From tooltip tours to true journeys: Rethinking product onboarding

3 Jun

Onboarding is one of the most misunderstood stages of the product journey. I’ve noticed a trend where teams equate onboarding with a series of pop-ups, hotspots, or a guided tour that’s more style than substance.

But here’s the real challenge: Onboarding isn’t about teaching users how to use your product. It’s about showing them why it matters to them and doing so quickly, without overwhelming or patronising.

Where I’ve seen onboarding go wrong:

❌ Too much too soon. A wall of tooltips before a single click - information overload with no action.
❌ Poor timing. Help that appears when it’s not needed, or worse missing when it is.
❌ No feedback loop. If you’re not measuring the success of your onboarding, you’re making assumptions, not improvements.
❌ Assuming one size fits all. Delivering the same flow to everyone, regardless of their needs, experience, or goals.
❌ Skipping the emotional hook. Explaining how features work but failing to connect with the user’s goals or pain points.
❌ No support for return journeys. Not guiding users who drop off and come back mid-onboarding.

💡 Actionable Tips: Create Onboarding That Works

Here are four ways to take your onboarding beyond the basics and make it genuinely valuable:

🔹 Lead with value, not features. Identify the moment where users first experience a meaningful result and design your onboarding to guide them there quickly. That initial success builds confidence and motivation.

🔹 Deliver onboarding in context. Avoid the urge to front-load every explanation. Instead, provide bite-sized guidance at relevant moments—when the user actually needs it. This reduces friction and helps information stick.

🔹 Personalise the experience. A quick understanding of who your user is (e.g. beginner vs. power user) can help tailor the onboarding flow to match their goals, not yours. Relevance is retention.

🔹 Measure and adapt. Use product analytics to understand where users drop off, stall, or succeed. Iterate based on real data not assumptions or best guesses.

🔹 Design for continuity. Not every user finishes onboarding in one go. Make it easy for them to pause, return, and pick up where they left off. Offer gentle reminders and tooltips they can revisit on demand.

A great onboarding experience doesn’t just explain—it builds trust, clarity, and momentum. It sets the tone for the entire product relationship. So stop thinking of onboarding as a one-off tour, and start designing it as an evolving, embedded part of the user journey.

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