I ran side by side tests on three onboarding flows and one crushed the others by 40%

I've been running SaaS ops for about five years now at a mid-sized B2B company. Last quarter I decided to A/B test three different onboarding flows for our new users. The consensus in most forums seems to be that interactive walkthroughs are the way to go, but I found something different. Our flow with a simple checklist and progress bar outperformed the fancy interactive wizard by 40% on completion rates. The third option was just a video plus a PDF guide and it bombed hard, no surprise there. I think people overestimate how much hand-holding new users want, especially for a straightforward product. Has anyone else seen similar results with simpler onboarding?

4 comments

4 Comments

jamief673mo ago

Totally agree with you on that, @the_sam.

jadej503mo ago

Checklists really worked for me because I hate feeling like I'm being led around by the nose.

park.miles1mo ago

you already think they know what they're doing" - yeah that's exactly it for me too. Plus I think @jadej50 nailed it about feeling led around. Walkthroughs make me feel like a kid being shown how to use a screwdriver. Like I get it, I've been using software for 20 years. Checklists are way more respectful of my time because I can just glance at what's next instead of sitting through slow animations or narrated steps. And if I get stuck on step 3 I can look it up myself instead of being forced through 5 minutes of basics I already know. People learn different ways and I think the interactive ones assume everyone needs their hand held from start to finish.

the_sam3mo ago

Whoa that's really interesting actually. I wonder if part of it is that interactive walkthroughs feel like a commitment or a tutorial you have to sit through while a checklist lets people bounce around and learn at their own speed. People get impatient with forced hand holding especially if they already think they know what they're doing.