The “Value First” onboarding framework that’s helped activate hundreds of thousands of users
As a 2x head of growth, I spent years building onboarding flows to activate new users. I've made a ton of mistakes - and learned a bit too.
I turned those learnings into the 6-step "value first" framework. It's helped activate hundreds of thousands of new users.
Here’s a quick overview 👇
Step 1: define value
Onboarding success is typically judged by new user activation rates. But what is activation?
Simply put - the moment users receive value in your product. If users receive value, that should lead to higher retention rates & conversions to paid plans.
The moment is key to your growth and typically a north star metric for many product-led saas businesses. If you aren't sure when it is - ask!
Ask when users first got value in your product (qualitative). Confirm it leads to higher retention & conversion to paid (quantitative) vs those who don't.
The answer is your activation metric. The goal of your onboarding flow? Get new users there.
Step 2: deliver value, quickly
Now that you know what success is (activation), revisit your existing flow and make sure it gets users there, fast.
I see two common mistakes:
Too much time helping people "get set up."
Making new users behave the same way as power users.
Both add complexity & delay users from experiencing value. Don't do that. Instead, get them to value fast. Finish setup later.
Try reducing one of these by 50%
# of steps it takes a new account to activate
Time it takes a new account to activate
Both simplify the process
Step 3: motivate users to take action
Most SaaS products have two types of users:
People who read every step of your onboarding documentation.
People who ignore every step of your onboarding docs and poke around on their own.
Both have downsides.
Readers tend to forget everything they read when it's time to actually use the tool.
Pokers aren't sure where to start after they’re done poking.
Neither is good for your activation rates. You need ways to motivate each type of user.
There are some quick wins, like.
Updating microcopy & CTA language
Creating engaging empty state images
Guided product tours
Behavioral based email flows
But the bigger impacts comes by surfacing things that live inside the product. That are available on-demand when users need them. Things like:
Onboarding checklists
“Getting started” pages
Progress bars
Those remind users what to do next & increase motivation.
Step 4: customize the experience
Now, time to ditch the one-size-fits-all approach. Learn about your different user cases. Then create different onboarding recipes to help user achieve their goals.
There are many ways to segment:
Title
Vertical
Industry
Company Size
Revenue
Persona
Etc
But the most impactful way to increase your activation rates? Jobs to be done. If you know the specific goals user for signing up - you can deliver value, on their terms.
There are many ways to do this. My personal favorite is to run an open-ended survey for a few weeks. Then, export responses into a spreadsheet. There will be a lot of different words used. But you should see 4 or 5 common themes in the answers. Those are your “jobs”
Now make those jobs part of the signup flow. When a user signs up for your product, ask them to identify which use case is most relevant to them. Here’s a great example from MIRO. They use your answers to provide a customized product experience.
Step 5: start in the middle
Most products need you to enter your own “stuff” (ie your email list, videos, data, brand colors, etc) to receive value. The challenge? What if you don't have your "stuff" handy? For that group - it’s impossible to get the value of the product.
That's why SaaS companies offer customizable templates and pre-made playbooks to help people go 0-1 faster. These can use users get over the empty account challenge - by starting you in the middle of the process, instead of having to start from scratch.
Here's another example from MIRO. Pre-built templates aligned with user goals is a really powerful activation tool.
Step 6: build momentum pre-signup
Users can't experience the value of your product, without signing. And that's a problem—because most SaaS websites only convert 2-4% of their visitors into new accounts.
We’re seeing innovative SaaS companies adopt a new playbook. They're not gating product value behind a sign-up form anymore. Instead, they're leading with value and embedding an interactive version of their product directly on their site.
This approach leads to less total signups, but a higher number of activated accounts. When visitors do sign up, they’ve already received a ton of value from the product - and built up momentum. They’re way more likely to become active users & paying customers.
If you’re interested in learning more about the Value First onboarding framework. Please check out my onboarding course where I share much more content, details, and examples.