Platform Onboarding

Role Involved
UX, Research, Content, PM

Problem
There was a disconnect in the message in our acquisition and the message we present in onboarding causing confusion about how to qualify for programs, and what features exist on the site.

Strategy
Because there were so many entry points that users can come and potentially sign up to the site, as well as different motives and post-sign up actions, my plan consisted of the following:

1. Restructure a bloated about page that listed about twelve different features with a simplified accordion featuring just six main features with clear value.

2. Add a new module for users to learn more about Influenster to all core landing pages for organic and direct traffic, primarily the home page, product pages, and article pages. This module would only be visible to users who are not signed in or who are still new based on their number of sessions.

3. Add a new tutorial after signing up that guides users into registering their account to best qualify for programs to receive free products & deals, our #1 value proposition.Completion of the onboarding funnel is crucial as each user who successfully registers their account adds great value to our platform, granting us more data and participants to pair with client programs. Plus, participating in an exclusive campaign has proven to have the strongest correlation with long term retention. In this tutorial: 

• Reaffirm to the user about the exclusive offers available in a brief probe, priming them with an incentive to complete subsequent CTAs.
• Prompt user to connect their existing social media accounts, our core method of matching users with offers.
• Prompt user to fill out any additional required account fields, most of which are skipped if the user connected their social accounts in the earlier steps.
• Introduce an incremental progress bar to further induce completion of the onboarding funnel. This also serves to gratify each independent small task, whether or not the tasks are completed in order.
• It's also important to note that before the tutorial, if a user creates an account by signing up with Instagram or Facebook, the related pages will be skipped entirely as well.

4. Add a quest-like series of notifications to drive users to complete any outstanding registration requirements. This would ensure users who opt out of the initial tutorial would still have the chance and instruction on what data we use when it comes to our exclusive offers.

To test and optimize my plan, I created a prototype incorporating the screens. I then observed six subjects matching our general user demographic who had little to no prior knowledge of the platform, or its values, explore the prototype during a usability interview.

Results

After rolling out the initial phase of onboarding features, I found a 16% increase in Instagram connects, the main data point we use, an 8% increase in general social connections, a 10% increase in location information shared, and a 63% increase in profile image uploads. We are still in the process of developing the remaining features.