Users start setup but never finish
A visible progress bar triggers completion bias. "70% complete" makes people feel compelled to finish what they started.
When to use
Your onboarding has multiple steps and users are dropping off before finishing. Works best when completion is strongly correlated with long-term retention.
Hypothesis template
If we add a progress bar showing [X]% complete during onboarding, more users will finish setup because completion bias makes people want to close the gap.
Method
The problem: Users sign up, fill in their email, maybe one more field... and leave. Your onboarding has 5 steps but only 20% of users finish all of them.
What LinkedIn did: Added a "Profile Strength" meter—a simple progress bar showing how complete your profile was. "Your profile is 70% complete. Add a photo to reach All-Star."
The result: Profile completions increased 55%. Users who filled out more profile fields were significantly more likely to become active, engaged members.
How to do it:
- Define 3-5 key setup steps that lead to your activation moment
- Add a visible progress bar (not hidden in a settings page—put it front and center)
- Show what's next: "Add a profile photo to reach 80%" is better than just "80%"
- Make each step feel quick (under 30 seconds each)
- Celebrate completion—a small animation or "You're all set!" moment
- Don't gate features behind completion—let users skip and come back
Key insight: The Zeigarnik effect: people remember and feel compelled to complete unfinished tasks. A progress bar at 70% creates a psychological itch to close the gap.
Success metrics
- •Onboarding completion rate
- •Steps completed per user
- •Time to complete onboarding
- •Activation rate for completers vs. non-completers
Prerequisites
- Clear onboarding steps that correlate with activation
- UI space for a persistent progress indicator
Common pitfalls
- •Too many steps (keep it to 3-5)
- •Gating features behind onboarding completion
- •Progress bar that doesn't move fast enough (first step should jump to 30%+)
- •Not showing what the next step is
Source: LinkedIn. Profile completions increased 55% with progress bar.
Suggested ICE scores
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