Sign Up to Onboarding: Where SaaS Products Win or Lose Users
Sign Up to Onboarding: Where SaaS Products Win or Lose Users
At Zenoti I worked on a SaaS product for small businesses in the beauty and wellness industry. My focus was the flows from customer sign up to onboarding, across iOS and web, for the MVP launch. That work taught me how much a product's future depends on its first few minutes.
Small business owners are short on time
The owner of a salon or a spa is running the business while trying out new software. They do not have an IT team or a free afternoon. Every step in onboarding has to earn its place. If a step can wait until later, it should.
Define the metrics before launch
Before the launch we created KPIs for the product and dashboards to track users from acquisition through engagement to retention. Having those in place early meant we could see where people were dropping off instead of guessing. Without them, an MVP launch tells you very little.
Communication is part of the flow
One of the things I learned is that the messages around a flow matter as much as the screens. A clear reminder, an explanation of what happens next, or a nudge at the right moment can bring people back. A user communication strategy we put in place helped reduce sign up abandonment by 20%.
Design across devices from the start
Many small business owners switch between a phone and a computer. If the sign up starts on one device and continues on another, it has to feel like the same product. Planning iOS and web together avoids two half-finished experiences.
Launches are team sports
The launch involved two product teams, UX and visual design, and marketing and sales. Onboarding sits right where all of those meet. Getting everyone to agree on what a successful first experience looks like is as important as building it.
Spandana skipped presentations and built real AI products.
Spandana Kintali was part of the August 2026 cohort at Curious PM, alongside 24 other talented participants.