Many startups are data driven I found that having a single user onboarding experience can ultimately make or break them. This is what I call the single setup misconception.
Take Twitter as a prime example of a company that has spent countless resources perfecting its internal flow so that it is unique to each user.
Upon signing up, the site asks the new user to choose the people they are interested in following. Immediately, they can get a rich extract tailored to their liking. This is no different than any B2C or B2B.
If you’re just starting out, customizing your setup experiences shouldn’t be a top priority, but there are many low-lift items that can be done in the beginning. I’ll describe how to think about the type of data needed to make the setup unique and share some examples of how I could do this myself.
It all starts during acquisition
Experience has convinced me that without multi-track onboarding experience, startups cannot reach their full potential. Lately, I’ve come across several cryptocurrency exchanges that ask for a customer’s “experience level” with cryptocurrency. What I haven’t seen so prominently is personal experience based on the answer to this question.
The raw data collected during acquisition through a lead form or during product sign-up will help support a multi-on-boarding experience. During my time with the Growth team at Coinbase, many of our email and push campaigns are designed to be triggered based on user behavior. While this wasn’t a fully customized experience, we made sure to personalize our communications based on users’ in-app behaviors.
If the user is an avid trader (if they have a large number of trades, for example), we will send emails about staking ETH, liquidity pools, and more advanced cryptocurrency investing procedures.
When considering what kind of data is needed to marshal users on a particular journey, ask yourself this key question:
What are my consumer personas?
Depending on the response you receive to this question, you will be able to determine which questions are needed to help you segment your users as you set them up. Some key variables to include early on are:
- Personality traits
- past experiences
- Use cases
- Objectives
Every startup should have its own unique set of questions to ask, but if you get stuck, choose from the list of examples above as a start. This will ultimately shed light on the issue of customer personality you are taking on.