Why Most Teams Can Reduce Onboarding Time By At Least 50%

Of the hundreds of teams I’ve talked to, most can point to 1-2 steps that take 80% of the time.

Usually steps like:

• Connecting a custom domain
• Uploading data for a migration
• Integrating with system X

And there are lots of reasons why:

• Technical complexity
• Availability/prioritization from the person who can do it
• Internal decisions that need to be made first

So what can you do? How do you get that 50% improvement I touted?

By being upfront & proactive to remove the blocker:

1. Identify your “bottleneck” step
2. Identify who in your customer's org is needed to complete it as early as possible (pre-close if possible)
3. Move that “bottleneck” step as early as possible in your plan and communicate why
4. Assign the responsible individual and provide specific detail of “how” to complete the step (include video, step-by-step walkthroughs, technical documentation)
5. Follow your “bottleneck” step with a real-time conversation where you can address questions and ensure you’re ready to keep going

If each step in your onboarding plan is required for customers to realize value and be setup for success, you can’t remove them to speed up onboarding.

But you can reorder them and improve their design to prevent them becoming blockers.

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