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Product tours are a critical element of user onboarding, serving as the first real introduction users have to your product. It’s the first real test of a product’s value and plays a significant role in customer retention.
However, designing product tours that effectively balance engagement and clarity can be challenging. Too much information can overwhelm users, while too little can leave them lost, leading to frustration and churn.
To help you out, we’ve listed out 11 product tour examples that are effective at showing users how to gain value from a product.
1. Duolingo’s gamified learning experience:
Duolingo uses gamification to keep users engaged throughout their language learning journey. The tour introduces users to the app’s core features while incorporating game-like elements, such as progress bars and rewards, to maintain motivation.
Gamification makes learning feel less like a chore and more like an enjoyable challenge, increasing user retention and therefore, making it successful.
2. Slack’s interactive product walkthrough:
Slack offers an interactive walkthrough that highlights its collaboration features in real-time. Users are guided through setting up channels, sending messages, and integrating apps, with the ability to try each action within the tour.
This hands-on approach allows users to learn by doing, which reinforces understanding and encourages exploration.
3. Dropbox’s step-by-step onboarding:
Dropbox breaks down its onboarding into manageable steps, making it easier for users to grasp complex features like file sharing and cloud storage. Each step builds on the last, ensuring users are never overwhelmed.
This methodical approach is successful because it helps users feel confident in their ability to use Dropbox, reducing the learning curve.
4. Airbnb’s personalized recommendations:
Airbnb uses data to tailor the onboarding experience to each user. By analyzing preferences and past behavior, Airbnb provides personalized suggestions, making the tour relevant and engaging.
Personalization makes users feel understood and valued, which enhances their connection to the platform.
5. Trello’s visual task management tutorial:
Trello’s product tour is highly visual, showcasing how to create and manage tasks using boards, lists, and cards. The tour is simple yet effective, emphasizing Trello’s drag-and-drop functionality.
Visual learners benefit from seeing the product in action, making it easier to understand how to use Trello effectively.
6. HubSpot’s guided setup:
HubSpot provides a guided setup process that walks users through configuring their CRM and marketing tools. The tour is comprehensive, covering everything from setting up email campaigns to managing contacts.
A thorough, guided setup ensures that users correctly configure the product, which is crucial for long-term success with the platform.
7. Intercom’s contextual tooltips:
Intercom uses contextual tooltips to provide real-time guidance as users navigate the platform. These tips appear when a user hovers over a feature, offering explanations and best practices without interrupting the workflow.
Contextual tips help users learn as they go, reducing the need for lengthy tutorials while still providing the necessary support.
8. Asana’s onboarding playbook:
Asana offers an onboarding playbook that is both comprehensive and easy to follow. It includes checklists, video tutorials, and templates to help users get started with task management and project planning.
The structured approach helps users quickly become productive with Asana, reducing the time it takes to onboard new teams.
9. Canva’s hands-on design tutorial:
Canva allows users to learn by doing with its hands-on design tutorial. The tour walks users through creating a simple design, introducing key tools and features along the way.
By allowing users to create something tangible during the tour, Canva ensures that they understand the basics and feel more confident using the platform.
10. Notion’s modular onboarding:
Notion’s modular onboarding allows users to customize their learning path based on what they want to achieve. Whether they’re looking to manage tasks, take notes, or collaborate with a team, Notion provides tailored modules that users can explore at their own pace.
The flexibility of a modular approach ensures that users get the most relevant information without feeling overwhelmed by features they don’t need right away.
Now that you’ve seen how top companies approach user onboarding with their product tours, it’s time to start building your own, but first – we’ll cover the basics.
Key principles of effective product tours
Designing an effective product tour requires focusing on a few core principles that ensure users have a clear, engaging, and relevant experience. These principles are crucial for creating a tour that not only guides users but also encourages them to continue using the product:
1. Clarity
The most effective product tours are easy to follow and understand. Avoid jargon and keep instructions straightforward, ensuring users can quickly grasp how to use each feature. Clarity helps users feel more confident and reduces the likelihood of them getting lost or frustrated during the onboarding process.
2. Relevance
Tailoring the tour to the user’s specific needs and use case is essential. Not every user will need to know every feature, so it’s important to customize the experience based on their role, preferences, or previous interactions with the product. Relevance ensures that users see value in the tour, making it more impactful.
3. Engagement
To keep users interested, the tour should be interactive. Incorporate elements like quizzes, checklists, or tasks that require user input to maintain their attention. An engaging tour not only helps users learn but also makes the onboarding process more enjoyable, increasing the likelihood of product adoption.
4. Conciseness
Lengthy tours can lead to user fatigue, which can cause them to drop off before completing the onboarding process. Keep the tour concise by focusing on the most important features and breaking down information into digestible chunks. This helps maintain user interest and ensures they complete the tour.
5. Feedback loops
Gathering user feedback during and after the tour is vital for continuous improvement. Use surveys, in-app prompts, or follow-up emails to collect insights on how users experience the tour. This feedback allows you to refine the tour, making it more effective over time.
To ensure these principles are consistently applied, consider standardizing them through playbooks and automation. With Customer Success software like Velaris, you can automate some of these processes and create customizable playbooks that guide users through the onboarding process, ensuring clarity, relevance, and engagement.
In the next section, we’ll walk you through the steps to create a product tour that meets your users’ needs and drives engagement from day one.
How to build your own effective product tour
Creating an effective product tour requires thoughtful planning and a clear understanding of your users’ needs. Here’s a step-by-step guide to help you design a product tour that’s both engaging and informative.
Identifying user personas:
Start by understanding who your users are. Different user segments, whether they are beginners or experienced professionals, have different needs, so tailoring your product tour to specific personas ensures that each group receives the most relevant information.
For example, new users might need an introduction to basic features, while advanced users could benefit from learning about more complex functionalities.
Mapping the user journey:
Identify the key moments in the user journey where they are likely to need guidance. These are the points where a well-placed tutorial or tip can make a significant difference in their experience. Mapping out these moments allows you to strategically place your tour steps where they’ll have the most impact.
Consider places when users first log in, when they access a new feature, or when they encounter a common pain point.
Designing with user experience in mind:
Ensure your product tour is not only functional but also visually appealing and intuitive. A clean, simple design helps users focus on the content without being distracted by unnecessary elements. User experience is key – if the tour is frustrating or confusing, it will defeat its purpose.
Use clear visuals, concise language, and a logical flow to guide users through the product in a way that feels natural.
Utilizing feedback for iteration:
No product tour is perfect from the start. Gather feedback from users as they go through the tour and use this information to make improvements. Regularly updating the tour based on real user experiences ensures that it remains relevant and helpful.
Incorporate quick feedback loops, such as in-tour surveys or follow-up emails, to gather insights on what’s working and what needs adjustment.
Testing and analyzing effectiveness:
Continuously monitor how users interact with your tour. Analyze engagement metrics, such as completion rates and drop-off points, to identify areas for improvement. Testing different versions of the tour can also help you optimize its effectiveness.
Use A/B testing to compare different tour formats or messages and choose the one that performs best.
With these steps in mind, let’s explore the best tools and resources to create and manage your product tours next, ensuring you have the right support to bring your vision to life.
Tools and resources for creating product tours
Creating effective product tours is easier with the right tools. Here’s a couple of options to get you started:
- Chameleon
Chameleon is a popular tool for creating in-app product tours and onboarding experiences. It offers features like tooltips, modals, and walkthroughs that help guide users through your product.
It allows you to quickly create and deploy tours without needing extensive development resources. It’s especially useful for teams looking for a flexible, plug-and-play solution.
- WalkMe:
WalkMe provides a comprehensive platform for building interactive product tours, training modules, and user guidance systems. It’s designed to help users navigate complex software with ease.
This platform is ideal for companies with complex products that require detailed onboarding processes. Its analytics and tracking features also provide insights into user behavior.
In-house solutions
Building custom product tours in-house allows for full control over the design and functionality. You can tailor the experience precisely to your product and users, ensuring it aligns with your brand and specific needs. Some benefits of this approach include:
- Customization: Complete control over the tour’s look, feel, and functionality, ensuring it perfectly fits your product.
- Integration: Seamless integration with your existing systems and data, allowing for a more personalized user experience.
Some challenges of this approach include:
- Resource-intensive: Requires significant development resources and ongoing maintenance.
- Time-consuming: Building and updating custom tours can take longer compared to using third-party tools.
By understanding the tools available and how to leverage them, you can create product tours that effectively onboard users and enhance their overall experience with your product. However, creating product tours does come with its challenges – which we’ll explore next.
Common challenges in creating product tours
Here are some common obstacles you might encounter when creating and implementing product tours for your customers:
1. Balancing information and clarity
One of the biggest challenges is finding the right balance between providing enough information to be helpful and not overwhelming the user. CSMs must prioritize key features and present them in a way that is easy to digest, ensuring the tour is both informative and concise.
2. Maintaining engagement
Keeping users engaged throughout the tour can be difficult, especially if the content is too lengthy or not interactive enough. The goal is to create a tour that is engaging, yet to the point, ensuring users remain interested and complete the onboarding process.
3. Catering to diverse user needs
Not all users come with the same level of experience or the same needs. This makes it challenging to create a one-size-fits-all tour. CSMs often have to design tours that can adapt to different user personas, providing a customized experience without adding complexity.
4. Incorporating feedback for continuous improvement
A good product tour should evolve based on user feedback. However, gathering actionable insights and implementing changes can be a time-consuming process. Ensuring the tour remains relevant and effective requires ongoing attention and refinement.
By avoiding or overcoming these challenges, you should be able to create a product tour that effectively shows users how to gain value from your product.
Conclusion
Product tours play a crucial role in enhancing user onboarding and driving overall Customer Success. By learning from top companies that have perfected their product tours, you can apply proven strategies to your own onboarding process.
If you’re ready to optimize your entire Customer Success strategy, from onboarding to long-term engagement, Velaris offers the tools and insights you need. Book a demo today to see how Velaris can help you streamline and enhance your Customer Success efforts.
