Little Glossary · Brand and product
Onboarding
Onboarding is the process that takes a new user or customer from sign-up or contract signature to getting value from the product for the first time and making it part of their work.
User onboarding and customer onboarding
- User onboarding: inside the product. Welcome screens, initial setup, checklists, contextual help and activation emails.
- Customer onboarding: in B2B with large contracts, the full implementation: kick-off meeting, data migration, integrations, training and agreed goals. Usually led by customer success.
Key concepts
- Aha moment: the instant users understand the product's value.
- Activation: the specific action that predicts a user will stay, such as connecting a data source or inviting a teammate. You find it by analyzing what users who are still active did at the start.
- Time to value: the time between sign-up and that first result. Reducing it is the main goal.
Common resources
- Initial questions to tailor the experience by role or use case.
- Getting-started checklists with visible progress.
- Sample data or templates, so users don't start from a blank page.
- Empty states that explain what to do.
- In-context help at the moment it's needed, rather than long tours up front.
- Activation emails that react to what the user has or hasn't done.
Common mistakes
- Ten-step tours users close without reading.
- Asking for all the setup before showing anything useful.
- Showing every feature instead of leading to one valuable action.
- The same flow for every profile.
- Not measuring it: without activation data per step, you don't know where people drop off.
Related terms
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