SumUp
Building Subscription Infrastructure at Scale
Final fiscalisation UI showing plan selection, checkout, and subscription management
In 2020, SumUp was transforming from transaction fees to recurring revenue - a fundamental business model shift. I was the designer for fiscalisation, the first product on their new subscription platform. The stakes were high: prove this infrastructure could work at scale while making German tax compliance invisible to merchants.
Outcomes
0.0
NPS score achieved during usability tests.
0
+
Foundation product for 5 more subscription services.
Role:
Senior Product Designer
Key responsibilities
Designed unified subscription experience coordinating two product teams
Created production-ready UI integrated across dashboard and marketing website
Built systematic Figma structure enabling multi-stakeholder independent review
Conducted user research validation achieving NPS 8.5 for ease of use
Developed technical integration approach balancing platform constraints with merchant needs
30 Second Story
Challenge: Design SumUp's first subscription product on new platform infrastructure
Discovery: Two teams, German tax law, 4M merchants, zero-support requirement
Action: Embedded with two teams, created systematic approach, validated quality
Impact: NPS 8.5, minimal support tickets, foundation for future subscription products
01.
The Challenge: First Product on New Infrastructure
High-Stakes Execution
SumUp was evolving from transaction fees (2.75% per sale) to recurring revenue through subscription products. They built a comprehensive "Billing & Subscription" platform to support this transformation across three business entities and multiple future products.
Fiscalisation was the first real-world test of this entire infrastructure.
The challenge wasn't just designing a tax compliance subscription - it was proving the platform worked, establishing patterns for future products, and doing it all for 4 million merchants where support tickets don't scale.
02.
Respecting Complexity Without Being Overwhelmed
Coordinating Between Two Technical Teams
Designing the subscription service meant working at the intersection of two teams: one building the payment processing and billing infrastructure, the other creating the fiscalisation product merchants would subscribe to.
My Approach
To ensure I understood the requirements of both teams, I embedded myself in both, working with product owners and developers to understand the needs of each platform.
Being involved in mapping both the platform and the product allowed me to understand the details and create a unified design experience that worked for both technical systems and merchant understanding.
Going from early ideas, through technical understanding, through subscription details
03.
Systematic Organisation for Multi-Stakeholder Clarity
From site structure to Figma organisation to file organisation to screens.
04.
Validation Through User Testing
For original design through competitor and inspiration, through testing to final design
The Impact
This iterative process didn't just deliver a better calculator - it established our design principles for the entire platform. We learned that users don't need less complexity; they need complexity revealed progressively, with clear value at each step. This insight shaped every subsequent feature we built.
05.
The Outcome: Deceptively Simple Execution
Some of the core screens
Recommendation
"I had the pleasure of working with Sjors on designing a new subscription experience at SumUp. Together, we went through the entire process of exploring and defining the problem space, conducting competitor research, creating prototypes, validating designs with users, and seeing them go live with customers. A strong sense of ownership, critical thinking, and attention to detail are just three of the qualities that come to mind when thinking back to working together."
— Stefan Jannsen, Senior Product Manager at SumUp
