Unpacking User Onboarding
(1) Product Onboarding, (2) Success Onboarding & (3) Re-Onboarding
Having conducted and oversaw various user onboarding experiments, particularly with bottom-up self-serve (AKA PLG) products, I've noticed avoidable obstacles that product managers and product-marketing managers often encounter.
Designing effective user onboarding processes is certainly no cakewalk. However, separating it into micro-challenges can simplify the entire procedure and help concentrate on what needs attention and, probably most importantly, when.
The two most frequent missteps I've observed are (1) using ineffective onboarding tactics for the wrong objectives and (2) releasing an onboarding journey only to leave it unattended and un-iterated.
To counter these, I've constructed a framework based on my experience that leverages a 3-part approach: Product Onboarding, Success Onboarding, and Re-Onboarding.
Each of these three onboarding categories caters to distinct audiences with distinct needs.
But first, let’s address a widespread misconception: there is no universal onboarding solution.
There is no universal onboarding solution
User onboarding is a persistent process that extends far beyond the initial sign-up day, and fundamentally, it never concludes. It's like building a house; you need a robust foundation, but even after the house is built, it requires regular upkeep.
As you improve your products over time, you consistently discover new information that can improve functionality and user experiences. With the launch of new features and alterations to existing ones, it's crucial for onboarding journeys to adapt in tandem.
The essence of onboarding users is providing continuous support throughout their journey, regardless of whether they’re new, retained, or dormant users.
Let's delve deeper into each onboarding category.
User Onboarding Category #1: Product Onboarding
🥅 Objective: Quick comprehension of product value (AKA Activation/Aha-Moment)
🎯 Audience: New users
The 1st time experience of any product is incredibly critical. New users are typically curious but also hesitant, so it's vital to make an impactful first impression.
During the Product Onboarding phase, the objective is to facilitate users to comprehend the product's value quickly or, at the very least, realize what the product can potentially do for them.
It's a common pitfall to give a full product overview at this stage; it's more effective to remain focused on the immediate objective.
I've seen many long, complex, and unnecessarily elaborate Product Onboarding journeys that are more overwhelming than practical.
Keeping your focus sharp on the objective (quick time-to-value and user activation) will be appreciated by your users and will help you achieve your KPIs.
What actions can you take?
UX: Embed onboarding into your product rather than adding layers on top. For example, leverage empty states to signal and convey proper messaging and instructions. This will reduce steps in the journey and will decrease drop-offs.
Micro-journeys: Segment the onboarding journey into micro-journeys to keep users focused and attentive, thereby increasing engagement and reducing drop-offs.
Formats: Experiment with various formats (text, videos, GIFs) to really get what connects best with your audience. Remember, different customer profiles respond differently.
Internal and external onboarding methods: Incorporating onboarding emails along with in-app tactics can effectively enhance the onboarding experience
Understand your user personas best: See below 👇
Segment your users into personas
Before designing an onboarding journey, it's key to fully comprehend your customer profiles and categorize them into personas.
In addition to defining their role, industry, and company size, have you contemplated their patience levels?
Some personas prefer to learn through guided onboarding journeys, while others are more eager to move forward quickly and get the job done. That’s the stark reality.
Taking into account user patience will assist you (and the Product Designers you collaborate with) in deciding the optimal UX and how to assist your users best, thereby boosting the probability of achieving all your desired metrics - user activation, engagement, retention, and conversion.
User Onboarding Category #2: Success Onboarding
🥅 Objective: Educate users on achieving success through new or existing features (AKA Adoption)
🎯 Audience: Returning users
If you’ve managed to satisfy your users, they’ll be back for more.
Whether they’re on a free or paid plan, whether the product adopts a Product-led Growth strategy or not, nothing remains static forever.
Quicker than Darwin’s theory of evolution, your market, your users, your product, your company, and you evolve.
In response to market changes, your strategy will change.
In response to user feedback, your product will evolve.
In response to the experiments, discovery sessions, and usability tests you run, your learnings will fuel a broad spectrum of changes.
Product Onboarding (User Onboarding Category #1) that we covered above is insufficient on its own to win the race, which is where Success Onboarding (User Onboarding #2) steps in.
Once users are activated, comprehend the product value, and begin interacting, that’s the time to progress to the next phase and delve deeper yet into user success.
I incessantly ask myself -
“What are the jobs users are trying to get done?”
“How can I help my users in successfully achieving their jobs?”
“What is the best way to help my users achieve success at this step in their journey?”
The JTDB framework is an incredibly effective and efficient tool to uncover user jobs, which will help you design the best onboarding journeys.
Whether it’s a new feature that assists users in accomplishing a job, a new blog post about how to achieve success faster, or a new template that helps users get things done - these are all ideal candidates for Success Onboarding content because they inherently promote and support user success.
Think beyond the features you build and release.
Include any relevant type of content in your Success Onboarding journey.
Success Onboarding methods don’t necessarily need to engage users internally on the product itself. Emails work just as effectively. Or any form of communication for that matter.
User Onboarding Category #3: Re-Onboarding
🥅 Goal: Re-trigger engagement
🎯 Audience: Users who have not been active for an extended period
It’s an undeniable fact that with Product-Led Growth, 40-60% of users who sign up never return.
Many return after a very long time, long after they’ve forgotten everything you’ve worked hard to teach them.
Even if you succeeded in activating them initially, they’re deactivated by now, and you have to do it all over again.
Moreover, your product has probably undergone significant changes since they signed up, meaning there’s much to learn as well as re-learn.
The purpose of Re-Onboarding is to re-activate users and aid them in regaining their bearings. It’s akin to reigniting an old romance; you have to remind them of why they fell for your product in the first place.
These users may not require the same extent of onboarding that new users need, but re-activating them is a task we shouldn’t neglect.
A tactic I prefer is to start by welcoming them back to the product, which conveys that I recognize and care about them, and then suggest they take a “refresher” onboarding journey.
Make sure to utilize product analytics tools (e.g. Heap, Mixpanel, Amplitude, PostHog) to identify the right data points you should use to trigger dedicated Re-Onboarding journeys.
Test, track, refine: repeat until you hit your KPIs
Everything we do is essentially an experiment awaiting outcomes.
As always, it’s important to define, measure, and track your metrics, so that you can make sure you’re on the right track (pun intended).
For each User Onboarding category, track and measure different metrics, based on your goals.
For Product Onboading - track activation.
For Success Onboarding - track the relevant job-related action.
For Re-Onboarding - track activation as well as more advanced jobs.
To sum it up
Remember that user onboarding is a marathon, not a sprint. Take your time, study your users, understand their needs, and design the onboarding journey accordingly.
Breaking down “User Onboarding” into Product Onboarding, Success Onboarding, and Re-Onboarding helps you focus on the right tactics for the right users at the right timing of their journey.
It isn’t enough to set these strategies in motion; they must be continuously revisited, analyzed, and refined to keep up with evolving user needs and product changes.
This approach is iterative and requires constant experimentation and learning to continuously improve user onboarding.
We should also bear in mind that, while PLG companies benefit immensely from focusing on user onboarding, this is a universally applicable strategy that greatly benefits any SaaS product company.