Dos and don'ts of user onboarding: Principles, pitfalls, and practical steps to design a great first-time experience

How you design your first-time experience can be the difference between a loyal, lifelong customer and someone who closes the app and never comes back.

Onboarding is more than a quick tutorial or a list of benefits – often, it's the single biggest factor in whether users succeed with your product.

Get it right, and users arrive confident and ready to get value. Get it wrong, and no amount of great design elsewhere will save them.

In this workshop, you'll learn the key principles of great onboarding design, the three most common mistakes teams make - how to spot and avoid them – and practical strategies for creating a first-time experience that drives activation, momentum, confidence, and long-term success.

Using real examples and real user feedback, we'll show how quick, targeted tests in Lyssna can surface friction points fast and give you the insights you need to make meaningful improvements.

What you'll learn

• The real impact of onboarding: Why it goes far beyond tooltips and tutorials – and how it sets users up for success or failure in every interaction after.
• The three most common onboarding mistakes: How to spot them in your own product and what to do about them.
• How to identify friction points and speed bumps: Learn to recognize the steps and moments that create hesitation, confusion, or doubt – and how to fix them.
• How quick tests reveal what's really happening: See how simple, targeted studies in Lyssna can surface friction points fast and give you the insights you need to make meaningful improvements.
• How to turn insights into impact: Connect real user feedback to actionable changes that improve the experience and move the needle on activation, retention, and business goals.

What we'll do

• Break down real onboarding flows and real user feedback to identify what's working and what isn't.
• Discuss the most common onboarding challenges, using real examples to show how small changes can have a big impact.
• See how quick tests in Lyssna can surface friction points and give you clear, actionable direction for improvement.
• Brainstorm solutions to specific onboarding problems and connect them to user and business outcomes.
• Hear from guest Ramli John, who will share his expertise and a practical onboarding template you can take away and apply to your own product.
• Q&A with Joe and Ramli.

Who should attend

This workshop is perfect for UX designers, product designers, product managers, and anyone who wants to improve onboarding experiences, boost retention, and understand the impact that a first-time experience has on your product.

Whether you're designing your first onboarding flow or looking to improve an existing one, you'll walk away with practical, actionable techniques you can apply right away.