Do's and Don'ts of Saas User onboarding

Onboarding is one of the most important parts of product adoption, growth and scale in both b2b and b2c. Here are some of the do’s and don't's of Saas user onboarding. For user onboarding consider the goal, create an hypothesis, implement onboarding, track metrics and iterate. I have seen this simple process to work really well. I assume that you understand how user onboarding is connected to revenue, upsells, NRR and more.  

Let's start with metrics. Here are some of the metrics to track during user onboarding. I suggest tracking these metrics before and after onboarding. If you already have an onboarding tool then still track metrics before and after. This helps gauge the effectiveness of the existing initiative and learn from it. 

I define activation as new users reaching to the aha moment and doing the expected value-added transactions. For new users this is very crucial … 🫠   

• Activated Users (before and after in %) - this means how many % of users got activated in a month. Month is a better measure than week as week can have a lot of variability which is hard to segregate during tracking. 

• Time to value (in days) - if you have a user to whom you sent an email to get onboarded then from that day to the day the user does first transaction and completes the aha moment. 

• Points of drop off - in this metric we are measuring the major points of user drop offs. These can be in terms of simple numbers such as 1 or 2 drop offs. If there are more than 3 drop offs then the overall metric of drop off will be very high causing a significant hit to the overall users as well as customer adoption … 💰 

There are additional user onboarding metrics which can be tracked such as monthly transactions, MAU before and after and so on. Check what is suitable for your product/ platform.  

Here are some of the Do’s- 

• Define the Aha moment. Connect the aha moment to the user transactions/ actions which they should do. For new Users, aha moment should be reached quickly and post reaching the aha moment the users will continue to use the product again and again. Facebook’s number of friends in a specific time frame metric is an example of this. 

• If applicable, enable single sign-on. For both b2b and b2c products this acts as one of most important growth hacks. Users can feel restricted if they are expected to log into using an email which may eventually cause more work for them. Lack of single-sign-on increases the friction for users as they onboard. 

• Guide the user well. This means avoid them getting lost by using in app messages and tool tips. In app messages should come when the users are doing transactions and not always which may bother the users as they onboard or do key transactions. 

• Do user testing to understand how the users are feeling about the on screen jargon - button names, transitions, messages, page names, etc. Get help from user experience writing or similar. If you have a b2c app then empty states are a must which guides users on what they can expect when the page is fully loaded. This reduces user anxiety and drop off  … 🏆  

• Offer in-app help. This can be in the form of questions and answers, FAQs, offline or online chat. I have seen online chat to work really well if you have high value transactions. Example - if you have a CRM where you are sending emails to 10k+ of your email list and you have a question; better to get that answered in a live chat. Refer to the Bowling alley framework for further information. 

Here is a refreshing quote for you on speed, convenience; relevant to onboarding  - 

“The spread of civilization may be likened to a fire; first, a feeble spark, next a flickering flame, then a mighty blaze, ever increasing in speed and power”. 

- - Nikola Tesla

Some of the Don’ts of User onboarding - 

• Asking too many questions to Users. See what the minimum number of questions which we can ask to users and then use that information to personalise the experience for them. Asking too many questions in such a way that they are about to apply for a loan will not be encouraging … 🙋  

• Do not use Skip. If you have a strong conviction that this step will work in the user onboarding then do not use skip. If we give an option to skip to the users, they assume that the entire onboarding is not valuable to me and I can skip it now. 

• Avoid generic onboarding steps. If the app/ product is mature, giving generic onboarding will take a lot of time for the users and they will lose interest in the application. Even if walkthroughs are given those should be use case specific and to the point which helps users complete the transaction and reach to aha moment again and again. 

• There are a lot of onboarding tools available in 2026. Many of those use Ai. I suggest not building any pieces of user onboarding from scratch. These tools give a script which can be added and steps can be configured. They work really well. Building custom steps, messages, etc. is very much prone to maintenance as the application goes through month over month releases and comes with risk of QA defects  … 👍   

Good luck and happy Saas user onboarding. 

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Swagat Irsale is Growth Advocate. He works with startups and scale ups to grow revenue and build products which enterprises love to use. 

Reach him for work and partnership opportunities.