Zapier Transfer: Designing a Standalone Product for Historical Data Migration
PROJECT OVERVIEW
Duration: 6 Months+ | Team: Product Designer, PM, Engineering Manager, 4 Engineers | My Role: Product Designer (Lead)
Zapier Transfer was Zapier’s first standalone product, enabling users to move historical data in bulk between apps-a critical capability missing from Zapier’s core automation platform.
PRODUCT CONTEXT
Zapier is known for its “Zaps”-automated workflows connecting thousands of apps. Traditionally, Zaps only process new data after activation, leaving users with no way to move pre-existing or historical data between apps.
Common scenarios included:
App migration: Moving all data from one app to another during a tool switch (e.g., transferring customer records from Google Sheets to Salesforce).
Backfilling: Importing historical data created before a Zap was set up (e.g., adding leads collected prior to automation).
Recovering from errors: Transferring data missed due to Zap failures or downtime (e.g., bulk importing records not processed during an interruption).
THE CHALLENGE
Gap in the Product:
Through early user research and close collaboration with Zapier’s support team, I identified a recurring pain point: users needed a way to move historical data between apps. This was especially urgent for app migration and recovering from missed automation events-needs Zapier’s existing product couldn’t address.
Business Opportunity:
Recognizing this gap also revealed a business opportunity. Zapier’s leadership wanted to launch a “New Products” arm and become a multi-product company, with Transfer as the first standalone offering. The project had a tight 6-month timeline for a high-profile launch at ZapConnect.
MY APPROACH
Having identified the core user problem and business opportunity, I structured my process to ensure that every design decision was grounded in real user needs and feedback.
Discovery & Research
User Research: I began by analyzing support tickets, conducting user interviews, and synthesizing feedback to uncover the need for historical data migration and bulk transfers.
Journey Mapping: To clarify where Transfer could provide value, I mapped user journeys for both current Zapier users and new users migrating between apps.
Mapping the current state Zapier journey helped pinpoint where Transfer could support existing users, and provided a visual tool for team and stakeholder communication.
For new users migrating data, I mapped an independent journey, clarifying how Transfer could serve as a standalone entry point to Zapier.
Stakeholder Alignment: I worked with leadership to clarify business goals and technical constraints, ensuring our design direction aligned with both user and business priorities.
Competitive Analysis: To further inform our approach, I benchmarked against existing data migration tools to identify opportunities for differentiation.
Key Insights:
Through this research, three primary use cases emerged:
App migration: Moving all data from one app to another during a tool switch (e.g., transferring customer records from Google Sheets to Salesforce).
Backfilling: Importing historical data created before a Zap was set up (e.g., adding leads collected prior to automation).
Recovering from errors: Transferring data missed due to Zap failures or downtime (e.g., bulk importing records not processed during an interruption).
The experience needed to be flexible and easy to use, even for non-technical users.
DESIGN STRATEGY
Based on these research findings, I established four guiding principles to shape the product’s design:
Design for Flexibility: Build a solution that could evolve as new use cases emerged.
Deliver Quickly: Leverage existing design systems for rapid development.
Iterate with Feedback: Share early concepts with stakeholders and users to validate direction.
Simplify Complexity: Use clear content and step-by-step flows to make bulk data movement approachable.
Key Activities:
To put these principles into practice, I:
Created journey maps for both embedded and standalone Transfer experiences.
Developed and tested multiple design concepts for selecting data sources, destinations, and filtering data.
Collaborated with content design to break down complex flows into clear, actionable steps.
DESIGN EXPLORATION
With our strategy in place, I moved into detailed design explorations, ensuring each decision was informed by earlier user research and journey mapping.
Entry Points & User Flows
A critical part of the user journey was ensuring existing Zapier users could seamlessly access Transfer at the right moment-specifically, immediately after setting up a Zap and realizing they needed to move historical data. To address this, I designed a modal entry point that would appear for users in the Zap setup flow, guiding them directly into the Transfer experience.
This modal allowed users to enter the standalone Transfer journey immediately after Zap setup, providing a seamless transition and reducing friction for existing users needing to move historical data.
Core Transfer User Journey
After clarifying the broader journey and entry points, I led workshops with the frontend and backend data teams to map out the detailed steps of the core Transfer experience. Together, we identified which steps needed to occur in a specific order due to backend infrastructure and technical constraints, and where there was flexibility for design improvements.
This diagram illustrates the step-by-step flow users follow to complete a transfer, balancing technical requirements with user experience. It served as a blueprint for both design and engineering, ensuring alignment across teams.
Information Architecture
Zapier’s main builder featured a single screen view with expandable accordions for several complex steps, which could be overwhelming for users.
For Transfer, I proposed an overview screen to prepare users for the steps ahead, with individual pages for each step and a side navigation to show progress and reduce complexity.
Source & Destination Selection
I explored three design variations for selecting source and destination apps and data types, ultimately choosing a scalable approach that minimized clicks and grouped relevant options. This decision was directly informed by user feedback on clarity and efficiency.
Filtering
Evaluated multiple filtering UI patterns-including modal, sidebar, and accordion-with the team. We opted for an expandable accordion using existing design system components, balancing usability and feasibility, and planned incremental improvements for post-beta releases.
COLLABORATION & ITERATION
To ensure the designs met both user and business needs, I facilitated regular feedback loops and cross-functional collaboration.
Regular design reviews in Figma with engineering, product, and leadership ensured alignment on priorities and constraints.
I designed supporting micro-journeys (e.g., Transfer history, email notifications).
Worked with marketing and support to communicate Transfer’s value and onboard users effectively.
OUTCOMES & IMPACT
The iterative and user-centered approach enabled us to deliver strong results:
Launched as Beta at ZapConnect: Delivered on time within 6 months.
>1.5 million tasks/week: Users completed over a 1.5 million transfers weekly.
>3,500 weekly users: Transfer became the go-to solution for backfilling and migration.
$3M ARR: Contributed significantly to Zapier’s annual recurring revenue.
Support tickets dropped by 40%: Improving usability, efficiency, and reducing errors associated with data transfers.
POST-LAUNCH EVOLUTION
Building on our launch success, we continued to evolve Transfer based on user feedback and business needs:
Synthesizing post-launch survey responses helped us identify the most common pain points and opportunities for improvement, ensuring our roadmap was grounded in real user needs.
User Feedback: Collected hundreds of responses via surveys and interviews to identify improvement areas.
Key Enhancements:
Expanded source app integrations from 12 to 30+.
Added scheduled (recurring) transfers, growing retention by >15%.
Introduced update functionality for high-demand apps (Shopify, QuickBooks, Zendesk).
Strategic Pivot: Insights from Transfer directly informed the development of Zapier Tables, especially around data import and syncing.
REFLECTION & LESSONS LEARNED
Reflecting on this project, several key lessons stand out:
User-Centered Problem Discovery: Early research and support insights were critical in identifying a genuine product gap and business opportunity.
Strategic Compromise: Balancing ideal UX with technical constraints enabled rapid delivery while setting up for future improvements.
Cross-Functional Collaboration: Regular feedback and alignment across teams ensured a high-quality launch under tight deadlines.
Measurable Impact: Clear metrics demonstrated business value and informed ongoing product evolution.
This case study demonstrates how deep user research, thoughtful journey mapping, and iterative design led to a successful new product launch and paved the way for future innovations at Zapier. Explore the full Transfer workflow in this Figma prototype.