Building empathy-driven onboarding programs, the art of onboarding invited users, defining ICP based on customer retention, and more.

GritLab #49

Jul 25, 2023

Summer has definitely hit Barcelona, with all its humidity. But July also means the last push before Summer holidays and I’m been thinking a lot about all things onboarding. So here are all my latest musings on the topic. Hope you enjoy, have a good time-off if that’s the case, and I’ll be back in September 🏖️

Let’s jump right into it…

Here’s what I’ve got this week:

Personal perspectives: building empathy-driven onboarding programs
Recent research:
- Turn vitamins into pain killers
- The art of onboarding invited users
- How to define your ICP based on customer retention
- Owning your multi-threading efforts

Small ask: I write for you, otherwise this would just be a private journal. If you enjoy today’s edition, let me know. Can be as quick as hitting the like button or leaving a comment. Your feedback is the only way to make it better.

Alright, let’s get to it.

Building empathy-driven onboarding programs

Most onboarding flows are designed from the vendor's perspective. To achieve our goals, pushing as many features as we can at once, and why not already hint an upsell? Here's a simple guide to flip the script and build journeys based on the customers’ goals but that also consider what they are thinking and feeling along the way.

#1 Truly understand customers’ goals

The first step is understanding the main jobs-to-be-done your product is hired for. A few ways to do this:

Ask new customers. The moment they subscribe to your product, reach out and ask for call. I discovered the more specific we are in our ask, the higher the changes they say yes. So instead of asking for an intro call, be upfront saying you’re working on the new onboarding program and want their feedback to help shape it.
Listen to Sales and Onboarding calls. If you’re not a team of one, other people speak with customers too. Select a few calls with new users, especially the ones that focus on discovery.
Send out a survey. You won’t be able to get as many details as in the first two, but it’s a good way to complement your research.

#2 Map the steps from sign-up to value

The next step, is mapping what actions the customer needs to take to go from A (signup) to B (get value from your tool). To give an example, for a survey tool the steps might be:

signup
account setup
create the survey (sub-steps: add questions, customize design, set-up integrations)
share (how? email? social media? Slack?)
analyze responses

My advice: don’t fall into the trap of thinking this journey is linear. Some users might skip the account setup beyond what’s mandatory to signup, or just add questions, but don’t customize design at all. So make sure you collect all the customer feedback you have about each of these steps.

A few ideas:

Sales and customer onboarding calls
Support tickets submitted during the onboarding period
NPS and onboarding surveys

#3 Look for quotes about what the customer was thinking and feeling at each step

For example, I use Claap to record customer calls. So I search the call transcript to look for:

Pain points keywords / competitor mentions: what were they going through when they started looking for a new solution?
Main actions keywords: what did they say about recording a claap video? What about sharing or collaborating in one?

#4 Create a Miro or Whimsical board with your findings

Once you have all your data, it’s time to build the puzzle. I use the template below from Whimsical for this. Using customer quotes and insights, I fill out the blanks to map the data with the the different steps from signup to value realization.

You probably onboard different personas, based on their goals, roles, or maturity level with your solution. Create as many boards as the top personas you serve.

#5 Build your onboarding program

You now have a blue print to build your onboarding program. Each stage can inform your email sequence, a product tour, new webinars or help center articles.

Of course, you still want customers to discover your most differentiating features. But you now have a guide on how to do it:
→ Address their concerns/pain points first
→ Then educate them on your wow features

I’m very keen to hear about your approach to build onboarding programs, especially in the early days. Drop me a line below 👇

Turn vitamins into pain killers

I loved this post from Matt Lerner. We tend to assume our product can either be a vitamin (nice to have) or a pain killer (must have), but Matt offers a framework to think about this differently. A must read.

The art of onboarding invited users

If your product is a team collaboration tool, you know onboarding doesn’t stop with your champion. In fact, you’re painfully aware that if you fail at activating their team, churn is almost inevitable. So I spent the last few weeks gathering as many insights as I could on the topic. Shockingly, there’s not a lot. But the following links are a good starting point:

Appcues: How to onboard invited users and fast-track user engagement
Userpilot: How to Onboard Invited Users to your SaaS Product
UserGuiding: Slack: an In-depth User Onboarding Teardown

How to define your ICP based on customer retention

Mark Roberge from Stage 2 Capital shared a very hands-on framework to rethink your ICP based on customer health metrics. This is part of a longer article on how to raise venture capital with poor customer retention.

Owning your multi-threading efforts

Another great Linkedin post from Krysten Conner, where she shares 3 multi-threading tactics she’s used in the past 5 years with good results. Read it here.

And that’s all for today.

If you enjoyed today’s edition, let me know. Can be as quick as hitting the like button or leaving a comment. Your feedback is the only way to make it better 🙏

From the Ground Up by Angela Guedes

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