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?

3 comments

3 Comments

jamief671mo ago

Totally agree with you on that, @the_sam.

jadej501mo ago

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

the_sam1mo 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.