Tips for User Activation Through Onboarding

When I was head of growth, our team reached 40% activation rates, and onboarded hundreds of thousands of new users. Without knowing it, we discovered a framework. Here are the 6 steps we followed. 1. Define value: Successful onboarding is typically judged by new user activation rates. But what is activation? The moment users receive value. Reaching it should lead to higher retention & conversion to paid plans. First define it. Then get new users there. 2. Deliver value, quickly Revisit your flow and make sure it gets users to the activation moment fast. Remove unnecessary steps, complexity, and distractions along the way. Not sure how to start? Try reducing time (or steps) to activate by 50%. 3. Motivate users to action: Don't settle for simple. Look for sticking points in the user experience you can solve with microcopy, empty states, tours, email flows, etc. Then remind users what to do next with on-demand checklists, progress bars, & milestone celebrations. 4. Customize the experience: Ditch the one-size fits all approach. Learn about your different use cases. Then, create different product "recipes" to help users achieve their specific goals. 5. Start in the middle: Solve for the biggest user pain points stopping users from starting. Lean on customizable templates and pre-made playbooks to help people go 0-1 faster. 6. Build momentum pre-signup: Create ways for website visitors to start interacting with the product - and building momentum, before they fill out any forms. This means that you'll deliver value sooner, and to more people. Keep it simple. Learn what's valuable to users. Then deliver value on their terms.

🪝Does your onboarding have a hook? 7 tactics you can use today 𝗚𝗿𝗲𝗮𝘁 𝘄𝗿𝗶𝘁𝗲𝗿𝘀 𝗵𝗮𝘃𝗲 𝗼𝗻𝗲 𝗴𝗼𝗮𝗹: 𝗚𝗲𝘁 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝘁𝗼 𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗱 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗻𝗲𝘅𝘁 𝘀𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲 Writers hook their readers, you need to hook your users. Your onboarding flow is like a great essay. You draw them in with the headline. And hook them in the first couple of sentences. This is your goal for onboarding too: Get your users to the next screen. This makes it a little easier, right? Instead of putting pressure on yourself to create a beautiful massive flow, focus on making one screen compelling enough for users to want to progress. And then make another, and then another. And then a few more. 𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗱𝗶𝗳𝗳𝗲𝗿𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝘁𝗮𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗰𝘀 𝘄𝗲 𝗰𝗮𝗻 𝘂𝘀𝗲? 1️⃣ Quantifying the value they get (”Reduce work hour distraction to <20%”) 2️⃣ Showing the value you provide (Visual of upcoming features) 3️⃣ Ask multiple-choice questions to build investment (”What are your goals?”) 4️⃣ Personalize the experience with inputs (”We recommend this for people like you”) 5️⃣ Build Problem → Answer format so you are the answer to the problem you just created 6️⃣ Creating suspense with a cliffhanger 7️⃣ Social proof and testimonials to build trust Have you used or heard of Opal? “#1 Screen Time App” Opal is a great product and has a solid onboarding flow where they use all of these tactics 🔢 Quantifying value ▪️ Reduce your Screen Time by 30% to 2h 48m each day ▪️ Reduce work hour distraction to <20% ▪️ Become 30% more focused than the average of your peers ▪️Develop habits to save 30d this year 👁️  Showing the value they provide ▪️ Video explainer on the first welcome screen showing you friendly UI ❓ Multiple-choice questions to build investment ▪️ Simple multiple-choice questions build an engagement pattern that draws people deeper ▪️ We can’t ask endless questions though, we need some payoff so our users feel good about their time investment 👩🎨 Personalize the experience ▪️ Opal asks “What is your daily average Screen Time” ▪️ Then they let me know I’ll spend 91 days on my phone this year (yikes) 🦸 Problem → Answer Format ▪️ Opal screams the problem in your face: “You're on track to spend 17 years of your life looking down at your phone.” ▪️ Opal then throws on their Superman cape and swoops down to the rescue: “Opal can help you get back 5 years+” 😮 Creating suspense with a cliffhanger ▪️ Opal asks you questions and then has an annoyingly long “loading” screen to build anticipation ▪️ Next, you see, “Some not-so-good news, and some great news.” There has got to be like .0001% drop off from these screens Then don’t forget to toss some social proof in there: Opal uses: ▪️ Press mentions ▪️ App store reviews ▪️ Number of users ▪️ Awards: App of the Day ▪️ #1 screen time focus app (whatever that means) 📢 Want more? Check out Retention . Blog. Get the full post...and the full Opal onboarding...and weekly insights...and more

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.

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

I was embarrassed when we onboarded new hires. I don't have fancy collateral. No welcome videos. No searchable database. Just a bunch of Google Docs. (And a lot of my time) When I hired our first employee, I gave them these docs as part of their onboarding. I apologized that I didn’t have something fancier for them. Mentioned how we're a start-up with limited resources. But they told me they were amazed at the level of detail. And they wished they had something like that in their previous jobs. They came from a big company so my first thought was: "There's no way that's true." "They are probably used to more robust onboarding." But then our 2nd hire said the same thing. Then the 3rd. And so on. Even people outside my company applauded our process. My key takeaways: ➟ Many companies don't prioritize onboarding properly. ➟ You don't need flashy tools to set up new hires for success. Just provide the right information in a clear, organized way. Important elements of good onboarding: • Clear documentation covering roles, expectations, processes • A structured timeline for taking in information • Assigning a mentor to provide guidance • Scheduled check-ins to address questions It’s easy to assume more complexity means better onboarding. But from my experience, the basics done right go a long way. What do you think makes for an effective onboarding experience? Share below ⬇ ---- P.S. If this resonated with you, ♻ reshare to your network

For many in SaaS, "friction" is a dirty word. At some point I even declared it the "singular enemy of product-led growth." Then I heard a story. It was a few years back. I was hosting a GrowthHackers workshop about user onboarding. An attendee volunteered his product's onboarding experience for a live critique. So I pulled it up and started through the process of signing up. It was a low-code tool to create websites. Activation was defined as the moment a new user publishes their website. After the third or fourth step, I said something like, "you'll increase sign ups and activations by removing some of the friction from getting started." I was used to being the expert. Little did I know, this guy was way ahead of me. He and his team had tested a ton of variations, and the results very obviously justified the friction. Their streamlined, low-friction flow increased signups. No surprise there. It decreased activation rate. Also not surprising—removing friction typically means a higher % of less qualified and/or less motivated users. The math looked something like this: 1000 signups x 10% activation rate = 100 activations The flow I saw, on the other hand, asked me to give my website name before I even had an account. When they launched it, signup completion dropped off a cliff. But activation rate skyrocketed. 500 signups x 40% activation rate = 200 activations Most importantly, it drove more total activations. Not just because they weeded out the low-intent signups. In that case they might've expected to see activation rate double, not grow 4X! Forcing users to make more decisions up front (like naming their website) actually increased motivation to ultimately publish their website. He suggested that it made users feel more committed and invested in bringing their website to life. Sunk cost fallacy, perhaps? Regardless, the results spoke for themselves. So that's the story that changed my mind about "friction." Got a story of your own? I'm going deep on the pros and cons of user friction in the Product-Led Growth Collective newsletter this weekend. Subscribe at productled .org to get on the list.

Organizations spend a lot of time recruiting new candidates – and not a lot of planning each aspect of onboarding. In the Navy, I learned that the first 72 hours for a new Sailor at a new command is crucial to their long-term success for their duration at the unit. If the first crew member they encounter in that window is an expert who has a positive perspective and can show them the ropes, they tend to thrive. If the first crew member they encounter isn’t a strong Sailor, odds are that the new check will follow in their footsteps and fail to achieve a high level of capability aboard. Those of us in the Navy are well-versed in this trend. On ships, it’s known as the “First 72.” As Hunt A Killer surpassed 100 full-time employees, I noticed a similar pattern. If we could make sure a new hire had a dialed-in, clear onboarding process in roughly their first 8 hours, they’d most likely be a stellar teammate. This onboarding process included: ✅ The assignment of a dedicated Teammate Advocate ✅ A sit down with their hiring manager that included a 90-day plan ✅ Meeting with HR and IT to get their systems set up ✅ A walkthrough of benefits and pay, with time to have questions answered  ✅ Scheduling a meeting with me within their first week 🔍 (I'll go more in-depth on each of these steps in a future post - stay tuned!) The “First 8” became routine for us; every moment of onboarding was scripted. We took this process just as seriously as recruiting and retaining. Tricia Butler, SPHR, SHRM - SCP shepherded new hires through a comprehensive experience that instilled confidence, answered their questions, and immediately made them feel like part of the team. This attention to onboarding practices is some of the best business advice I can give. It made a world of difference when I implemented it with my own team. Don’t leave new employees hanging. Show them how it’s done and they’ll go on to shine - no matter how stormy the seas might get! 

"How was your #onboading experience?" "Good! I just don't know what I actually do in my role." On my Amaversary day, I posted this guide (not a model but we call it the shared learning responsibility model) about who owns learning. Link to the convo: https://lnkd.in/ewpMbUTQ . Onboarding is learning. But it is a special case. I've designed and gone through multitudes of onboarding in my 15+ years in the learning and technology space. Some worked better than others. Good article covering generic problems with onboarding: https://lnkd.in/epibStKW . With the pace of change and the disruption effect of AI, however, I believe we need more radical changes that starts with our thinking: - Measure it! Onboarding as a program/product is not the same as onboarding as a process (as in getting ready to do for what you've been hired for). It is a shared responsibility to set each new hire up for success. How are you measuring success today? - Content of the onboarding program: forget it! I mean forget the word, "content." Everyone adds content to the onboarding that is "important." As a new hire, what I need is relevant, meaningful context FOR ME. Based on my background, skills, role, team, etc. I don't need communications training in general. I need to know how to communicate effectively in my role. I want personalized and customized resources. - The brain is not a sponge and the program shouldn't be a fire-hose. The "illusion of learning" is that the more information you expose to new hires, the more they learn. We're not AI trained of ingesting data. - Boring!! There are millions of reasons why we are not engaged in the "content" but here's a fundamental one: when you put together a program where each stakeholder (from HR through operations, sales, legal, etc.) adds their own stuff to learn, the end result is a fragmented to do list without the whys: read this, watch this, complete this, etc. Zero application of the self-determination theory (autonomy, competency, relatedness). - Linear design. I could talk forever about this but just because I "learned" something on day one, it doesn't mean I'll remember it on day 5, let alone use it three weeks. The assumption that we "progress through the onboarding program" in a linear fashion, never looking back and never searching for things we thought we remembered is just flawed. Memorize only what you need. - Engagement and Motivation (more details in my article: https://lnkd.in/gj3_YEpj). You can only design the conditions for an experience, not the experience! That is an individual's perception. You can't motivate people, only design the conditions that people find motivating. But, that's another post about how to apply game thinking. #newhire #learning #LearningIsNotDoing #MeasureTheRightThing #engagement #motivation

How to Create the Best Onboarding Experience Ever The last company I worked for completely nailed onboarding. Here's what they did: T-19 days: email from IT on when I should expect to receive my company swag, my computer, and other logistics T-18 days: email from my manager checking in and letting me know they were around if I had any questions T-3 days: email introducing me to my onboarding buddy (an employee that they paired me with) that helped me through my first few weeks T-2 days: email from manager with onboarding info and my schedule for Day 1 T-1 days: email from IT with info on how to login and configure my laptop All before I even started. — Day 1: * Logged into my computer and my calendar was pre-loaded with recurring team meetings, manager 1x1s, and meetups scheduled for the next 30 days * There was a company-wide welcome call where all the new hires were introduced. Each of us shared our favorite childhood movie * We had an IT setup call outlining everything we needed to complete * I had a meetup with my onboarding buddy * Someone from the HR team walked us through a “culture session” * I had my first manager 1x1 Days 2-9: a series of actually delightful meetings with important C-suite execs. The most memorable of which was with our CEO. He said: "Your 1st 30 days here, you have nothing to prove. You've already proven that you should be here because we have a very rigorous interview process. So for these first 30 days, try to meet as many people as possible, try to learn as much as you possibly can about the business, and don't worry about proving anything. And so that was just like the start of the onboarding." Day 10: "Graduation” in front of the entire company where managers showered new hires with compliments and accomplishments you’ve made in the first couple of weeks. You also get an email from your direct team and quotes from each of them thanking you for something that you've helped them with. — That was more than 2 years ago. But it stuck with me because it genuinely made me feel welcomed, supported, and excited to be part of the company. What great onboarding experiences have you gone through? For more HR tips, sign up for our newsletter in the comments.

When activation is down or free:paid conversion isn’t where you hoped it would be it, there’s a natural response to think that if you only a new user heard about how amazing your platform is, they’d be more likely to use and buy your product. And while story telling has a role to play in your user onboarding, the most important lever in driving activation will be to reduce friction and do everything you can to make sure they get the value they are looking for as quickly as possible. One more tweak to your trial nurture emails or in-app messages aren’t going to help if a user can’t get through the basic steps on getting activated on their own. I’ve personally wasted hours/days/weeks thinking my marketing talents were the missing ingredient to get more users activated and learned the hard way that it wasn’t. Instead, focus that time and effort on identifying where customers are getting stuck or losing momentum during their trial and make the real product improvements needed to increase the number of users reaching their wow moment with your product. Once you have that stuff figured out, then you can supercharge your trial funnel with a new nurture, product overview video, or even hiring more trial coaches to help sell the vision of your product.