Users try your product but don't get it
Get on a call with every new user. Yes, every one. Seems crazy, but it works better than any automated flow.
When to use
You're early (first 100-1000 users) and activation matters more than scale.
Hypothesis template
If we walk users through the product on a call instead of letting them figure it out alone, way more of them will actually use it.
Method
The problem: You built great onboarding docs and tooltips. Users skip them. Then they don't understand the product, and they leave.
What Superhuman did: Rahul Vohra personally did 30-minute video calls with
every early user. Every. Single. One.
Why it's not crazy:
- Near 100% of them actually started using the product
- He learned exactly where people got confused
- Users felt special and became fans who told everyone
How to do it:
- Require a call before they get full access (creates scarcity too)
- Structure it: 5 min learning about them, 15 min hands-on (not a demo—they do
it), 10 min questions - Take notes on what confuses people, what they ask for
- Follow up 48 hours later
When to stop: When you've done enough calls to know the pattern. Then build
self-serve onboarding that covers what the calls taught you.
Success metrics
- •How many actually start using it
- •Time to first real use
- •What you learn from the calls
- •Do these users refer others?
Prerequisites
- Calendar booking tool
- Video call capability
- Time to do the calls
- A script so you cover the same things
Common pitfalls
- •Unstructured calls that waste time
- •Not writing down what you learn
- •Keeping calls going forever instead of building self-serve
Source: Superhuman. Rahul onboarded the first 1000 users himself.
Suggested ICE scores
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