Bloomberg · Case study

Data License Onboarding

Bloomberg’s first self-service onboarding for Data License. Getting a new person onto the data went from 2+ months of emails and calls to under a week.

Role: Sole product designer, research to launch
Team: 1 PM, 5 engineers, 2 sales partners
Timeline: 6 months, launched Q1 2025
Platform: DATA<GO> and the Bloomberg Terminal

The UI here is recreated from memory, not taken from the product. Some details are changed or left out for confidentiality.

90%faster access: 2+ months from contract to first request, now under a week EST.

100client firms at launch, including major banks

650hours a year of sales and implementation time freed from onboarding EST.

The problem

Growth stalled at the door, not the shelf

Data License sells Bloomberg data straight into clients’ own systems. In 2024 its growth was falling short of a company-wide target. Product and sales leadership read it as a saturated catalog, and planned new datasets and more upselling.

The numbers said otherwise. Existing clients kept consuming, and revenue kept growing, but the number of active users had flattened. Every new request came from people who already had access. If the user base stayed flat, growth would hit a ceiling however much data we added.

Request volume against target, 2024

Active users, same period

Demand was there. New people just weren’t getting in

So why had nobody built self-service? Requests carry real cost, so firms kept access to a few trusted people, and onboarding was too rare to earn a product. Sales owned the relationship and didn’t want to lose those touchpoints, or field more refunds when the wrong person ran up charges. Compliance shared the worry. And the permissions were confusing even with someone walking you through them, so every new person meant emails, calls, and a sales rep’s afternoon.

ClientContract signed → first data request

Long email, hard to parse, forwarded around

Welcome emailBloomberg asks for key details

Often reached the wrong person at the firm

Didn’t know which option fit

Connection methodAPI, cloud or SFTP

Demos arranged to explain the options

Back and forth with their own teams

AllowlistUsers and IP addresses

Had to explain how users affect pricing

Days of waiting, no status

Review & approvalInternal teams set it up