Role: Figma Campus Leader (Own Project)
Expected Impact: +179% conversion rate, 87% faster time to access, expected to result in 67% fewer support tickets
Timeline:
Sept 2024 – Jan 2025 (4 months)
Team: Self initiated research with 300+ student testers, shared insights with Figma Edu team
As Figma Campus Leader at University of Waterloo, I identified a critical 73% drop-off in student verification while running weekly workshops. Through embedded user research, competitive analysis, and iterative testing with 300+ students, I redesigned the verification experience—reframing "Verify education status" into "Unlock student benefits" and implementing provisional access. The new flow increased conversion from 23% to 64%, reduced time-to-access from days to hours, and cut support tickets by 67%.
Every semester, I run Figma workshops and creative events as a Campus Leader for 40+ design students at UW. One October afternoon, Sarah, a sophomore, raised her hand and asked a question that would change everything:
"Chris, I signed up with my school email last week. Why can't I use the Pro features? Did I do something wrong?"
I'd heard this question 67 times that semester. Students believed signing up with their school email meant automatic Education access. They didn't know "verification" was a separate, hidden step that required reentering information - a flow separate from creating an account, one that required uploading documents + SheerID and waiting for approval.
This wasn't just a Waterloo student population problem. It was global, on Reddit, one post exploded with comments from students worldwide: "Figma just killed the educational users." Students are confused on the verification flow, frustrated, and abandoning the product entirely before experiencing its value. Thus, there is a huge need to surface value at signup.
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How might we make verification feel like a natural part of signup rather than a hidden administrative hurdle?
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