Current speaking series

Better Onboarding

Presentation • Workshop

In conjunction with the launch of my book by the same name, I’ve created a talk and workshop that help teams understand how to build better onboarding experiences for new users of their products. The talk and workshops have been featured at events like IxDA Sydney, UX Fest (prev. UX London), UX Australia, CPHUX Passion Talks, and Button: The Content Design Conference.

The “Better Onboarding” talk

A good onboarding experience welcomes new users and guides them from their current situations to lasting success. But it often gets reduced to a one-size-fits-all, front-loaded piece of instruction. This talk covers why teams need to move past front-loaded instruction and instead embrace guided interaction.

Key takeaways from the “Better Onboarding” talk:

  • Understand what guided interaction is, and why it’s a better onboarding strategy than front-loaded instruction.
  • Learn the basics about mapping user onboarding journeys.
  • See how the baseline design of your product and its content creates a foundation for better onboarding.

The “Better Onboarding” talk is available in a 30 min, 45 min, or 1 hour format (not including Q&A). Contact me if you’re interested in having me give this talk.

The “Better Onboarding Journeys” workshop

The workshop gives teams a process for designing user onboarding that guides new users from their different starting situations to the same destination of success. It pulls in a mix of activities from my book as well as some updated content from previous workshops. This workshop suits designers, product managers, content designers, and more, no matter what stage their product’s onboarding experience is in.

Through a mix of presentation and hands-on activities, participants learn how to:

  • Define the start and end points of onboarding
  • Map the actions that bridge people between those start and endpoints
  • Break down each action so that teams can see how guidance can be applied to individual actions while still linking them to a broader journey.

The “Better Onboarding Journeys” workshop has been run virtually and in person, and runs approximately 4 hours (can be extended to 6 in special circumstances). Contact me if you’re interested in having me run this workshop.