How heavily do you rely on onboarding?
Sonia Kost
20 replies
Hello everyone!
Currently, we're working on an onboarding process research, and we’re in need of more opinions 🙌🏻
When implementing a new tool in your workflow, how heavily do you rely on onboarding provided within the tool itself? (Meaning: popup messages, emails, dedicated videos, etc.)
Replies
Ksusha @ksusha_golovchenko
Most of the time it annoys me
When i use new tool, i always want it to be easy in use and understandable. and when i see popup messages, i skip them🤔
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@ksusha_golovchenko Yeah, I agree, the more intuitive the interface - the better :) But what if you run into some problems? Would you prefer a text to read or a video to watch?
@sonya_key_ it depends
i prefer to read while using a tool. but if i wanna delve into the mechanics of the product, id watch a video on youtube :)
@ksusha_golovchenko I agree with you, I always click to skip. But when I've observed some of our users, to improve our own onboarding, many asked for tool tips/ product tours as our product lacked it.
@sonya_key_ I asked if they use it in other products and it seems like many were mostly missing it in our tool because they were "used to seeing it those when testing new products". I think people expect it, as if it made them feel safe that there's for sure a backup guide if they get lost.
Well it is complicated question. But I think the best onboarding to make some task at the start with tips inside interface, not like popup messages.
@mikhail_bogdanovich Thank you for your answer, Michael! I agree with you on this one but personally tend to skip even these tasks if there's an option :)
I don't believe in onboarding. Whatever you're trying to solve, can be done with better user experience.
@lipkovskiy Thank you for your answer, Andrey! Of course, the more intuitive the product, the less there is the need for any kind of an onboarding.
When I was a PM, I found myself paying more attention to other products' onboarding process because I knew how hard I worked on ours. But I'm finding myself skipping them again whenever given the option.
I have liked follow-up emails after I interact with functionality, providing more information about those features. Feels far less intrusive.
@jreynoldsdev Thank you for sharing your experience, Jake! I usually tend to skip any kind of onboarding info myself but sometimes struggle with more advanced features. So, follow-up emails sound like a great solution :)
I'm not much of a fan of the usual product tours or long descriptions of "how it should work."
The best way is to watch a short video. Cool example of onboarding is a 'sandbox', which is a project where everything is set up and you can poke around in the details. Demo projects work great for me, too.
We try to make everything self-service, and as a company with an API as its main product this is difficult. But in order to make it simple we focus heavily on "developer love" which comes in the form of easy to access support and beautiful documentation
@aleksdahlberg Thank you for the answer, Aleks! Would you mind further elaborating on the documentation? Do you have some kind of a Knowledge Base for your product? :)
We do believe a lot in onboardings at Plezi. So far we mix it within & outside the tool.
- Inside the tool: we implemented a post signup experience to make user understands the value & perform the key tasks to make them feel at home + a checklist in the app to perform the first actions that we lead them to the first "aha moments"
Pros => no popups, real inclusive experience
Cons => relies on the tech team that is already busy coding new features ;)
- Outside the tool: we use intercom series to trigger in-app & email messages to users. For instance, there is ONE key action users need to do to start getting value - for that we created a serie to 1. remind them of doing this 2. remind them again with a different approach 3. to ask them why they didn't do it - which is useful for user research.
Pros => the product & CS team is super autonomous, can A/B test messages & formats and follow results without asking anything to the tech team
Cons => more intrusive & less "inclusive" in the overall app experience
We use fluorine.app for onboarding, and it sort of made us depend on it a lot? if that makes sense, only because its easy to use on there and we dont have to pay a bunch of subscriptions
it depends on the time you spend onboarding. and questions that you get
Hello Sonia, hope to find you well. Please take a look at boostio.ai. I am happy to make a call and show you a demo and more details. Feedback is also welcome. Trying to build something useful here.