What is onboarding?

Onboarding is the first stage of a user's journey with your product. 

It starts from unboxing and covers the first connection, first complete use, and every other moment until a habit is formed. Depending on your product, the initial technical onboarding could be up to 12 minutes, but the full onboarding journey could last as much as 30 days.

In most consumer electronic companies, around 30% of all users connect a device they've purchased successfully. This number is even higher today as systems like Amazon give such easy return options – and most users are expecting "smart" to be what we call "idiot proof".

To put this into context, most companies actually make only 70% of the profit they show in people paying for the device in the story. This is all because too many users fail and choose to return their devices.

There's a lot to explore with onboarding, so we've broken everything down into two clear areas:

1. Technical onboarding – the first use of the device until initial success
2. Ramp up – the stage from the first use until a real bond has been made

By focusing your efforts on onboarding, you can minimize returns, improve your user experience, and grow the LTV of your customers.