Mastering onboarding | Lauryn Isford (Head of Growth at Airtable)

Lauryn Isford is a product growth leader and practitioner, who most recently led Growth at Airtable, and is about to start something new 🤫. In today’s episode, we get into the many tactics Lauryn has learned about optimizing onboarding flows. Lauryn describes how overhauling Airtable’s onboarding led to a 20% increase in activation rate, the company’s unique segmentation process, and why North Star metrics are so vital. Lauryn also shares her framework for a PLG growth funnel, and how to use a reverse trial to leverage the benefits of both freemium products and trials. If you’re looking to find growth opportunities within your funnel, this episode is for you. — Brought to you by Public—Invest in stocks, treasuries, crypto, and more: https://public.com/lenny | Miro—A collaborative visual platform where your best work comes to life: https://miro.com/lenny | Eppo—Run reliable, impactful experiments: https://www.geteppo.com/ Find the full transcript here: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/mastering-onboarding-lauryn-isford Where to find Lauryn Isford: • Twitter: https://twitter.com/laurynisford • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/laurynisford/ Where to find Lenny: • Newsletter: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com • Twitter: https://twitter.com/lennysan • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lennyrachitsky/ Referenced: • Sprint: How to Solve Big Problems and Test New Ideas in Just Five Days: https://www.amazon.com/Sprint-Solve-Problems-Test-Ideas/dp/1442397683 • Blue Bottle coffee: https://bluebottlecoffee.com/ • Airtable: https://www.airtable.com/ • How to determine your activation metric: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/how-to-determine-your-activation • Elena Verna on Lenny’s Podcast: https://www.lennyspodcast.com/elena-verna-on-how-b2b-growth-is-changing-product-led-growth-product-led-sales-why-you-should-go-freemium-not-trial-what-features-to-make-free-and-much-more/ • The Ride of a Lifetime: Lessons Learned from 15 Years as CEO of the Walt Disney Company: https://www.amazon.com/Ride-Lifetime-Lessons-Learned-Company/dp/0399592091/ • Rocket Men: The Daring Odyssey of Apollo 8 and the Astronauts Who Made Man’s First Journey to the Moon: https://www.amazon.com/Rocket-Men-Odyssey-Astronauts-Journey/dp/081298871X • Fifth & Mission podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/fifth-mission/id1457274965 • The White Lotus on HBO: https://www.hbo.com/the-white-lotus • Belfast: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt12789558/ • Figma: https://www.figma.com/ • Miro: https://miro.com/ • Zoelle Egner on Lenny’s Podcast: https://www.lennyspodcast.com/videos/what-pr-is-and-isnt-good-for-according-to-zoelle-egner-head-of-marketing-and-growth-at-box/ In this episode, we cover: (00:00) Lauryn’s background (03:48) Lauryn’s spicy take on experimentation (06:44) Why doing the right thing for customers should be the ultimate goal (08:54) How Airtable rolled out Airtable Forms with A/B testing (11:38) The importance of onboarding (13:15) Airtable’s onboarding revamp and how it increased activation by 20% (16:57) How Airtable’s guided onboarding wizard improved the user experience (18:00) Why reducing reliance on tooltips can be a good idea for complicated products (20:06) The importance of meeting users where they are (22:52) How Airtable segmented users by learning styles (24:10) Airtable’s activation metrics (27:22) How the week-four multi-user collaboration metric was operationalized (30:45) Other metrics Airtable used (34:34) When Airtable changed their North Star metric  (36:26) How much time to give a North Star metric before pivoting (38:05) Trials vs. freemium and what a reverse trial is (42:51) How to have self-serve options when you’re not fully self-serve (46:04) Onboarding experiences that aren’t very helpful (47:31) How to help users understand features (48:42) Why user education is more important than pushing premium features (50:03) The role of guardrail metrics  (51:40) Lauryn’s PLG growth funnel framework (54:26) How Lauryn’s framework helps teams communicate more clearly (55:57) How Lauryn structured the growth team (57:53) B2B growth as an emerging space  (1:00:18) Lightning round Production and marketing by https://penname.co/. For inquiries about sponsoring the podcast, email podcast@lennyrachitsky.com.