Onboarding is a process that helps new users learn about your software or service. It’s usually done during the first few interactions with the product.

It helps new users become familiar with the product’s features and functionality.

Creating A Successful Onboarding Process

That’s why we can affirm it’s not just about getting people to sign up. It’s about helping them understand what your product does and how they can use it to solve their problems.

If you do user onboarding right, you’ll increase conversions, reduce churn, and turn new users into long-term customers.

But if you don’t know how to design a great user onboarding flow or how to execute it consistently, then all that potential will go unrealized.

Companies that have established themselves as thought leaders in their respective industries have good examples of a well done onboarding process, and every single SaaS platform has the opportunity to do the same.

So let’s get started: here’s everything you need to know about designing an effective and successful user onboarding program for your product.

Mobile screens showing onboarding flow example.

User onboarding is a critical part of the customer journey. Done right, it can help you increase conversions and lifetime value.

Define the goal of your user onboarding program

The first step in creating a user onboarding program is to define its goal. Why? Let me Cheshire Cat you for one moment.

If you don’t know where you are going, then it doesn’t matter which path you take, and neither does the user! Because without a defined purpose, or path, it’s impossible to get anywhere.

Cheshire Cat scene from Disney’s Alice in Wonderland.

The goal of a user onboarding program is to help people easily understand how to use an app or website.

It does this by providing guidance and feedback so that the new user understands what’s happening, why it’s happening, and how to use the app or website effectively. This way, users are able to successfully complete tasks from the get-go.

There are several aspects that make up an effective onboarding experience.

1) clarity about what users will accomplish with their product.

2) reassurance that they can accomplish these goals.

3) comfortability with how things work.

4) education about how things work as they’re using them.

5) encouragement from other users who’ve achieved success with the system.

6) positive reinforcement when doing well and.

7) feedback on progress made towards reaching goals.

Know your buyer personas

Now that you’ve got a basic understanding of what user onboarding is, let’s take a look at some best practices in building great user experiences. The first step is to know who your buyer personas are and what they want from your product.

To do this, think about how buyers approach the problem that you solve.

What problems do they have? Do they know there’s a solution out there? What are their needs and motivations? How does your product fit into the bigger picture?

These are all important questions to consider when creating buyer personas for your business process. You can read Personas and how to use them in your UX Design Process if you wish to go further in this subject.

Create a user onboarding map based on how your personas use your product

User onboarding maps are a living document that can help you and your team focus on the most important elements of your user experience.

As they say, it’s easier to build and ship one feature at a time than a hundred features at once. The same applies to onboarding: it’s better to create one great onboarding process than multiple mediocre ones.

This is why we recommend creating one user onboarding map for every persona in your target market.

You can use a template such as this Free Miro Customer Journey Map as your onboarding map.

Miros’s Customer Journey map: A customer journey map (CJM) or user journey map is a visual overview of how your customer experiences your product or service.

When you do this, you’ll be able to prioritize which elements of your product need more attention since each persona has different needs and uses the product differently than others.

Here are some examples of different personas from a hypothetical case study:

A busy mom who wants her kids to take piano lessons because she believes music is an important part of their development but doesn’t have time herself right now because she works full-time as an accountant during the weekdays; so instead she gets them started with online classes taught by local musicians at night after work while she supervises from home via video chat (so they don’t get distracted). Her primary goal is convenience — she wants something easy enough that even if she forgets or gets busy at work then they can still stay on track with their practice schedule without major consequences such as missing out on important social activities like school plays because Mom forgot about them entirely due too much stress around deadlines/meetings etc….

Identify the channels you’ll use to onboard users

• Identify the channels you’ll use to onboard users.
• Use a mix of channels to reach your audience.
• Ensure that users can get their questions answered quickly, easily and in-context.

Create customer-centric copy that speaks directly to your persona

We’re all familiar with the idea of a “voice” as it relates to writing. You can even hear it in your head if you think about the way you speak and write.

When we talk about creating customer-centric copy for user onboarding, however, I want to explore a slightly different aspect of voice: tone.

Tone is how you speak directly to your customers; it’s about using words and phrases that resonate with them individually — not just what works on paper or in theory.

You want your tone to be personal and authentic, not robotic or over-the-top (unless your brand personality is hyperbole).

For example, if we were writing an onboarding copy for an app that helps people make new friends nearby, our approach would totally differ from that of an app focused on helping people improve their online dating profiles because each audience has very different expectations when starting out on these platforms.

Ensure that each message is sent at the right time and using the right channel

Ensure that each message is sent at the right time and using the right channel.

It’s important to think about the different personas you are targeting when determining which channels you should use, as well as the timing of your messages.

For example, someone who just purchased a product may receive an email asking them to rate their experience in-app.

Someone else who has been using your app for longer might see a push notification encouraging them to take advantage of a new feature. In all cases, it’s important that you don’t overwhelm or annoy your users with too many messages — that they feel like they can ignore or respond at their leisure!

Test and refine everything, always

• Test, test and refine.
• Analytics should be your guide when it comes to on-boarding new users. You need to know if they’re arriving at your site, what they’re doing there, where they’re leaving and why they’re leaving.
• This data is vital in helping you optimize user onboarding by testing different messages and making changes where necessary.
• Don’t be afraid to make big changes — if feedback shows that a few tweaks would lead to better results (like increased signups), then you’ll have found an improvement worth making!

Track key metrics for your user onboarding process

You can’t improve what you don’t measure, and it’s worth measuring how users are interacting with your app or website.

There are a few metrics that can help you optimize the onboarding process:

• Did they get stuck? If so, where?
• Did they finish the onboarding process? How long did it take?
• Did they engage with certain parts of the app/website more than others?

If you’re still not sure how to get started with your user onboarding, it’s recommended to read some case studies and study products or/and annotate their designs.

Sign up to a service you know and follow the onboarding steps paying attention, printing screening them and annotating its particularities.

EXAMPLES

Many companies use a dedicated onboarding consultant or agency to assist with their onboarding strategy and execution.

This can save you a lot of time and money in the long run because they know what works best for your company and product, so they’ll be able put together a customized plan based on their experience in this area.

There are websites that offer free services, or trials, such as Product Board (which has also nice resources and written content), Help Scout (Nice blog as well), and Onboard.io if you feel like you need outside help in your business.

More content about User Onboarding

Improving Onboarding with Employee Experience Journey Mapping — A Fresh Take on a Traditional UX Technique — Here’s a paper with a creative approach to applying journey mapping, a well-known design research tool, to improve the onboarding experience of new employees.

A guide to mastering user-driven product onboarding (with real-life examples from Productboard!) — A complete guide with examples and videos.

15 Best Practices for Effective Mobile App Onboarding — very good article, organized by topics, that illustrates best practices for mobile app onboarding, bringing also data about consumer engagement.

6 User Onboarding Best Practices for 2022 — short article listing fresh, recent, user onboarding practices.

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