I helped reduce repeated document requests and improved overall customer satisfaction. Here’s how:
By iterating on both the internal workflow and the customer-facing interface, I helped reduce repeated document requests and improved overall customer satisfaction. Here’s how:
Clearer Instructions
I updated emails, notifications, and the user interface to answer the simple questions, “What do you need from me?” and “Why do you need it?” By contextualizing these requests, we built trust—customers felt like true partners in the process.
Improved Internal Workflows
I collaborated with our lead SME to standardize how complex loan documents are handled with new guides and additional training so bookkeepers and customer support reps always knew what t do.d and processed.
Automated File Handling (Future Phase)
I proposed auto-attaching uploaded files to the corresponding tasks to reduce likelihood of internal error, however, legacy system constraints delayed this feature. Still, we set up regular check-ins and metrics tracking—like first-pass upload success—to ensure we’d catch any new issues early.
Outcome
Outcome
Outcome
These improvements significantly reduced the likelihood of repeated file requests and gave customers a greater context of how they’re part of the bookkeeping process. Although we planned to monitor first-pass completion rates and support ticket volume, Bench declared bankruptcy on December 27, 2024 before we could gather comprehensive data. Even so, the redesigned process left a lasting impact by creating a more efficient, transparent system for anyone interacting with the platform.
These improvements significantly reduced the likelihood of repeated file requests and gave customers a greater context of how they’re part of the bookkeeping process. Although we planned to monitor first-pass completion rates and support ticket volume, Bench declared bankruptcy on December 27, 2024 before we could gather comprehensive data. Even so, the redesigned process left a lasting impact by creating a more efficient, transparent system for anyone interacting with the platform.
These improvements significantly reduced the likelihood of repeated file requests and gave customers a greater context of how they’re part of the bookkeeping process. Although we planned to monitor first-pass completion rates and support ticket volume, Bench declared bankruptcy on December 27, 2024 before we could gather comprehensive data. Even so, the redesigned process left a lasting impact by creating a more efficient, transparent system for anyone interacting with the platform.
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© 2025 – Renee Ng
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© 2025 – Renee Ng