As Sesimi moved thousands of users from its legacy platform to a rebuilt SaaS product, it became clear that migration was only the first step. Users also needed to understand how the new platform worked and how it fitted into their role.
Our early onboarding model relied heavily on live webinars and one-to-one support. That was useful while migration volumes were low, but it could not scale as more clients moved across. It also gave every user broadly the same introduction, even though a content creator, platform administrator and compliance manager needed very different things from the product.
I led the redesign of onboarding from a one-off training event into an ongoing product experience, one that could respond to who a user was, what they had already done and where they were getting stuck.
My role
- Mapped onboarding journeys for content creators, platform administrators and compliance managers
- Designed and implemented behavioural onboarding workflows in Intercom
- Reworked help documentation for AI-assisted and self-service support
- Developed decision trees for guidance across different user states
- Worked with Customer Success to identify common pain points and product misconceptions
- Led the rollout of Product Tours, contextual messages, tooltips and re-engagement campaigns
The challenge
Several months into the platform migration, users were still encountering friction that was not always caused by product functionality. In many cases, the underlying problem was that people did not understand what to do next, where a familiar task had moved or which part of the new platform was relevant to them.
The existing training model treated onboarding as something that happened at the start. A user attended a webinar, received documentation and was then expected to remember the right information when they eventually needed it.
That created two problems. Users could miss important moments of value, and Customer Success repeatedly answered the same questions for different accounts.
Because Sesimi's customers ranged from small teams to complex enterprise organisations, a single linear product tour was not enough. The onboarding system needed to guide new users without getting in the way of experienced ones, and it needed to adapt as roles and account configurations changed.
The approach
I reframed onboarding as a continuous journey rather than a product introduction.
Working with Customer Success, I reviewed support conversations, training feedback and common points of confusion. We then mapped the actions that mattered most for each core user group, including uploading and finding assets, creating approved content, managing users and working within compliance requirements.
From there, I designed a series of Intercom workflows triggered by user behaviour and account context. Instead of explaining the whole platform upfront, we introduced guidance when it became useful.
This included:
- Role-specific welcome journeys for content creators, administrators and compliance managers
- Product Tours and contextual tooltips attached to important tasks
- Follow-up messages when users started but did not complete a key action
- Re-engagement campaigns for people who had not returned to the product
- Decision-tree support that directed users to the right help without requiring a live response
I also rewrote and restructured the help centre so the content worked for both people and Intercom's AI support. The aim was not to automate support for its own sake. It was to make routine help easier to access while leaving Customer Success with more time for account-specific and higher-value conversations.
We reviewed engagement and support patterns through Mixpanel, Intercom and direct customer feedback. That allowed us to adjust timing, simplify steps and remove messages that were not helping.
The outcome
The new onboarding system created a more relevant and scalable way for customers to learn the platform.
- Increased user engagement by 25% across account types following the rollout
- Reduced onboarding-related support requests by an estimated 20 to 30%
- Helped users reach early activation milestones faster and more independently
- Improved early product adoption and reduced the risk of first-year churn
- Established a behavioural onboarding framework that could continue to improve through live usage data and feedback
What I learned
This work changed how I think about onboarding. It is not a tour to complete or a checklist to dismiss. It is the product responding to a user at the moment they need help.
The strongest improvements came from combining product data with the experience of Customer Success. Analytics showed where people stopped, while support conversations helped us understand why.
It also reinforced that self-service should not feel impersonal. Done well, it removes repetitive friction and gives people a clearer sense of progress, while making human support more valuable when it is genuinely needed.