The Tutorial = It’s Your Onboarding Process That’s On Trial
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Clarify your process for on boarding new users to get more customers signed up after their free trial.
You’ve spent months or years building your new software, and you’re proud of what it can do. You put it out there with a no-risk 30-day free trial and a tutorial that’s designed to help users get up and running quickly so they’ll feel good about making the decision to buy at the end of the trial period.
Some builders of great software mistakenly downgrade the tutorial as an assist for slow learners in the user community. But when used right, it can be a powerful tool in the hands of builders — one they’ll need in that critical 30-day period when the effectiveness of your onboarding process and your entire marketing effort is on trial.
Here’s how to use the tutorial to pack the most into your 30-day trial:
Describe Objectives
Clearly describe the objective of the exercise or lesson. Make it a simple one, but something the typical user can relate to. Users want to know where they’re headed before they start.
Keep It Short
Keep the first one short. Many users are lost right out of the gate. Your goal with Lesson One should be to get the user familiar with the basic tools of your system and to coach her to the objective as quickly as possible.
Offer Choices
Let the user choose variables. As soon as you can, start allowing the user to make choices himself. That’s critical to letting him see how it can do what he wants it to do.
Show Progress
Number your steps and have a progress bar. Everyone wants to know how much further they have to go before they’re done.
Quick Tour
Start with a quick tour. Introduce your screen segments and special terms such as Tool Bar, Work Space, etc. before giving instructions that assume and require familiarity with them.
Make It Do Something
Something that works. Try to end up with a working model of a solution to a real-world problem.
Give A Test-Drive With Feedback
Let outsiders test-drive and give you feedback. Show your tutorial to potential users with backgrounds different from those of your developers and others inside your company. One of the biggest mistakes is to assume your product is “intuitive.” Software is often the manifestation of the designer’s “mental model” which is not necessarily shared by others. First-time users have to be led, step-by-step, through a process that leads to understanding.
Turn Complainers Into Advisors
Engage with “Loving Critics” who are genuinely trying to use the system. When you start to hear from frustrated users, don’t give in to the temptation to move away from their negative comments and blow them off with “Thanks for your feedback.” Become their coach and stay with them to do what it takes to get on board.
Enable Rapid Changes
Set up a system to make rapid changes in response to feedback from users. Remember that no matter how much research you did before you went live, the most constructive and productive conversations take place between the builders and users with the software in front of them. That’s the real value of the tutorial.
Remember That The Pressure Is On You
Keep in mind that from the moment the user signs up for the 30-day free trial, it’s YOU that’s under pressure. The trial may be free for the user, but for you it’s anything but! Your goal here is to do whatever it takes to literally escort users through your tutorial so they will be (happily) ready to buy the subscription at the end of the trial period.
The creators and builders of any software have lived with it over an intensive and probably lengthy development period. Once it’s “done” there’s a tendency to crawl up inside this new “machine” you’ve created and defend it against all “attackers.” That’s a bad idea. Your software may be a “thing of beauty” in the eyes of its creators, but like any tool, the software has no real value apart from its ability to help a user do something she wants to do.
Think of your tutorial as a great way to engage users in your building process — an integral part of listening to users’ on-the-spot feedback and adapting the product in response to helpful things you hear.
Get Your Tutorial Checklist
Clarify your process for on boarding new users to get more customers signed up after their free trial.