Boost Product Adoption with a Flywheel Strategy

Have you been wondering how you can guide your users toward better product adoption at every phase of their interaction with your company? Well, you've come to the right place!

If you think of your product adoption strategy like a flywheel, you will be able to see how onboarding, customer support, and feedback provide momentum for improved user adoption. A flywheel model is a more all-encompassing strategy since it keeps your focus on the several stages of the consumer journey influencing product adoption.

Your users' onboarding process will lead to them asking questions about your product which will then lead to feedback that will prompt product development that would need “onboarding” again.

At every phase of the customer journey, you have an opportunity to improve product adoption. Let’s take a look at each of these phases.

1. Create an Engaging Onboarding Experience

So let’s say your users sign up after a free trial or a demo, then what comes next? The onboarding experience is your product’s first impression on your users and your first opportunity to improve product adoption.

Almost two-thirds (63%) of customers say that onboarding is “an important consideration” in whether they make a product decision in the first place. From the very start, your users are thinking, "What should I do first?” Still, 90% of customers think that companies “could do better” when it comes to onboarding new users or customers.

You need to review your product adoption strategy and see how your onboarding experience fits into a flywheel model. Check out the strategies below.

a. Provide an Onboarding Tour

Let’s say your product isn’t as complicated as a major subway system (at least we hope so). However, whether or not it is, you would still want to provide step-by-step instructions to set users up for success.

An amazing onboarding phase shortens your users’ time-to-value, or the time between their initial purchase and when they start receiving benefits from your product (time taken to reach their “aha” moment). It also guides them to the turning point when they realize your product’s value.

Your onboarding tour can include and not be limited to:

• Tooltips that explain important features of your product.

• A checklist of tasks for users to complete

• A progress bar to let the user know how long onboarding takes

• Hotspots to direct attention to product features

P.S.: Don’t forget a welcome message! This is an opportunity to connect your new users with your brand.

b. Customize Your Onboarding Flows

You can offer a personalized onboarding experience for your users by offering different onboarding flows for different user types. This will help your users feel like the product is made just for them.

To do this, ask your users about their role or what they would like to achieve with your product. Then apply this information to send them down different paths with the onboarding tour tactics mentioned before.

For example, your checklist of onboarding tasks might differ for a designer and a marketer. Place your focus on features that make the most sense for their different roles to help them through onboarding more quickly.

2. Arm Your Customers and Support Team With Resources

As your users begin to use your product and dig deeper into what your product has to offer, they may start to ask questions that need answers. A part of your product adoption strategy must include providing users with the right resources to answer their questions.

You want each of your user to think about how your product applies to their own use cases. This is why you must have resources available to answer their questions whenever it pops up. Your support team must also be aware of these answers so that they are able to provide them when necessary.

a. Collaborate With Customer Service To Provide Resources

Make use of different methods to help your users learn according to their style. You should always remember that users learn in different ways and while some may prefer videos, others may prefer reading or talking to a human.

Work hand-in-hand with your customer service team to provide resources in multiple formats. This will allow your users to learn at their own pace and more effectively at that.

Also, customer support should be in constant collaboration with your product team to keep resources up-to-date.

b. Provide In-App Access to Customer Support

When users get stuck or have issues and need help, they want to have easy access to customer support immediately. Providing in-app resources will ensure that users never have to leave your product when seeking help.

You can consider offering the following options:

• An in-app chat with your customer support

• A “Help” menu that offers videos, FAQs, or links to guides

• Easily accessible contact information for customer support

When you release new features, provide tooltips that link to release notes or a walkthrough of the changes. It’s like a mini-onboarding session.

3. Collect Customer Feedback

Now, after you have been able to provide a solid onboarding experience and helpful resources for your users, the last step is to collect feedback from them. It is very possible that your users may have gone through the onboarding process and used your resources but still do not feel satisfied.

If you do not get feedback from such users, you will be missing a critical piece of your product adoption strategy which is meeting user needs.

Feedback will help you understand the depth of product adoption and which feature requests to prioritize.

a. Assess Product Adoption by Asking Questions

User satisfaction often relates to product adoption. Any user who hasn’t yet realized your product’s value to them, may not fully adopt your product. To assess and determine your users’ satisfaction, ask questions and get their feedback. Only then will you be able to identify areas for improvement?

You can make use of your Net Promoter Score (NPS) as well. While it doesn’t give you specific feedback, it indicates how happy and satisfied your users are with the product. Afterward, you can then dig into specifics with in-app microsurveys.

b. Review Feature Requests

There are two main reasons customers make feature requests:

• They either experience a pain point, or

• They want to see something new.

Whatever the reason may be, if you don’t address these requests, you risk losing customers to competitors. See feature requests as a way to improve your product adoption by continuously offering what customers need, which links to your overall product adoption strategy.

Sometimes, feature requests can often be indirect. This is because your users might not know exactly what they’re looking for, and all they know is that they can’t find it within your product. Consult your customer support team to identify common questions or issues- this can become the basis for some changes in your product.

Continuing the Flywheel Effect of Your Product Adoption Strategy

If you can adopt these strategies, the flywheel will continue to revolve. The more efficient you are at each stage, the faster the wheel will turn.

By focusing on specific tactics for each stage, you can decrease the time customers spend in each phase and increase the value your product provides to them which will in turn increase your product customer retention rate.