The Onboarding Experience: What Works and What Doesn't

Do you know the joy of every onboarder? It’s watching the people you onboarded grow. Whenever you think about their journey you can’t help but smile.

There are onboarders and there are onboarders who put their heart into onboarding people. To these onboarders, they aren’t just introducing people to web3 but to a life-changing platform.

What are the challenges you face when onboarding people to Hive? How could it be better?

It breaks my heart whenever I see any of my newbies quit Hive. I wish most of them could stick around long enough to explore and enjoy Hive.

I face many challenges when onboarding people. The first on my list is account creation.
Do you know how frustrating it is to switch from one frontend to another trying to create an account?

I personally hate signing up for things and if the sign-up process is complex. I’d keep stalling before I do it or I’d probably forget about it. Now imagine, a web2 user transitioning to web3, and his or her first experience is battling with how to create an account? This would turn them off before they even start.

Most of my newbies were onboarded virtually so creating their accounts was pretty difficult. They kept saying: “Is this how Hive is”, “Hive is hard” etcetera etcetera.

I was onboarded differently. All I needed was a Hive onboard ticket created by OCD if I remember correctly. In no time, my account was created. I didn’t have to move from one frontend to the other. I dare say this simple account creation encouraged me to continue. It’s safe to say that I didn’t get to see or experience Hive as being difficult from the beginning.

I believe that if account creation could be made easier, newbies would be able to create their accounts without getting frustrated.

Furthermore, being invisible.
A lot of newbies come to Hive feeling super pumped. To a lot of them, this will be their first time of being in the web3 space. They are enthusiastic, they wanna write again and again but they slowly begin to feel invisible.

You remember the first time you joined Hive right? When so many people welcomed you, your comment section was on fire, you felt welcomed, and to you it felt like that was the norm.

Being the new kid in town who was dearly loved, you went ahead to write your first post. This time the engagement wasn’t like before. You wrote posts number 2 and 3 and you realized it was mostly your onboarders' comments and maybe one or two people’s comments.
It all starts to sink. You begin to question your writing skills, and you begin to wonder if something was wrong with your account that people couldn’t see it.

You see people who wrote barely 50 words with big upvotes but you barely get 0.005. You begin to feel discouraged and you can’t help but wonder where all the upvotes and people on your introduction post went.

If you were unable to persevere and overcome that feeling, you finally conclude that “Hive is not for you”.

Newbie retention on Hive is very low and most retention programs can not cover every newbie. I’ll still use the OCD onboarding program as a case study and this is because I was a beneficiary of this program.

If you don’t know, all newbies in the program are catered for. By catered for, I mean in a week as a newbie you can get curated by OCD. Your onboarder and OCD curators look out for your posts. As a newbie you write but you don’t feel invisible as you are rewarded for your effort. The days were you don’t get curated you don’t get to feel bad because you know you’ve previously gotten something instead of not getting anything at all.

The program runs for 3 months and before the third month, the newbie is able to find his or her footing and gradually he or she begins to navigate Hive without needing the support of OCD but mind you, they don’t just forget about you, they come once in a while to check you out.

My point is, if we have more programs like this on Hive that cater for newbies, newbie retention would be higher than what it is now.
Yes, money shouldn’t be the major focus but feeling invisible does not cut it either.

When I onboard people, I make them understand that they have to put in the work. I emphasize the importance of bringing value to Hive and not milking it.

I think another way to solve onboarding challenges is to get newbies involved. Once newbies begin to participate in contests, games, and quizzes, they begin to connect with other Hiveans. Having friends on Hive makes you stick around longer.

Hive can seem broad and complex, but having to share or rant about it with a friend that understands the system helps a lot.
Those friends are the ones who would jump on your posts and cheer you on, they’ll give you updates on Hive matters, and they basically make you feel at home.

When you have such friends, no matter how many times you decide to quit they’d try to encourage you to come back as they might be struggling on Hive like you or must have gone through the struggling phase like you.

With this and many out there, onboarding can become easier.