An elite onboarding experience

Welcome to all the founders, growth marketers, and Product Managers who joined recently.

The sun is shining in London. It’s 28C degrees (82F for those stateside) and we’re talking brilliant user onboarding.

It’s a happy day for me.

I wanted to share this breakdown because the company, Productboard, does a lot of things right. It’s as close to best practice as I’ve seen in a while.

And it’s no surprise that the tool is for Product Managers.

So let’s get into it:

Productboard is a product management tool founded in 2014. They’ve raised $261.7M and over 6,000 companies use them.

The product aims to help companies bring the right products to market faster by understanding user needs, prioritising what to build, and aligning the team.

Here’s a breakdown of what they do to make it great:

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Every user's path to value is different.

We don't all take in information in the same way.

And so the best onboarding doesn't rely on one sole method to get users to value.

They combine different approaches.

Productboard does that masterfully.

Here's how they create experiences to get users to see value fast:

1) Create trust and excitement

To increase motivation for a visitor, Productboard has a clear value proposition they reinforce.

They use social proof with testimonials so a user can imagine outcomes.

Logos from leading companies to increase trust.

And they help overcome objections.

One of the most compelling sign-up pages I've seen in a while.

2) Bringing Personality To Email

Verification emails are the most boring emails around.

No Sauce. No personality. No useful information.

Wasted real estate when users are very motivated to try the product.

Productboard has a friendly welcome and introduces their mission.

Create the right environment for users to come into.

Make every touchpoint valuable for the user.

3) Contextual Walkthroughs

The best user onboarding gets you to a goal.

And by making you learn the product by doing.

They help you create something of value during your first use of the product.

That's what Productboard does here.

And they show the output in real-time

4) Tooltips

You don't need a tooltip just to point to a button.

You need to know why that button is valuable and what it helps you to do.

The tooltips they use are useful and the copy for them is actionable.

5) Actionable Checklists

Checklists help you to see the next steps.

Throughout the onboarding experience, they use checklists to help users get deeper into the product.

They use checklists to help you complete tasks.

They also have videos as part of the checklist. This is another way people like to learn about products.

6) Easy to import data

Having ways to import data reduces friction and allows a user to do valuable outcomes as soon as possible.

It also makes the 'switch' from an alternative less painful.

Even if it's not the first thing you surface in the new user experience, give users an option to import that data over.

7) Clear upgrade prompts

Through some subtle elements, Productboard shows the user how they can become a customer.

They show how long the trial has left.

It's important to remember:

Although your product may be free or a trial, you must it clear that a user can upgrade.

Productboard blends a range of approaches to help you get to value quicker.

But it’s not overwhelming.

Review your onboarding experience and ask:

1) Have you provided clear steps on how to get to your product value?

2) Could you give context about your product in a different way?

You can always use my free onboarding checklist to audit your own flow.

When you’re ready, here’s I can help you grow:

Get the Startup Growth Roadmap - my playbook of 25+ templates that's helped 300+ founders and marketers to scale their startups.

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Hire me to audit your onboarding flow.

Book an Intro call to see how we can solve your most pressing growth challenges.

Cheers,

Theo