Instagram’s Onboarding Strategy: Delight First, Questions Later
Instagram’s onboarding is very minimal. You sign up with your email or phone number, create a username, add a profile pic, and boom! You are done. You’re instantly in the app, discovering and browsing through content. The app then asks you for contacts to follow your friends, notifications preferences, and more. Why? Because Instagram’s value is immediate and visual. You don’t need to understand the product to feel its appeal. A delayed question about contacts might cost them a user who never comes back.
Venmo’s Onboarding Strategy: Trust First, Everything Else Later
Venmo requires bank verification before you can send money. It asks for your SSN, date of birth, and linked banking details. This creates massive friction. But Venmo isn’t asking for your trust, it’s proving theirs. Regulatory compliance and fraud prevention aren’t optional. The company prioritizes security over frictionless signup because the cost of a compromised user is existential.
Notion’s Onboarding Strategy: Value Discovery First, Data Second
Notion sits between Instagram and Venmo. It lets you start creating immediately with templates and blank pages. You can work in Notion for hours before it asks for billing info or workspace collaboration settings. Notion’s bet is if you build something real, you’ll want to pay. The product sells itself through use, not promises.
The Pattern
Each app’s onboarding reveals its business model. Instagram prioritizes engagement, get users in fast. Venmo prioritizes trust, verify thoroughly. Notion prioritizes utility, prove value first.
The real insight is that friction isn’t bad or good. It’s a feature when it protects what matters to your business. Instagram’s friction point would be verification. Venmo’s friction point would be lack of verification. Different products, different vulnerabilities.
