5 ms·

Show HN: Onboarded – User Onboarding as a Service

54 points by ObserverEffect 11y ago

Animats 11y ago
From the article: "After new users sign up to a website or app, they are often dropped directly into a home screen. ... This is a big missed opportunity. This moment is a chance to ... ask important questions, and personalize their experience. ... They will then be more likely to tell their friends about you. When combined with analytics, the onboarding process presents an opportunity to learn vital details about your users ... and increase retention and conversions." So this isn't for the user's benefit.
- kareemm 11y ago
  > So this isn't for the user's benefit. I think it is. You're understanding what problems they need solved so you can do that for them (and thus increase retention and conversions).
  - ObserverEffect 11y ago
    Exactly. Plus you can improve the user's experience by helping them find and understand the things they are looking for in your app :)
    - stephengillie 11y ago
      This kind of response makes me think of the mandatory training missions that have started populating the introductory levels of many videogames - Even though movement is the same as every other game, we're going to spend 10 minutes to teach you how to walk around and shoot your gun.
      - icebraining 11y ago
        I think those are fine, as long as you can skip them.
        stephengillie 11y ago
        Increasingly, the option to skip is removed. If you want to play a game with your friends, you have to spend 10 minutes doing what the game tells you to do.
- skizm 11y ago
  Just because something benefits one party, doesn't mean it can't benefit both parties.
- rgbrenner 11y ago
  personalize their experience ... They will then be more likely to tell their friends about you. ... increase retention and conversions. So this isn't for the user's benefit. non-sequitur If something is increasing retention; and creating more satisfied customers (so much so they are telling other people about you)... then it is benefiting the user. Actions clearly indicate it's benefiting the user.
jonalexr 11y ago
Hm, looks like the example pages are missing validation for user input.
killerpopiller 11y ago
reminds me of http://zurb.com/playground/jquery-joyride-feature-tour-plugin http://zurb.com/playground/jquery-joyride-feature-tour-plugi... zurbs joyride for foundation
- Vekz 11y ago
  Or LinkedIn's Hopscotch http://linkedin.github.io/hopscotch/ http://linkedin.github.io/hopscotch/
newobj 11y ago
Does Onboarded use Onboarded?
- ObserverEffect 11y ago
  Yes
EGreg 11y ago
The correct place to dump users after they create an account is the Account screen, where they can fill out various sections, but don't have to. Each action on the site/app which requires certain info from the user (eg their location or interests) would have a link to an inline / popup allowing them to fill out that section before proceeding.
- vandingmils 11y ago
  I could not disagree more. I am never interested in building a social profile or entering preferences to some app I'm unfamiliar with. Like others comment, I'd like to get to using the product ASAP. Signing up is already a hassle that should have been kept to a minimum.
- ci5er 11y ago
  I may be an atypical and less social (more asocial?) than others. Or maybe I'm old and impatient. Or all the above. Making me fill out, really anything, before I can drive the app around at all is a sure way to make me "nope" right out of there. Now, I understand that you said "don't have to", but a big screen of form(s) is an intimidating clue that you will want more from me than I suspect I am willing to give. I don't even know who you are yet. Incrementally adding information during the use of the application to make operation/data/context more relevant or useful is fine. Not filling out a list of interests, for gods sake. And not 20 things, mind. YMMV.
mkilling 11y ago
I'd love to get an idea of the pricing before I sign up for a trial. I don't want to spend time trying out a product that will end up costing more than I'm willing to pay for it.
- onassar 11y ago
  Correction: Ahh I see what you're saying and agree. I wouldn't think about using a service that carried with it so much inherent uncertainty. Pricing is linked to in the footer: https://www.getonboarded.com/pricing https://www.getonboarded.com/pricing
  - ObserverEffect 11y ago
    The thing is, we're just focused on the free tier right now. When you've onboarded lots of people and decide you like the product, pricing is an open conversation.
    - robzyb 11y ago
      > pricing is an open conversation I do not want pricing to be an open conversation. That sounds horrible to me. To take a wild guess - maybe you think that an open conversation is good for the customer because it represents flexibility? To me it doesn't. To me it screams "UNCERTAINTY!" and the less of that I have the better.
      - ROFISH 11y ago
        Or even worse: "If you have to ask, you can't afford it."
    - ci5er 11y ago
      First - apologies. There is a point to this. I apparently like taking the scenic route to get there. I'm at the tail end of roughing out the high level design of a pretty large (as in complexity, not number of users yet), Enterprise SaaS thing. In any case, I've had to probably glance at 5,000 things and of those, look at 2,500 things, and of those play with 1200 things, evaluation 700 things to end up with about 300 things (currently) that will turn into probably less than 150 things in production. At the front end of this process, I probably unfairly dismissed some possibly viable candidates for technologies or services. Which is unfortunate and ultimate unfair to the vendor. The two top things that made me go away (unless HN or somebody pointed me back) was: - The front page, the about page, and the top blog post don't really tell me what the company is or the product is. IF I get pointed back to look, I'll poke around github to see if some brilliant marketing maneuver made them put their "about page" from their website into the github Readme.md. (I'm looking at your, Weave) - I can't find a way to put the right number of zeros behind the price in my estimates. Now. 6 Months. 12 Months. 24 Months. 36 Months. It has to be easy-to-understand (because I am very simple), and look thought-through and stable. I am 12 months away from having to embed on-boarding into our project, and I will come back and see what you have at that time. But, please, for the love of getting anything past the CEO/CFO/Board ... let me rough out a guestimated cost (for us; pricing for you). N.B. 1) Our use case probably isn't in your sweet spot, but who knows, you may shift. N.B. 2) Not trying to be harsh, but I was up to my ass in alligators 2~3 months ago, and I would have tossed the link and not looked back.
supercoder 11y ago
I never really like this style of on boarding. Mostly because I can 'see' the app behind the dialogs and I just want to start using it. Much prefer is on boarding is baked into the design of the app. So literally hide / alter the page based on where they are in the setup / learning process.
- ObserverEffect 11y ago
  One of the goals we had when we designed Onboarded was for it to be unobtrusive yet flexible. It can be used to accomplish just what you are saying. The styling as overlay/modal is just a default to get you going. It can be made into a fullscreen flow or inline, or however you want. Onboarded makes it easier to do all those things stylistically, as well as bind event handlers, post data, etc.
  - supercoder 11y ago
    Ok sounds interesting. Because I'm dumb and short of time, I could only take it at face value. I sort of want to come away lusting to have the feature on my site. Be great to see some of the possibilities demo'd on the page in the future !
  - bobbles 11y ago
    Maybe in the intro path in addition to saying 'let me out' you could have an option like 'i like the concept, but show me a different style' and then take a few example paths to show off possibilities
    - ObserverEffect 11y ago
      This is a great idea. Thanks for the feedback.
sfeng 11y ago
This seems similar to Appcues (http://appcues.com/ http://appcues.com/). Appcues is oriented at PMs though. I'm not sure what the market is for a product which requires messing with the HTML of the site.
- aquark 11y ago
  There is something a bit ironic about a web site which claims to be 'the most effective way to communicate with new users' showing me a YouTube video to explain what they do ...
axiom 11y ago
We use http://www.walkme.com http://www.walkme.com at Top Hat, how does this compare?
- ObserverEffect 11y ago
  The key point about Onboarded is that it's made for developers. It makes it simpler and faster to completely customize the user experience that you want, integrated as you see fit with your app's existing functionality and look/feel.
carrotleads 11y ago
How different would your service be to using something like impromptu.js https://github.com/trentrichardson/jQuery-Impromptu https://github.com/trentrichardson/jQuery-Impromptu
adambratt 11y ago
What's really the advantage of this over writing 50 lines of javascript to automatically do the same thing and using segment.com to track events?
- ObserverEffect 11y ago
  We don't think developers should have to reinvent the wheel, or cobble things together to build a customized experience. You're usually not writing 50 lines of javascript one time only and calling it a day - you are changing your flow all the time, as soon as you see evidence for how to make it better. Onboarded is a tool that will make that process of learning and iteration much more efficient (and thus faster and cheaper). And there's no reason you couldn't integrate with Segment too.
rajacombinator 11y ago
I'm your target customer. I need to rework my onboarding flow but haven't done it yet because it seems like a huge pain. Would like to see better examples of the non-modal options, because I'm trying to move away from the modal approach.
- ObserverEffect 11y ago
  Got it. Would you send me an email at hello@getonboarded.com? I'd love to show you how you could implement a non-modal flow with Onboarded in ~5 minutes. Would love your feedback.

From the article: "After new users sign up to a website or app, they are often dropped directly into a home screen. ... This is a big missed opportunity. This moment is a chance to ... ask important questions, and personalize their experience. ... They will then be more likely to tell their friends about you. When combined with analytics, the onboarding process presents an opportunity to learn vital details about your users ... and increase retention and conversions." So this isn't for the user's benefit.

kareemm 11y ago
> So this isn't for the user's benefit. I think it is. You're understanding what problems they need solved so you can do that for them (and thus increase retention and conversions).
- ObserverEffect 11y ago
  Exactly. Plus you can improve the user's experience by helping them find and understand the things they are looking for in your app :)
  - stephengillie 11y ago
    This kind of response makes me think of the mandatory training missions that have started populating the introductory levels of many videogames - Even though movement is the same as every other game, we're going to spend 10 minutes to teach you how to walk around and shoot your gun.
    - icebraining 11y ago
      I think those are fine, as long as you can skip them.
      - stephengillie 11y ago
        Increasingly, the option to skip is removed. If you want to play a game with your friends, you have to spend 10 minutes doing what the game tells you to do.
skizm 11y ago
Just because something benefits one party, doesn't mean it can't benefit both parties.
rgbrenner 11y ago
personalize their experience ... They will then be more likely to tell their friends about you. ... increase retention and conversions. So this isn't for the user's benefit. non-sequitur If something is increasing retention; and creating more satisfied customers (so much so they are telling other people about you)... then it is benefiting the user. Actions clearly indicate it's benefiting the user.

jonalexr 11y ago

Hm, looks like the example pages are missing validation for user input.

killerpopiller 11y ago

reminds me of http://zurb.com/playground/jquery-joyride-feature-tour-plugin http://zurb.com/playground/jquery-joyride-feature-tour-plugi... zurbs joyride for foundation

Vekz 11y ago
Or LinkedIn's Hopscotch http://linkedin.github.io/hopscotch/ http://linkedin.github.io/hopscotch/

newobj 11y ago

Does Onboarded use Onboarded?

ObserverEffect 11y ago
Yes

EGreg 11y ago

The correct place to dump users after they create an account is the Account screen, where they can fill out various sections, but don't have to. Each action on the site/app which requires certain info from the user (eg their location or interests) would have a link to an inline / popup allowing them to fill out that section before proceeding.

vandingmils 11y ago
I could not disagree more. I am never interested in building a social profile or entering preferences to some app I'm unfamiliar with. Like others comment, I'd like to get to using the product ASAP. Signing up is already a hassle that should have been kept to a minimum.
ci5er 11y ago
I may be an atypical and less social (more asocial?) than others. Or maybe I'm old and impatient. Or all the above. Making me fill out, really anything, before I can drive the app around at all is a sure way to make me "nope" right out of there. Now, I understand that you said "don't have to", but a big screen of form(s) is an intimidating clue that you will want more from me than I suspect I am willing to give. I don't even know who you are yet. Incrementally adding information during the use of the application to make operation/data/context more relevant or useful is fine. Not filling out a list of interests, for gods sake. And not 20 things, mind. YMMV.

mkilling 11y ago

I'd love to get an idea of the pricing before I sign up for a trial. I don't want to spend time trying out a product that will end up costing more than I'm willing to pay for it.

onassar 11y ago
Correction: Ahh I see what you're saying and agree. I wouldn't think about using a service that carried with it so much inherent uncertainty. Pricing is linked to in the footer: https://www.getonboarded.com/pricing https://www.getonboarded.com/pricing
- ObserverEffect 11y ago
  The thing is, we're just focused on the free tier right now. When you've onboarded lots of people and decide you like the product, pricing is an open conversation.
  - robzyb 11y ago
    > pricing is an open conversation I do not want pricing to be an open conversation. That sounds horrible to me. To take a wild guess - maybe you think that an open conversation is good for the customer because it represents flexibility? To me it doesn't. To me it screams "UNCERTAINTY!" and the less of that I have the better.
    - ROFISH 11y ago
      Or even worse: "If you have to ask, you can't afford it."
  - ci5er 11y ago
    First - apologies. There is a point to this. I apparently like taking the scenic route to get there. I'm at the tail end of roughing out the high level design of a pretty large (as in complexity, not number of users yet), Enterprise SaaS thing. In any case, I've had to probably glance at 5,000 things and of those, look at 2,500 things, and of those play with 1200 things, evaluation 700 things to end up with about 300 things (currently) that will turn into probably less than 150 things in production. At the front end of this process, I probably unfairly dismissed some possibly viable candidates for technologies or services. Which is unfortunate and ultimate unfair to the vendor. The two top things that made me go away (unless HN or somebody pointed me back) was: - The front page, the about page, and the top blog post don't really tell me what the company is or the product is. IF I get pointed back to look, I'll poke around github to see if some brilliant marketing maneuver made them put their "about page" from their website into the github Readme.md. (I'm looking at your, Weave) - I can't find a way to put the right number of zeros behind the price in my estimates. Now. 6 Months. 12 Months. 24 Months. 36 Months. It has to be easy-to-understand (because I am very simple), and look thought-through and stable. I am 12 months away from having to embed on-boarding into our project, and I will come back and see what you have at that time. But, please, for the love of getting anything past the CEO/CFO/Board ... let me rough out a guestimated cost (for us; pricing for you). N.B. 1) Our use case probably isn't in your sweet spot, but who knows, you may shift. N.B. 2) Not trying to be harsh, but I was up to my ass in alligators 2~3 months ago, and I would have tossed the link and not looked back.

supercoder 11y ago

I never really like this style of on boarding. Mostly because I can 'see' the app behind the dialogs and I just want to start using it. Much prefer is on boarding is baked into the design of the app. So literally hide / alter the page based on where they are in the setup / learning process.

ObserverEffect 11y ago
One of the goals we had when we designed Onboarded was for it to be unobtrusive yet flexible. It can be used to accomplish just what you are saying. The styling as overlay/modal is just a default to get you going. It can be made into a fullscreen flow or inline, or however you want. Onboarded makes it easier to do all those things stylistically, as well as bind event handlers, post data, etc.
- supercoder 11y ago
  Ok sounds interesting. Because I'm dumb and short of time, I could only take it at face value. I sort of want to come away lusting to have the feature on my site. Be great to see some of the possibilities demo'd on the page in the future !
- bobbles 11y ago
  Maybe in the intro path in addition to saying 'let me out' you could have an option like 'i like the concept, but show me a different style' and then take a few example paths to show off possibilities
  - ObserverEffect 11y ago
    This is a great idea. Thanks for the feedback.

sfeng 11y ago

This seems similar to Appcues (http://appcues.com/ http://appcues.com/). Appcues is oriented at PMs though. I'm not sure what the market is for a product which requires messing with the HTML of the site.

aquark 11y ago
There is something a bit ironic about a web site which claims to be 'the most effective way to communicate with new users' showing me a YouTube video to explain what they do ...

axiom 11y ago

We use http://www.walkme.com http://www.walkme.com at Top Hat, how does this compare?

ObserverEffect 11y ago
The key point about Onboarded is that it's made for developers. It makes it simpler and faster to completely customize the user experience that you want, integrated as you see fit with your app's existing functionality and look/feel.

carrotleads 11y ago

How different would your service be to using something like impromptu.js https://github.com/trentrichardson/jQuery-Impromptu https://github.com/trentrichardson/jQuery-Impromptu

adambratt 11y ago

What's really the advantage of this over writing 50 lines of javascript to automatically do the same thing and using segment.com to track events?

ObserverEffect 11y ago
We don't think developers should have to reinvent the wheel, or cobble things together to build a customized experience. You're usually not writing 50 lines of javascript one time only and calling it a day - you are changing your flow all the time, as soon as you see evidence for how to make it better. Onboarded is a tool that will make that process of learning and iteration much more efficient (and thus faster and cheaper). And there's no reason you couldn't integrate with Segment too.

rajacombinator 11y ago

I'm your target customer. I need to rework my onboarding flow but haven't done it yet because it seems like a huge pain. Would like to see better examples of the non-modal options, because I'm trying to move away from the modal approach.

ObserverEffect 11y ago
Got it. Would you send me an email at hello@getonboarded.com? I'd love to show you how you could implement a non-modal flow with Onboarded in ~5 minutes. Would love your feedback.