Onboarding UX Design Patterns for Success

It's your job to support Activation. Don't just "get out of the way"... When opening your app for the first time, users have little information about how it is and how it works. First, use onboarding to educate them about your app's value and learn about them (your conversion rate will thank you). But, after that, if you just drop them on a dashboard and multiple tabs, a lot of them will be overwhelmed or distracted. You should leverage product design to customize the experience and guide them, particularly at the beginning. Here is one of the #growthgems I shared in Growth Gems #105, from Ana Oarga (Co-founder & Product Strategy at Just Mad): -- 💎 𝘿𝙚𝙨𝙞𝙜𝙣 𝙗𝙚𝙩𝙩𝙚𝙧 𝙖𝙘𝙩𝙞𝙫𝙖𝙩𝙞𝙤𝙣 𝙚𝙭𝙥𝙚𝙧𝙞𝙚𝙣𝙘𝙚𝙨 𝙗𝙮 𝙘𝙪𝙨𝙩𝙤𝙢𝙞𝙯𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙚𝙭𝙥𝙚𝙧𝙞𝙚𝙣𝙘𝙚: 𝘴𝘦𝘭𝘦𝘤𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘱𝘰𝘴𝘴𝘪𝘣𝘭𝘦 𝘢𝘤𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘴 𝘶𝘴𝘦𝘳𝘴 𝘤𝘢𝘯 𝘥𝘰 (𝘦.𝘨., 𝘧𝘶𝘭𝘭 𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘥𝘶𝘤𝘵 → 𝘤𝘶𝘴𝘵𝘰𝘮𝘪𝘻𝘦𝘥 𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘴𝘪𝘰𝘯), 𝘥𝘦𝘧𝘪𝘯𝘦 𝘸𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘺 𝘴𝘦𝘦 (𝘦.𝘨., 𝘱𝘰𝘪𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘴, 𝘣𝘭𝘢𝘤𝘬𝘰𝘶𝘵𝘴, 𝘧𝘰𝘳𝘤𝘦𝘥 𝘢𝘤𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯), 𝘱𝘢𝘺 𝘢𝘵𝘵𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘵𝘰 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘭𝘢𝘯𝘨𝘶𝘢𝘨𝘦 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘶𝘴𝘦 (𝘦.𝘨., 𝘨𝘶𝘪𝘥𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘮, 𝘴𝘶𝘨𝘨𝘦𝘴𝘵), 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘷𝘪𝘥𝘦 𝘦𝘯𝘤𝘰𝘶𝘳𝘢𝘨𝘦𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘴 (𝘣𝘢𝘥𝘨𝘦𝘴, 𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘨𝘳𝘦𝘴𝘴 𝘣𝘢𝘳𝘴, 𝘤𝘩𝘦𝘤𝘬𝘭𝘪𝘴𝘵𝘴, 𝘤𝘰𝘶𝘯𝘵𝘥𝘰𝘸𝘯𝘴). -- This is the Reforge playbook as well: first, you define what activation is for you. Then, you use the UX/design levers at your disposal to support activation to find the right balance. User journeys are complex, everyone has a different level of intent, and there is no single path. But you have to start somewhere, and simplifying things during the first-time user experience is a good starting point. Want more advice on activation? 👉 Check out Growth Gems #105 for more insights https://lnkd.in/ejBaUudS ___ 👋 I'm Sylvain Gauchet. Click my name + follow + 🔔 so you don't miss out on the #growthgems I share.

You’ve figured out the core actions that causally drive your #conversion / #retention metrics. Now, do you let users explore and discover your product’s value on their own, or direct them to top features that drive these KPIs? Ultimately, you need users to create a habit. Let that happen organically or prescribe the path for them? Too much guidance can feel restrictive and forced. Users don’t develop a habit if they don’t learn how to complete core actions independently - motivation wanes and they’re not activated. Conversely, not enough guidance means the cognitive effort required of users can be too high and they drop. Either way, your users can miss the satisfaction of discovering and experiencing the value of your product. It’s a problem that we've seen across many companies. There are trade-offs to consider, such as offering a templated user experience versus having users build from scratch: For a product that requires customers to produce content to see the value, consider starting users from scratch or providing a recommended template. A template provides structure and users more quickly arrive at the Activation point. However, it can limit the user’s ability to explore, create, and customize along the way. If new users start by building on their own, their likelihood of retaining is much higher due to a more personalized experience and having invested an effort. But, consider if your users have the motivation/ skills to start from scratch. If not, the effort required of them, with no guidance, could be too high and they churn without experiencing your product’s value. monday.com is a great example of a company that provides guidance, but also lets the user choose their path. Users first experience monday.com’s organizational platform by creating a new board. They let users decide between building from scratch or choosing from a series of templates, for campaigns, budgets, employees, etc. Another key tradeoff to consider is if the onboarding experience should be high-level or based on strict checklists? There are various approaches: - High-level onboarding involves a gentle introduction - landing someone in your product and relying on an intuitive user experience, maybe sending an email of features to try. - Or, put users through a product walkthrough. - Even more aggressive, have them follow a checklist. Users want to play with your platform and to see its value. In many cases, prescriptive solutions, like checklists and walkthroughs, don’t provide a full experience and fail. Consider the work required of users to discover and learn features on their own. If the product is complex, the process lengthy, providing less guidance can backfire if users give up. The bottom line:  the amount of Activation guidance you provide traditionally involves some sort of trade-off. A good understanding of your product’s value, your ideal client profile, and how user habits are formed are key. #productledgrowth #causalml #growth Loops

I've finally found the "best onboarding I've ever seen" and it's Fathom. It took years of searching to find a company that truly prioritized onboarding and went the extra mile to make it special (and well converting). Here's why I love their onboarding. They bake in product marketing through the full journey. Onboarding needs to be more than just getting set up. This is your chance to make a first impression on what they need to know about you. Fathom nails this. They get to the 'aha' quickly. Again, onboarding needs to be more than just getting set up. Users need to see the special value, and fast. Fathom drops you in a fake Zoom call so you can see transcriptions - no need to have to wait for your next call to understand the aha. Help along the way. Way too many onboarding experiences assume the user will know everything to do, without question, and as fast as the clickthrough. Not true. Fathom does an excellent job with notifications and even live video support with a test call. Encouragement as you go. Most onboarding is cut to the bones, without a lot of personality. Fathom does an excellent job bringing a bit more with milestone encouragement. So what do you think? Have you seen better onboarding? My full breakdown of the Fathom onboarding including screenshots is here: https://buff.ly/3qfkUkP

We just launched a new Dopt example: 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐨𝐧𝐛𝐨𝐚𝐫𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐡𝐮𝐛! Power a PLG motion with a dedicated home for onboarding resources in your product. Onboarding hubs usually include a getting started checklist, entry points to interactive tours, and links to docs, support, and other resources. You can see them used by companies like June, Framer, Hubspot, Remote, and Dopt 🙂. 𝐖𝐡𝐲 𝐨𝐧𝐛𝐨𝐚𝐫𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐡𝐮𝐛𝐬 𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐤 ✅ Easy for the user to find the next steps, resources, and help. ✅ They're not annoying and feel natural because they're natively integrated into the product’s nav and UI. ✅ The pattern is super flexible -- you can create the experience, content, and entry points that are best for your users and product. ✅ Easy surface area to experiment with, like personalizing setup steps 𝐖𝐡𝐞𝐧 𝐭𝐨 𝐮𝐬𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐦 Onboarding hubs are great when the user needs more structure and support on their journey to their aha moment, like dev tools, financial tools, and some collaborative apps and marketing tools. 𝐖𝐡𝐞𝐧 𝐧𝐨𝐭 𝐭𝐨 𝐮𝐬𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐦 They’re not as good for apps with established patterns (e.g. Linear) or where there’s a single, core workflow that’s simple (e.g. Slack). 𝐁𝐮𝐢𝐥𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐚𝐧 𝐨𝐧𝐛𝐨𝐚𝐫𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐡𝐮𝐛 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐃𝐨𝐩𝐭 𝐢𝐬 𝐬𝐮𝐩𝐞𝐫 𝐞𝐚𝐬𝐲 The onboarding hub is a perfect example of a natively integrated, multi-step onboarding flow that Dopt makes easy to build. Check out the full blog post with real-world examples and an interactive onboarding hub demo built with Dopt!

If you want to do product-led growth like the best (Miro, Canva, Notion), then you need to pull off the 8 layers of the PLG Iceberg. In my latest deep dive with Jaryd Hermann into Miro, we go deep on this framework and break down what it takes to really execute PLG. Here’s a quick rundown of each layer: ↓↓ 👁️ 𝐋1 & 𝐋2: 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐓𝐢𝐩 𝐎𝐟 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐈𝐜𝐞𝐛𝐞𝐫𝐠 It's all about communicating your value. Miro’s onboarding begins before handing over an email with: ↳ Compelling messaging ↳ Trust-building/social proof ↳ Transparent pricing 🛝 𝐋3: 𝐅𝐫𝐢𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐥𝐞𝐬𝐬 𝐎𝐧𝐛𝐨𝐚𝐫𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠 Miro ensures a smooth start with a minimalist setup: ↳ They nudge users to sign up with a work email, but don’t require it ↳ Sign up is basic. There are no fancy visuals trying to over-communicate anything ↳ They use progressive reveals, minimizing cognitive load ↳ They leverage Single Sign On (SSO) with business-grade auth providers 🎯 𝐋4 & 𝐋5: 𝐃𝐢𝐬𝐜𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐕𝐚𝐥𝐮𝐞 Miro excels in personalizing the onboarding experience, ensuring users quickly find their "aha" moment. ↳ They have dedicated flows for both board Creators and Joiners ↳ There’s no “blank state” ↳ Onboarding is persona based ↳ They use templates to reduce Time To Value ↳ Miro’s onboarding is based on 𝘚𝘩𝘰𝘸 >>> 𝘛𝘦𝘭𝘭. 🔄 𝐅𝐨𝐫𝐦𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐇𝐚𝐛𝐢𝐭𝐬 (𝐋6) Miro focuses on creating habitual usage patterns around their core value action, driving long-term engagement. ↳ Their freemium plan avoids throttling value (use now, pay for biz features later) ↳ They focus on extensibility, embedding themselves across other popular tools 💰 𝐌𝐨𝐧𝐞𝐭𝐢𝐳𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧: 𝐏𝐫𝐢𝐜𝐢𝐧𝐠 & 𝐏𝐚𝐜𝐤𝐚𝐠𝐢𝐧𝐠 (𝐋7) From a generous freemium model to value-packed premium plans, Miro's pricing strategy is a masterclass in PLG. ↳ Freemium is crafted to remove barriers to entry and encourage users to invite others to collaborate, creating a viral loop. ↳ They monetize business (and power user) needs, just like Slack does ♼ 𝐏𝐫𝐨𝐝𝐮𝐜𝐭-𝐥𝐞𝐝 𝐚𝐜𝐪𝐮𝐢𝐬𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐥𝐨𝐨𝐩𝐬 (𝐋8) PLA is not “refer a friend”. True PLA means your users naturally invite other users while using your product—for free. ↳ Miro avoids cash incentive invites. For one, it attracts lower intent users. ↳ They leverage the viral flywheel by making the product inately collaborative To go much deeper into each layer of the PLG Iceberg, including detailed examples and tactical takeaways, checkout our full analysis: https://lnkd.in/gVPg-EAq