How we 3x our conversion rate with an onboarding checklist

👩🏻‍💻 Role: Lead Product Designer (responsible for UX research, wireframes, and prototype creation)

👫 Team: Product Manager, Backend Developer, Front-end Developer, QA Tester

📅 Timeframe: 3 weeks

✅ Deliverables: User research insights, wireframes, interactive prototypes, and final UI design

Problem: Onboarding was unclear and overwhelming

User interviews and analysis of drop-off points in the onboarding process, conducted via analytics tools, revealed a high bounce rate on the initial onboarding screen and a low activation rate, identifying it as a significant pain point. At this stage, users encountered a critical decision point where they needed to select their starting path. Depending on their choice, they were directed to either an empty calendar or an empty channel, both of which provided minimal guidance moving forward.

Solution: Designed onboarding checklist  that broke tasks into manageable steps

I decided to remove the initial screen and not burden the user with having to make decisions at such an early stage. Instead, I designed a streamlined onboarding checklist that guides users through essential tasks, helping them quickly grasp the platform's core values. Each completed task is marked by brief celebratory moments, keeping users engaged and making the onboarding experience both rewarding and enjoyable.

I have added two new buttons to the main sidebar to enhance the experience for new users and quickly introduce UNUM as their all-in-one social media workspace for managing various accounts and collaborating with team members.

Outcomes: Moved the needle with key metrics

Implementing the onboarding checklist ensured that new users performed actions such as linking social accounts, uploading media, or scheduling posts on day 0, which boosted new user activation by 14% just two weeks after launch.

Letting users enter directly into the app after the signup process, incorporating two new buttons— 'Add Members' and ‘Connect Socials'—into the main sidebar, and displaying the onboarding checklist led to a 9% improvement in the task completion rate for our core features.

Within a month of launching the checklist and improving the main sidebar, the conversion rate increased by 300%, and the retention rate by 5%. Adding members to their workspace is now one of our best ways to upsell users to premium plans.

What we learned along the way

Lesson 1: Quantitative data pinpointed the areas of concern, while qualitative data provided context to these issues, highlighting the importance of both types of data.

Lesson 2: Monetization and free-to-paid conversion is a balancing act (that we are still figuring out).

Thanks for watching! 🖤

Feel free to reach out to me on LinkedIn or drop me a line at [email protected].