Read this before you use WalkMe to create "onboarding" for your app:
1. How do we KNOW we have an onboarding problem?
-- High churn rate?
-- Poor user feedback?
-- Low adoption of specific features in the app?
-- Every customer sale requires white glove handholding and setup?
2. How do we know it's the onboarding?
All of these issues may be interrelated and symptoms of something else.
Churn - Cost too high? How you're charging? Way the contract is structured?
Feedback - Is it onboarding or that the features themselves are cumbersome to use? Too many steps, poor UX, etc?
Adoption - Do you really KNOW what your users need, or did you build something because you could? Did you beta with real users and get good feedback or were they just being nice?
High Setup - Some apps require an amount of setup. An AI tool that automates workflows in your enterprise is not a HAMMER. You're not just going to get it out of the drawer and smack stuff.
OK Jeff, but I want to create a Walk-thru...
Why are we taking the time to think through all of this stuff before jumping into the WalkMe Editor?
Because we don't want to put lipstick on a pig: Three months from now if your adoption isn't what you wanted, you'll say "WalkMe doesn't work" when the real problem is something else.
Let's say we've thought through all this and determined we do have an "onboarding" problem. We are asking users to use something, they don't know what the features are, how they work, how it all fits together, WHY they should do it, etc.
Now let's think of our user - from two perspectives.
1. On a tech level, does your app serve up enough context to be able to segment users? What modules, what permissions do they have, what role are they, etc?
Second, remember that there are different types of users.
1. Your best users will take all the training, read all the docs, click through every bit of the onboarding. They get it, they love it, they're hungry for more.
2. On the opposite end, many users reflexively close all pop-ups: "I don't know what this is, I don't want to see that, don't bother me, I know what I'm doing, go away." Then they'll complain it's too hard. C'est la vie.
3. And then you have the majority of users. They'll read some stuff (not everything) then go try it themselves until they bump into a wall, then they'll reach out for help.
This is critical because you don't just want to design for your best case users.
And you don't want to judge the success of your "Onboarding" initiative by how many tasks were completed. Task completion or goals reached should be a leading indicator for what we really want to measure.
The real question is, going back to item #1, how we knew we had an onboarding problem. That's our KPI. Is that getting better?
What do you think?
What else do you need to consider before you start a new "onboarding" initiative in your application?
