Instagram onboarding consists of a simple 12 screen stack. Instagram gathers contact information (and asks for verification), name and password, birthday, and username. The latter half consists of prompting the user to find Facebook friends or contacts and turning on notifications. Because Instagram’s value lies in connections with friends, Instagram invests a significant portion of their onboarding into prompting users to import connections from other apps.
- 1.1 million users joining per day (as of 2024)
- 20% users drop off from permission prompts
- Total users before drop = 1.38 million users
→ 28 million users drop off Instagram when asked for contacts
However, user’s who sync their contacts enjoy the app more, and therefore have higher 2-3x higher retention rate.
Venmo onboarding consists of phone number & verification followed by account setup. Then Venmo front-loads logistics such as terms and conditions, legal disclaimers, and then, linking the bank account. Even though this step is very high-friction, Venmo front-loads it because it offers no value without bank account connection.
- 11,200 users gained per day (as of 2025)
- 10% users drop off from phone number & verification
- 30% users drop off from bank verification
- Total users before drop = 18,666 users
→7466 users lost
The Notion onboarding process was my favorite and, in my opinion, the most well-designed. Most users start using Notion on web, which gives Notion the luxury of having more space per screen to collect information. Optional fields are clearly marked, and captions inform the user of what the information they provide will accomplish. The progress indicator keeps users engaged. After collecting basic information and work background info, Notion guides the user to create their first workspace. Then there’s an option to sync information from external apps – making this optional decreases friction for casual, first-time users, while allowing power users to make the most of their workspace and set it up straight away. Notion’s onboarding also includes a short tutorial, with small dialogue boxes guiding users around Notion’s interface and introducing basic features.
- 100,000 new users per day
- 10% drop off
- Total users before drop = 111,111 users
→ 11,111 users lost
But these users were probably not going to be the long-term users that drive Notion’s revenue anyways.
