Showing, not telling.
Telling your potential customers about all your product features isn't enough; you have to show them.
Authors
This is part three of our six-part series on optimising onboarding for B2B SaaS. Have a look at the other articles in the series:
Part 1: B2B SaaS Onboarding - An intro
Part 2: Delivering value, fast
Part 3: Showing, not telling
Part 4: Evaluating now, learning later
Part 5: Discovering features
Part 6: Personalising the process
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n the early stages of finding out about a product, most users either won’t be able to, or won’t want to, dedicate a large amount of time. But our research shows that users like to see what it looks like, especially for complex tools.So if they don’t have time to hunt for support, bring it to them; make it accessible at their fingertips.
Tines, a security automation workflow suite, makes use of interactive illustrations like this to give prospective customers an idea of how their product works and feels. Source: Tines.com
Including a variety of in-product screenshots during acquisition, like showing the dashboard on the product landing page, means the user gets to see exactly how the product looks. This helps them understand the time they’ll need to invest in getting started. (Ideally, this step should emphasise the lack of load, and reassure them that they can start being productive, fast.) Localised case studies that are relatable to the user’s business type or industry are also a great additional resource to add here.
From our research, users we spoke with said their preferred learning format is video. And if the product they’re using doesn’t have it, they’ll jump on to YouTube to find it. (But this takes them away from where you want them to be.)
This step is about reducing the fear of trying something new. It’s baby steps. This is all about empathising, which is what we need to do when thinking as designers. Acknowledge from the very beginning – the account creation stage – what are the user’s needs and their goals. It’s an opportunity to start building a relationship with the user from the first touch.
This is all about empathising, which is what we need to do as designers.
Being able to create a narrative is a very effective way to help someone to picture themselves using the product, whether that’s with images or screenshots of the dashboard they’ll use, or a short video, showing the product is what they need to see first.
One of our most-used Tools in Each&Other is Figma, which uses stripped back versions of their ui to visualise key features without distraction. Source: Figma.com
Source: Canva.com
They don’t use explainer videos; the tool itself is about you doing things from the get-go. This approach even extends to the copy:
Source: Canva.com
Here, we’re all about reducing the distance between the user and the product, and we can expand on that in our next article on evaluation.
