Streamlining Onboarding for Educational Software Users

After 5 years helping 800+ companies streamline onboarding, here's the most underestimated way I’ve found to eliminate delays: Prescriptive playbooks. Most onboarding failures happen before customers even start using your product. We dump endless configuration options on them and ask them to figure out what they want. I know a software vendor in our space who gives a spreadsheet with 800 rows for their customers to fill, before they can “start” implementing. The result? Analysis paralysis, delayed launches, and frustrated users wondering if they're doing it "right”. Customers do sometimes blame themselves for these delays, but they’ll steer away from your software and software in your space if they have this experience Ever notice how many tools give you templates instead of a blank page? There's a reason for that. Smart companies use more prescriptive and preset configurations: For ex, Slack: Suggested channels and workflows This leverages two psychological principles: → People are more likely to use tools when they feel they've already started → Once started, momentum keeps them going Instead of asking "What do you want to set up?" start with, "Based on companies like yours, here's what we recommend." Map your customer types to proven configurations. Present these as the starting point. This approach eliminates decision fatigue, ensures customers benefit from your best practices, and de-risks launches with proven setups Your customers don't want infinite choices. They just want confidence that they're set up for success.

We thought our new signups knew exactly what they were doing. We were dead wrong. Last month, we ran an experiment at Supademo that completely reworked our assumptions on user intent and product education. The setup: We decided to segment new signups into two buckets: → Educated + "Ready to create" (clear immediate need) → "Still exploring" (tire kickers at varying familiarity levels) Instead of throwing everyone into the same onboarding flow, we added a simple routing step: users either went straight to Supademo creation OR got sent to our example gallery / embedded tutorial. The results: - 50% wanted to record right away and were well-educated on the product - 30% of users (2k+) decided to start with a tutorial (which garnered 70% engagement, 50% completion - which is extremely high) - 20% increase in users creating >5 Supademos across the cohort - 10% boost in free-to-paid conversion across the cohort This is a reminder that even for a simple/intuitive product like ours, most users weren't as educated about our product as we assumed. They're likely diving in and electing to learn by doing VS reaching marketing copy on the website. Key takeaways: - Onboarding shouldn't JUST be segmented by role/use case. It's just as important to filter by intent. - Onboarding isn't a "set it and forget it" process. It's an evolving practice that requires constant iteration, not our assumptions about what users already know. Sometimes the best growth hacks are simply meeting users where they actually are, not where we think they should be. PS - I was able to build this end-to-end workflow and ship to prod using Claude Code. If you're not shifting to maker-mode regardless of your role, you're falling behind.

When I was head of growth, our team reached 40% activation rates, and onboarded hundreds of thousands of new users. Without knowing it, we discovered a framework. Here are the 6 steps we followed. 1. Define value: Successful onboarding is typically judged by new user activation rates. But what is activation? The moment users receive value. Reaching it should lead to higher retention & conversion to paid plans. First define it. Then get new users there. 2. Deliver value, quickly Revisit your flow and make sure it gets users to the activation moment fast. Remove unnecessary steps, complexity, and distractions along the way. Not sure how to start? Try reducing time (or steps) to activate by 50%. 3. Motivate users to action: Don't settle for simple. Look for sticking points in the user experience you can solve with microcopy, empty states, tours, email flows, etc. Then remind users what to do next with on-demand checklists, progress bars, & milestone celebrations. 4. Customize the experience: Ditch the one-size fits all approach. Learn about your different use cases. Then, create different product "recipes" to help users achieve their specific goals. 5. Start in the middle: Solve for the biggest user pain points stopping users from starting. Lean on customizable templates and pre-made playbooks to help people go 0-1 faster. 6. Build momentum pre-signup: Create ways for website visitors to start interacting with the product - and building momentum, before they fill out any forms. This means that you'll deliver value sooner, and to more people. Keep it simple. Learn what's valuable to users. Then deliver value on their terms.