The first ten minutes do a lot of work

When a new user opens your product for the first time, a lot is happening in their head.

Is this for me? Can I trust it? Will I be able to figure it out? Is the promised value real? Is this worth the effort of learning?

All of those questions get answered, often unconsciously, in the first few minutes. By the time the user has been in the product for ten or fifteen minutes, they’ve usually decided whether they’re staying, leaving, or putting it on the maybe-later pile.

That’s why onboarding matters as much as it does. Most of the rest of the product’s success is contingent on what happens in those first few minutes.

What onboarding really has to do

Onboarding has more than one job.

It has to confirm fit. The user should quickly recognise that this pro...

Why onboarding is make-or-break