December 2018 Summaries

Product tours are interactive guides that help users navigate through a product's key features, aiming to turn new users into active ones and drive product adoption. They are composed of in-app messages that form the onboarding process and provide contextual guidance while users interact with the product. Creating successful product tours requires design and styling mastery, copywriting skills, data analysis, testing, and iteration until a tour perfectly meets user needs. Key guidelines for creating effective product tours include not lecturing, breaking up long tours into shorter ones, providing value, embracing self-discovery, continuous iteration, and considering timing and context. Examples of successful product tours can be found in companies like Heap, Typeform, Slack, Dropbox Paper, Airtable, and Pipefy. When choosing a product tour software, look for features such as no-code editor, fully customizable styling, deep integrations, native A/B testing, and contextual targeting.

Product adoption refers to the process of users discovering, finding value in, implementing, and becoming active users of a product. It is crucial for businesses as it helps drive growth and revenue. The process involves five stages: awareness, interest, evaluation, trial, and adoption/rejection. To improve product adoption, companies can apply change management principles such as leading with culture, starting at the top, involving every layer, making rational and emotional cases together, acting their way into new thinking, engaging constantly, leveraging formal and informal solutions, and assessing and adapting. Tools like Calendly, Google Docs/Sheets, Trello, Segment, Mixpanel, Heap, FullStory, Intercom, Buffer, and Chameleon can help manage change and boost product adoption.

User onboarding is crucial for converting new signups into highly engaged customers. It acts as the bridge between acquiring new users and turning them into power users. To build successful onboarding flows, do your research and understand user needs, remove barriers to the "aha!" moment, keep on-brand, create a multichannel experience, tailor the experience to each user's journey, and measure success regularly. User onboarding is an ongoing process that requires continuous improvement and adaptation to meet users' evolving needs.