10 User Onboarding Best Practices You Can't Skip

Imagine this: new customers land on your product after signing their contract, but they hit a wall of confusing instructions instead of a smooth introduction. Often, companies focus more on flashy features and marketing campaigns, neglecting the crucial first impression. "They'll figure it out," they think, overlooking the research: About 40–60% of users who try new software lose interest, and a big reason is that the initial user experience is poor.That means you only have a window of time to wow new customers. If you do, you risk losing them long-term.Investing in a seamless onboarding experience isn't a cost; it's an investment in long-term success. In this blog, we’ll discuss user onboarding best practices and explain how Skilljar can help you build an effective user onboarding process.

External training programs deliver user onboarding best practices

External training programs aren't just about content repositories—they tap into specialized instructional design. In most organizations, the training team, learning design specialist, or instructional designer outlines the curriculum and picks the optimal delivery method. Content for external training programs can be laser-focused on diverse stakeholder needs. Imagine crafting compelling onboarding experiences for customers segmented by technical proficiency, industry, or use case. This targeted approach ensures each user receives relevant information, maximizing engagement and value derived. Then, external training programs extend beyond traditional onboarding, offering support across various company functions. Equip your customer support team with product-specific training modules, empower sales reps with in-depth feature knowledge, and provide marketing teams with user insights from training data. This creates a unified front where all departments speak the same language and seamlessly support users. It also allows customers to be self-serve and not bog down those teams with day-to-day education requests. Implementing a customer training program is an investment with quantifiable returns. Expect a tangible decrease in customer support calls as users become self-sufficient. As onboarding creates understanding and value realization, you’ll see higher product adoption and retention rates. Your customers' time to value (TTV) shrinks, leading to faster satisfaction.

7 user onboarding best practices to ensure customer success

If you’re building out your onboarding content and program, here are the eight best practices you should consider.

1. Guide Users to Their ‘Aha!’ Moments

The “Aha!” moment is when users understand how your product solves their problem. This realization is critical because it cements their decision to stick with your product.

Why It Matters

An effective onboarding process prioritizes guiding users toward these moments of clarity. When users grasp your product's core value, they’re more likely to continue exploring its features, driving retention and satisfaction.

How to Do It

• Focus on Value, Not Features: Instead of showcasing all functionalities, spotlight the ones that directly address your users’ pain points.
• Create Clear First-Steps: Use prompts, walkthroughs, or videos to guide users through the most impactful actions right away.
• Example: For a project management tool, ensure users complete a small task, like creating their first project. This early win is often the “Aha!” moment.

2. Personalization: Tailoring the Onboarding Journey

No two users are alike, so why should their onboarding experiences be? Personalization makes users feel understood and provides them with the most relevant guidance.

How to Personalize Effectively

1. Segment Users by Role or Goal: Divide users into personas (e.g., administrators, end-users) and craft onboarding flows that cater to their needs.
2. Dynamic Content: Offer tutorials, tooltips, and resources that adjust based on user behavior and preferences.
3. Localized Experiences: Provide language-specific or culturally relevant onboarding where appropriate.

Tip: Use in-app surveys or quick setup wizards to gather initial data about your users’ objectives.

3. Simplify Onboarding with Smart UX Patterns

Thoughtful UX design reduces cognitive load and helps users navigate your product effortlessly. From progress bars to checklists, the right patterns encourage users to stay engaged while minimizing confusion.

Common UX Patterns That Work

• Checklists: Provide a clear path for users to complete critical steps.
• Progress Bars: Show users how far along they are in the onboarding process to motivate completion.
• Interactive Walkthroughs: Use tooltips or guided tours to demonstrate how to use specific features.

Avoid: Bombarding users with pop-ups or lengthy tutorials that disrupt the flow.

4. Reduce Friction Throughout the Process

Friction in onboarding can be a dealbreaker. If users encounter obstacles—whether technical or psychological—they’re more likely to abandon the process altogether.

Friction Points to Address

• Complex Signups: Simplify registration by requesting only essential information upfront.
• Poor Load Times: Ensure all onboarding steps are optimized for speed, especially on mobile.
• Unintuitive Navigation: Design intuitive workflows and eliminate unnecessary steps.

Quick Wins

1. Offer a single sign-on (SSO) option to simplify login.
2. Add a “skip for now” option for steps that may not be immediately relevant.
3. Use analytics to identify where drop-offs occur and refine those stages.

5. Avoid Common Onboarding Mistakes

Even the most well-intentioned onboarding strategies can backfire if not implemented carefully. Here are some missteps to watch out for:

Mistake 1: Overloading Users with Information

It’s tempting to share everything about your product upfront, but too much too soon overwhelms users. Focus on incremental learning by introducing features gradually.

Mistake 2: Lack of Personalization

A generic onboarding experience can alienate users. As mentioned earlier, tailoring the process to individual needs is key.

Mistake 3: Ignoring User Feedback

Onboarding is not a set-it-and-forget-it task. Collect feedback regularly to identify what’s working and what needs improvement.

6. Encourage Engagement Beyond Initial Onboarding

Onboarding doesn’t end when users complete their first set of steps. Ongoing education and engagement ensure they continue to extract value from your product.

Strategies to Sustain Engagement

• Regular Check-Ins: Use email campaigns or in-app notifications to highlight new features or best practices.
• Offer Advanced Resources: Provide webinars, video tutorials, or certifications for users who want to deepen their knowledge.
• Leverage Gamification: Use rewards, badges, or milestones to keep users motivated.

7. Leverage Metrics to Measure Onboarding Success

Tracking the right metrics ensures you’re making data-driven decisions to improve your onboarding process.

Key Metrics to Monitor

• Time to Value (TTV): How long it takes users to achieve their first significant success.
• Onboarding Completion Rates: The percentage of users who complete your onboarding process.
• Feature Adoption: Which features users engage with most during onboarding.
• User Retention Rates: How many users continue to engage with your product over time.

8. Use Case Studies and Testimonials

Sharing stories from successful users can inspire confidence in new users. Feature case studies that show how others achieved their goals through your product.

Pro Tip: Include quotes from users that align with your personas for maximum impact.

9. Build a Feedback Loop

Your onboarding process should evolve as your product and users’ needs change. Establish a feedback loop to continuously refine and improve.

How to Gather Feedback

• Use post-onboarding surveys to understand user sentiment.
• Analyze support tickets to identify recurring issues.
• Monitor user behavior with analytics tools to detect drop-off points.

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10. Don't forget to promote your training

Maximizing the impact of your onboarding program goes beyond crafting well-structured content. Promoting and guiding users toward relevant training resources is equally essential for driving engagement and completion.With a leading LMS, you can automate welcome emails upon user signup, inviting them to explore personalized onboarding courses. Upon course completion, send automated confirmations, badges, or certificates. Based on their progress and goals, recommend relevant follow-up courses to recognize their investment and encourage them to continue their learning journey.

Measuring the success of your user onboarding strategy

Building a stellar user onboarding program is just the first step. True success comes with understanding its impact and optimizing for improvement. Here are four key metrics to measure:

1. Completion rate: This measures the percentage of users who finish your onboarding program. While high completion is desirable, dig deeper. Analyze drop-off points to identify areas causing friction and hindering progress. Are specific tasks too complex? Do instructions need more clarity? Refine those sections to improve completion rates and user experience.
2. Time to Value (TTV): Monitor how long users can achieve specific goals after onboarding, such as completing their first course, contributing to discussions, or using key features. A long TTV can indicate unclear guidance, inadequate training, or technical barriers.
3. Feature adoption: Monitor user activity across different LMS features and functionalities. Analyze which features are used frequently and where adoption is low. Identify less popular features that could provide additional value to users. Tailor onboarding to encourage exploration and adoption of relevant features.
4. User feedback: Qualitative data is invaluable, so do quarterly surveys to collect feedback through in-app tools. Also, it’d be great if you could monitor support tickets related to onboarding to understand how effective your onboarding really is.

Deliver better user onboarding experiences with Skilljar

Skilljar is an enterprise user onboarding and training platform with all the features for successful user onboarding.The user-friendly authoring tools let you build interactive courses, informative videos, and helpful quizzes without programming knowledge. With personalized learning paths, you can tailor the content to individual user needs and roles, ensuring each customer receives the most relevant and impactful training.Watch the Skilljar demo to learn how it helps nail user onboarding and improve product adoption.This post was updated in March 2024 and was originally published in 2021.