Bonboarding is a SaaS platform that helps teams create interactive product tours. They brought me in to explore how new users build their first tour during the free trial and where friction might be getting in the way of activation and retention.

I ran a 1-hour moderated usability test with five participants: four Product Managers who were new to Bonboarding, and one Startup Founder who was already using it. We looked at first impressions of the homepage, then asked users to build a product tour as they normally would do. This helped surface where the experience was working, and where it wasn’t.

What I found:

Unclear save status
Users weren’t sure if their changes were being saved. This made them pause before previewing or continuing with their work.

Most users skipped the onboarding
3 out of 5 participants went straight to the “Steps” section and ignored the guided onboarding, suggesting the designed flow didn’t match how people actually wanted to get started.

The pop-up modal creation was confusing
There were no clear “Complete” or “Exit” buttons, so users got stuck or weren’t sure how to move forward.

What I recommended:

• Add visible save confirmation or autosave feedback so users understand the progress they have made

• Make ‘Steps’ the default entry point to better reflect how people naturally get started

• Add clearer next steps/exits when creating the product tour, like “Complete” or “Exit”

• Make small UI changes such as changing “Edit” to “Rename” (to avoid confusion with the ‘Editor’ and auto-open the editor when users click ‘Add New’

• Add a quick explanation for why the browser extension is needed, which could reduce drop-off

Next steps:

The founder is exploring updates to the onboarding flow, especially around simplifying the creation experience and improving guidance in the modal.

We also discussed ideas for future research, like:

• Retesting with new users after changes go live

• Running a competitor onboarding review

• Testing how well icons are understood

• Interviewing active users to uncover post-onboarding pain points

This study helped the founder see how first-time users were really navigating the platform, and gave them a clear roadmap for making first activation smoother and more intuitive.