Mastering onboarding | Lauryn Isford (Head of Growth at Airtable)

Feb 12, 2023 1h 4m 17 insights Episode Page ↗
This episode features Lauren Isford, former Head of Growth at Airtable, discussing optimizing onboarding, her contrarian views on experimentation, and strategies for activation metrics and product-led growth. She shares insights from redoing Airtable's onboarding flow and advice for B2B growth.
Actionable Insights

1. Activation Metric: Low Percentage

When choosing an activation metric, aim for one that results in a lower percentage range (e.g., 5-15%) because it indicates a stronger correlation with long-term retention and targets users who are not currently reaching that state.

2. Experiment for Risk Mitigation

Use experimentation primarily as a risk mitigation tactic when making dramatic product changes, rather than for precise metric measurement. Instead, invest more in rigorous product development processes like customer research and mock testing to build conviction.

3. Culture Beyond Experiment Metrics

Foster a culture that rewards impact on customers (qualitative feedback, closed deals) and overall business value, rather than solely relying on experiment-driven metric lifts. This prevents teams from biasing towards costly experiments just to demonstrate impact.

4. Guided Onboarding for Complexity

For complex products with high cognitive load, implement an immersive, guided onboarding wizard that helps users set up their first workflow and visualizes progress. This reduces effort and makes users feel more supported, leading to higher activation.

5. Prioritize User Onboarding Needs

In onboarding, focus on what the user actually needs to get started and find initial value, rather than immediately showcasing advanced features. This approach avoids overwhelming users and builds up their understanding gradually.

6. Personalize Onboarding by Style

Personalize onboarding experiences based on users’ learning and building styles (e.g., familiarity with databases, visual preference) rather than traditional demographic or role-based segmentation. This provides more effective and relevant guidance for different user types.

7. Offer Reverse Trial Model

Implement a ‘reverse trial’ by offering both a freemium product (infinitely free basic version) and a free trial (limited-time access to premium features). This strategy maximizes user growth and allows users to experience the full potential of your product.

8. Break Down North Star

Deconstruct your North Star metric into all its individual components to understand what levers can be pulled to drive overall impact. This detailed work helps identify specific sub-metrics and opportunities for improvement.

9. Multiple Activation Metrics

Supplement a single North Star metric with additional metrics, such as individual retention or a sophistication score, to gain a more holistic view of activation. This allows for measuring success across multiple dimensions and addressing various user needs.

10. Agile North Star Metrics

Be open-minded and agile about changing your North Star metric over time, ideally every six months, if it no longer reflects the biggest opportunity or strategic direction for the business. Stability is good for momentum, but adaptability is crucial for long-term impact.

11. Strategy Drives North Star

Define your North Star metric as a reflection of your intended strategy and desired business outcomes, rather than letting the metric dictate your strategy from the outset. The metric should measure the results of your strategy, not drive it.

12. Onboarding: Value Over Features

Avoid simply naming features in onboarding; instead, explain how a feature is relevant to the user’s context, enable one-touch setup, or help them achieve a specific outcome. Focus on contextual application and driving towards value rather than just educating on a name.

13. Onboarding: Avoid Pricing Mapping

Do not design onboarding flows based on your product’s pricing and packaging scheme (e.g., pushing premium features early because they lead to conversion). Instead, prioritize educating the user on how to achieve maximum value, regardless of their current plan.

14. Implement Guardrail Metrics

Implement guardrail metrics (e.g., revenue, overall retention) to ensure that optimizations in one area, like onboarding, do not inadvertently cause significant negative impacts elsewhere in the business. Regularly monitor these to prevent unintended trade-offs.

15. Self-Serve Value for Complex Products

For complex products, identify and build self-serve components (e.g., sandbox, interactive demos, simple features) that allow users to experience initial value without human intervention. This value doesn’t need to be full functionality but should provide an ‘aha moment’.

16. PLG Funnel for Clarity

Utilize the Join, Evaluate, Upgrade, Expand (JEUE) PLG funnel framework to ground your team in business mechanics and communicate opportunities clearly. This helps everyone understand where investments are being made and why.

17. B2B Growth: Different Execution

When applying growth strategies to B2B, prioritize deep customer conversations, beta testing, live prototypes, and demos. The smaller customer base and higher risk profile in B2B demand greater rigor and direct customer engagement than in B2C.