Exploring product-led onboarding
Helping customers discover value quickly and stay engaged over time
GROWTH DESIGN, DATA ANALYSIS-
1 month
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1 Product Manager, 4 Engineers, 1 Product Marketing Manager
Context
Vendasta’s ecosystem spans multiple platforms, each tailored to different user personas, but our product onboarding process doesn't showcase the full scope of our offerings nor does it provide sufficient guidance to users. As a primarily sales-led organization, we explored how a product-led approach could complement and enhance sales efforts.
How might we introduce a new user to their “Aha!” moment as efficiently as possible?
PROBLEMSign-ups and drop-offs
60,000+ sign ups
-46% return
HYPOTHESeSWe hoped our experiment…
Increased the number of returning customers
Teaching users how to navigate the platform and optimize their workflows should foster greater adoption and engagement.
Reduced toil on customer support teams
A product-led onboarding approach empowers users to get familiar with and learn how to use the platform through a self-guided process.
CONSTRAINTSWe were limited by…
Shortened project timelines
Since our team was experimenting with various acquisition and activation strategies, we were required to move fast.
Legacy code and architecture
The codebase in certain high-traffic areas of our platform was outdated and required trade-offs in user experience.
discoveryUnderstanding the jobs to be done
Vendasta services 2 primary customer segments:
Partners looking for a CRM that helps them scale their business
Partners looking to sell digital products & services to SMBs
To serve these segments, we provide 3 platforms:
Partner Center is a hub for partner admins to manage their business operations and digital storefront.
Sales and Success Center is a CRM where the partner’s sales teams generate leads and manage customers.
Business App is a portal through which SMBs can access the digital products & services sold to them by the partner.
current stateA single high-level onboarding
Although our product is complex and spans across three separate platforms, all users—regardless of their goals—were funnelled through an overly simplified and brief onboarding flow.
To demo Business App, users were prompted to upload their business logo and enter the name of a client. However, the purpose of these questions was never explained to the user, making it seem random.
Given the breadth of our product, we knew navigating it without guidance would be challenging. As a result, users were given the option to skip the onboarding entirely and reach out to sales for a comprehensive tour.
design decisionSegmenting onboarding
Guided users through onboarding flows relevant to them, reducing time-to-value while gathering valuable insights about them.
design decisionEducate along the way
Provided more context into the purpose of each step and how to answer each question with clear exit routes for help.
design decisionProvide good defaults
Provided a placeholder logo and example business to help with visualization, reducing cognitive load.
IMproved stateA personalized purposeful onboarding
We used the user's high Psych to our advantage and asked questions that would help us learn more about their business and use cases and thereby segment them based on their intent.
Using their answers, we segmented them into 2 different flows that directly correlate with their job-to-be-done. We also made a more generic flow for users that weren't sure what they wanted from our product yet.
Users are then taken through a guided platform tour of the area that brings them value and are finally given the option to chat with an expert to help answer any questions they may still have.
Improved conversion: +9.3% customers complete onboarding
Increased retention: +5.5% customers return
learningsMy first real project taught me about
The importance of product onboarding
Onboarding is not only a great opportunity to excite new customers about the product, but also to educate them on how to quickly derive value, benefiting both the user and the business.
Collaborating with cross-functional members
Naïve as it may sound, I never fully understood the amount of work required to bring a mockup to life. Developers highlighted interactions and edge cases I might have overlooked, which expanded my 'definition of done'.