Finding A Balance

One of the most overlooked parts of an experience is the onboarding process. This often serves as the customer’s first impression, and can be the determining factor between the customer spending money with you or not. While it may be beneficial to collect as much data about your user as possible, it may also be extremely frustrating from the customer’s perspective. Typically, the idea is that the more complicated and strenuous the onboarding process is, the higher the chance that you lose a customer. Convenience is extremely important for customers and has been proven to be a deal breaker in a business setting.

Onboarding Comparison

Instagram, Notion, and Venmo are all extremely successful apps that have differing onboarding processes. I believe it is extremely important to keep in context the kind of app each is, and what value the user is looking for in each app. For example, on Instagram, users are looking for a social platform where whereas on Notion, users are trying to get a productivity tool. On Venmo, on the other hand, users are looking to be able to send money. These differences lead to different required questions in the onboarding process. For example, Notion may ask what users intend to use the app for and give a very simple multiple-choice question. Venmo, however, may be forced to have the customer put in more effort to gain access to their full functionality by linking bank accounts and going through a multi-step verification process. At this very moment, Venmo would end up losing more customers than Notion. It is also interesting to note the idea that banking users would expect a more intensive onboarding practice, and thus, would not be as much of a deterrent as one might think.