Lawnstack
HMW design frictionless onboarding flows for service-based startups?
OVERVIEW
As product designer, I researched and designed for a small startup as we pivoted to a subscription model and rebuilt our onboarding experience. Subsequently, we brought in $19,000 of revenue + a discovery-to-conversion pipeline decrease of 54%
WHAT IS LAWNSTACK?
Lawnstack is an outdoor maintenance service startup based in the NYC metropolitan area — by turning scattered, one-off jobs into a consolidated 1-in-all membership for homeowners, Lawnstack is aiming to add trust and reliability into their lives.
From idea to V0
Lawnstack was born from hearing homeowners and waitlisters talk about outdoor maintenance.
It felt broken. Why?
Contractors were
hard to reach
slow to respond
overbooked
Homeowners would spend
days
chasing quotes before giving up and DIY'ing.
This pain point led to an opportunity: build a marketplace that delivered fair pricing and direct, reliable access to local contractors.
1
Tell us about your job
2
Add your availability
3
Receive a quote for your job
4
Match with a service provider
But once we began testing, the cracks began to show.
Homeowners spent more than 10 minutes creating a single job.
60% of that time was just entering yard details.
83% of testers said they would not use this service again.
We tested a product that emphasized control and granularity. But in reality, homeowners were feeling overwhelmed, uncertain, and mentally burdened by every piece of information that needed to be given.
USER RESEARCH
Understanding the landscape
Instead of going forward with our MVP, our team took a step back to align with homeowner realities more closely.
Insight 1 - User Interviews
Predictability matters more than flexibility
Excessive decision-making deterred homeowners them from getting a contractor—on and off of Lawnstack.
They didn't want control – they wanted reassurance and the peace of mind of trusting somebody who has it handled.
Insight 2 - User Interviews
Homeowners value context and expertise
With our algorithmically-driven pricing, there was no baseline for a typical job’s pricing or whether it reflected their yard’s needs.
We dove into how homeowners approached pricing, with and without Lawnstack. In fact, we went door to door to survey homeowners (n = 40) about their habits and expectations.
Insight 3 - On the ground research
Short-term contracts are unpredictable but familiar.
A majority of homeowners (n=30) settle with on-demand or hourly arrangements because they feel easier to keep track of financially.
However, they faced unpredictable situations: cancellations, dips in quality, and re-negotiating, causing fatigue.
From insights to action
From these insights, I understood a fundamental gap — Users needed simplicity, assurance, and context in their search for a provider.
HMW
How might we enable homeowners confident in choosing yard services that feel personal and reassuring?
IDEATION
Improve UX, or take business model risks?
Within our team, we discussed where the bigger opportunity lay: in simply refining the user experience we already had, or stepping back and rethinking the business model all together.
The process was MESSY, but it was important to get all ideas out on the table.
It came down to two models:
Model 1: Subscriptions
Bundles services for homeowners, clearer model to understand
Opportunity to upsell into additional services/benefits
Larger commitment presents risk to homeowners
Potential for local contractors to respond with competitive pricing.
Model 2: Refine on-demand model
Lower barrier to entry may attract more homeowners to try out initially.
Little to no differentiation from competitors.
Retention risk as homeowners continuously 'shop around' for cheaper deals.
We connected our ideation to our user insights.
Homeowners value context, expertise and predictability.
Lawnstack should guide and ease them into a consistent, assuring service rhythm.
Thus, we decided to pivot into a subscription model.
FEATURE 1 - CONSULATIONS
Building first impressions - beyond the screen
After committing to our product goals of building with context and expertise, I set out on constructing an effective first impression for our homeowners.
Consultations are in-person appointments to calculate homeowner yard measurements, seasonal needs, and membership outlooks, coming from a Lawnstack provider.
I broke our user journey down into clear stages that aligned both with homeowner mindsets and existing processes.
FLOW AND INFORMATION ARCHITECTURE
Structuring Consultation Bookings for All Users
To ensure alternative paths for non-eligible homeowners. I explored two flows: one separating requirements by eligibility, and another simplifying them into fewer pages.
I broke our user journey down into clear stages that aligned both with homeowner mindsets and existing processes.
We settled with Iteration 1, a flow that filtered early, minimized wasted effort through a graceful fallback: signing up for our waitlist.
INTERACTION DESIGN
Turning consultation bookings into relationships
When designing post-booking logic, I asked myself: How far into the platform should we guide users after booking?
I explored two flow variants—assuming homeowners would need to view and reschedule their upcoming consultations.
Option A: Segmented Toggles
Prompt users to review consultation info through codes or magic links.
Option B: Forced Account Creation
Ask homeowners to create an account to complete booking and access tools.
A/B testing validated magic links as a great lightweight option. In contrast, it took ~22 seconds more to create a password, recall it, and log back in.
FEATURE 2 - LAWNSTACK ONBOARDING
How do we communicate pricing post-consultations?
It was now time to apply what providers learned during consultations to form insights and nudge users towards membership. What should a homeowner walk away with after a consultation meeting?
LAYOUT DESIGN
Scaffolding effective layouts
I first considered navigation and layout – compared to our previous flows, we had to emphasize transparency and clarity when comparing pricing.
Thank to the home insights consultations provide our system, homeowners faced significantly less inputs as part of their flow. I landed on a layout that guided eyes and made it easy to understand the decisions they do have to make.
SERVICE DESIGN
Separating flat fees from add-ons
Lawnstack’s pricing was intentionally simple: spend $300/month for services done. However, extra materials (fertilizer, mulch, etc.) aren’t included — affecting a minority of services and requiring one party to pay for materials.
This presented a problem: users didn’t always understand who was responsible for material costs. Let's dive into a few problems I tackled.
HMW make clear that materials are separate costs without undermining trust?
Option A: Split-path layout
Let users have a clear choice between two distinct paths.
Option B: Inline disclosure
Risk of materials being misunderstood as part of the flat $295/month fee.
HMW can we let users control additional payments?
Option A: Checkbox selector
Checkbox meaning requires more context to interpret
Option B: Dropdown selector
Massive click-through burden
Option C: Segmented Toggles
Allows for faster parsing
Risk visual cluttering if list is large.
HMW reduce friction in scheduling?
I explored two paths: one that prioritized user precision, while the other supported long-term operations and gave providers scheduling flexibility.
Option A: Precision for homeowners
Error prevention
Continued risk of visual clutter
Option B: Flexibility for provider scheduling
Vague winders in favor of providing more options for service providers.
Sets infrastructure for recurring visits.
At this stage, what matters to users the most is seeing immediate value, so I prioritized specificity and reassured users they could set up recurring visits after signing up.
USER TESTING
Not everyone was ready to commit…
In a round of usability testing, 6 out of 9 testers were unable to commit to our service plans. Two main patterns were:
• Many homeowners didn’t need lawn care right away.
• People wanted more time to explore Lawnstack before commitment.
To address these hesitations, we re-used split-path design to allow users to start their membership immediately or wait to activate until they’re ready.
In addition, by defaulting to the first option in this case, we gently nudge our users to commit while offering flexibility for those who need time.
DESIGN SHOWCASE
All in a day's work
SHOWCASE #1
Set up an initial consultation with little risk.
SHOWCASE #2
Know how your decisions affect Lawnstack pricing.
SHOWCASE #3
Not ready? Wait to activate, but stay in the Lawnstack loop.
Next Steps + Design Reflections
Within onboarding, there’s still room for improvement. As we introduce more upsell opportunities, I’ll have to design a way to showcase the value of add-on services without overwhelming users. In another sprint, I could leveraging progressive disclosure to selectively showcase add-ons that encourage homeowners to request additional projects beyond their base plan.
Our gambit — moving forward with a strategic pivot and re-establishing key flows — solved user frustrations and low confidence, a positive sign for a subscription model in an unfamiliar and largely untouched space.
Epilogue
While I began working on core platform features, our team started to assess operations and work to ensure sustainability. Despite promising early signals, winter set in, demand dropped, and operational complexity proved to be more challenging than we initially expected.
Our team decided to sunset Lawnstack late 2024, closing out almost a year of 0–1 product development and rapid learning.
Lawnstack has been the experience of a lifetime. Special shoutout to Liam Du, Nickson Milien, Nancy Duong, and Allen Yao, who each brought this initiative to life with their talent, humor, and heart.And to you, thank you for reading! :)