Why onboarding matters more than anything else
A customer decides whether your product was worth it long before the renewal. If the launch drags, if the right people never log in, if the sponsor can't show results to their boss, the renewal is already in trouble. Good onboarding is the cheapest churn prevention there is.
How I run onboarding
1. Kickoff: agree on what success means
Before anything gets configured, we agree on the customer's goals, how we'll measure them, who owns what on both sides and the go-live date.
2. A plan everyone can see
Every task has an owner and a date, on a shared plan. Customers never have to ask where things stand.
3. Technical setup and integrations
I'm hands-on with implementation: user provisioning, integrations, data and configuration. When something needs engineering, I give them a clear, reproducible ask.
4. Training that sticks
Admins get trained to run the product themselves. End users get what they need to start, not a two-hour tour.
5. Go-live, and being there for it
Launch day is where trust is won. I'm there, watching, fixing and communicating until things are stable.
6. The value check
A few weeks after launch, we look at adoption and results against the goals from kickoff, and agree on what's next.
Launches I've delivered
- Harvard: paid content launched on the planned day, despite unforeseen hurdles, while their team was preparing contingency plans.
- A standalone partner: live well before a hard September deadline. Their Executive Director of Training & Technology: "really stepped it up pre-launch and got us through the finish line in record time."
- OpenAI: part of the team launching a partner enablement program on an aggressive timeline, integrated with their partner relationship management system.
- Robinhood: implementation partner, then 7+ hours of launch-day firefighting when notifications and user data didn't behave as expected.
Want the checklist?
I wrote down the full process in the B2B SaaS customer onboarding checklist. If you'd rather have me run it for your customers, book a call.