Product Onboarding:What's happened 2024?

If 2023 was the year fintech apps multiplied like rabbits, 2024 is the year we realised we need the rabbits to stay in one place and not migrate. Welcome to the the Great Onboarding Renaissance!

In a world where one clunky sign-up screen can cost you a lifelong customer, B2C fintech companies have gone full throttle into perfecting the art of onboarding. This article will deep dive into the latest UX shenanigans, marketing tricks, technical traps, glorious wins, spectacular face plants, and what users are actually whispering behind your app’s back. Alot of research has gone into this topic but the article just shares a glimpse of it.

UX Patterns: “Seriously, Who Designed This?”

1. Step-by-Step Flows

After many years and numerous failures, Fintech apps finally realised users don't like being ambushed with endless forms. Now it’s all about bite-sized steps with cute little progress bars lamenting you’re 40% done which ironically makes you think you have done alot.

Shine Inc, a French fintech company, broke the KYC marathon into digestible baby steps, slapped a dot progress bar on it that resulted in a whopping 80% onboarding completion rate against an industry average of approximately 15% (impressive). Meanwhile, apps that thought it was cool to dump a forest of fields on one page had a retention rate of 0% while those that had 7 fields or less drummed up a 30% rentention rate. Not surprised if you were to step into the customer's shoes.

2. Minimalist

That one page (and only page) has one job... get the customer onboard in a few clicks.

Fintechs got smart with each screen now basically asking one question or executing one action. The big obvious buttons, and helper text written like your friendly neighbourhood barista are some notable winning formulas. Shine even throws confetti at you for completing a task because I guess adulting is hard.

When the screen gets too complicated with too many fields in one page and with too many of them being mandatory, users are peacing out faster than you can say "multi-factor authentication."

3. Gamification

When onboarding fills like that VISA application, we often look for the 'cross' sign at the top right/left hand of the screen to click. The progresses are often too painfully but when you bribe uses emotionally, they will stick around even if it means a 20 minute fill out.Progress bars, achievement badges, digital fireworks are proven success in emotionally anchoring users. Even boring old checklists got a glow-up. Xero turned its onboarding into a satisfying series of mini-goals with little progress trackers. Of course, too much gamification (or cringey fake games) can backfire and make users feel like lab rats, so moderation is key.

4. Interactive Tours & Tooltips

Forget dumping a "User Guide" PDF on people. Smart fintechs are now gently hand-holding newbies with welcome popups, highlighted features, and mini-tours. Zoho Books literally throws digital confetti the moment you log in (because why not celebrate just showing up?), and follows up with a guided 7-step tour. Meanwhile, Xero drops helpful tooltips and pulsing hotspots everywhere like tiny UX Easter eggs ensuring you find all the cool stuff without getting lost. Those that seem to have been left out of this trend have greatly contributed to the 23% of fintech users churning before even using their darn product/service.

5. Personalised Onboarding:

No two Gen Zs are the same. Betterment, a fintech, figured out that instead of asking for email or password and calling it a day, you should actually ask users about their goals and risk appetites. Betterment gets users to set up their first investment within minutes and faster than some people pick a Netflix show (that's the magic of time-to-first-value). Meanwhile, smarter apps like Niyo are watching user behaviour in real-time, sending customized nudges if you skip steps like linking your bank account. Personalized, adaptive onboarding is basically the new black.

6. Trust Signals in UI:

Fintechs finally realised how much information is too much information. If you want people to hand over their passport photo and bank login, maybe make it feel a little less sketchy. Right from the get-go, users are being showered with trust signals. Think lock icons, biometric login options, friendly microcopy like “We verify your ID to protect you!” instead of the cold, terrifying “Upload Government ID.” ( LinkedIn still does these though through a 3rd party- horrific). Those who humanise the experience are seeing better conversion.Well if you don't jump into this approach, you're basically ghosted faster than a bad Tinder date.

Marketing-Driven: Let's get personal!

In 2024, fintechs realised something crucial - getting someone to download your app is like getting a date. If you don’t impress during the first 10 minutes, they’re ghosting you for someone else, perhaps for a crypto wallet with cooler fonts or a dating app that has a cute girl's pose at its registration.That’s why onboarding isn’t just a UX designer’s playground anymore. It’s now a marketing battleground too. Fintechs are throwing everything at new users before, during, and even after onboarding to make sure they don’t vanish into the digital abyss.

1. Pre-Onboarding Value Demos

Gone are the days when you had to hand over your life story just to see what an app might do for you. Now fintech apps usually flirt first with interactive demos, sample dashboards, even guest access. It’s all about showing off the goods before asking for commitment.

Apps figured out that if users get a taste of the magic, signing up feels like a 'duh' thing instead of 'erm' confusion. Some apps even up the game by throwing in getting-started guides and email courses before you’re officially onboard, so by the time you click "Sign Up," you're practically rooting for them like that insurance agent at the entrance of a mall.

2. Personalised Emails and Nudges

Remember how you would get an email reminding you that you forgot something in your cart and it's time to checkout? Someone's watching...

The second you sign up or sign up halfway and wander off, companies that figured to integrate their CRM intelligently have apps firing up their email cannons, push notifications, SMS, even WhatsApp if they can. "Almost there! Just verify your ID!", "Take your first investment step today!", and "P.S. You look fantastic. Now finish your profile." - all look familiar? Timing is everything. The best fintechs track exactly where you dropped off, then swoop in with the perfect nudge, making it feel helpful and not stalk-ish.

3. Retargeting and Re-Engagement

If you abandon onboarding, don’t worry you’re not forgotten.You’ll soon be seeing targeted ads promising "quick and secure onboarding" popping up on your Instagram, TikTok, and possibly even your dreams. Remember these?

• "$10 bonus if you finish setting up your account!"

• "First transfer free!"

• "We’ll love you forever if you verify your identity today."

The truth of the matter is that fintechs learnt that while user like us love spending money on getting installs, every broken onboarding journey is like setting money on fire. So they’re more motivated than ever to bribe you politely to come back.

4. Marketing Inside the App

Fintech apps aren’t leaving marketing outside the door. They’re sneaking it right into the onboarding screens.Trust badges, star ratings, No credit card required banners are all techniques whispering reassurances like a supportive life coach.

A recent example that I came across, "Why ask your income? To give you smarter budget limits.

5. Referral Bombs

Once you’ve finally slogged through onboarding, fintechs hit you with the next move: referrals. "Invite a friend, and you both get $X!""Share the love (and the cash)!" are some familiar notifications or emails we often find ourselves entangled between the whole process.

But they’ve learned after much trial and error. Don't shove referral links down a user’s throat too early. First, let users actually enjoy the app. THEN unleash the sharing prompts like proud, patient parents.

6. Watching Every Metric Like a Hawk

While you are innocently browsing and checking out stuff ( whatever it may be), behind the scenes, marketing and product teams are glued to their activation funnels, drop-off graphs, and early retention stats like it’s a crime scene investigation. I know cause I started out here in my career. If you get stuck at linking your bank account, expect a helpful nudge that reminds you that it only takes 10 seconds to do so and unlocks automatic updates. If you are sitting on that step for more than a day, expect a gentle email. Day 3 and Day 4 is when an incentive ( aka present) comes to you. If you still didn't grab that, a support agent might personally reach out to rescue you from the abyss. It’s called marketing meets product analytics, and in 2024, it’s basically an Olympic sport.

Be Warned

The above are just common and proven successes that have worked over the years. However, my experience from the bank and my own companies has taught me that there will always be gamers in this ecosystem and they are growing in numbers. They understand when you are going to provide the incentive, what's your next move etc and use it to their advantage.

We need to be dynamic on these approaches. Use them as a guide and, if possible, hyperpersonalise them using data. Every customer has patterns that dedicate their threshold. Its about the X factor that makes them tip towards conversation or onboarding in this case. If you are looking at hyper-personalisation, remember first/early cut customer segmentation will not work- applying generic static criteria that translate to little correlation in their behaviours. In the case you are thinking of using machine learning to encapsulate the targetted customers, remember to limit it to the top 5 behaviors at most. Just speaking from experience.

TO BE CONTINUED...