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Product Tours 101: Guidelines, Inspirations, and Tools for 2024

Build engaging product tours using these six simple guidelines and find inspiration in the best real-life examples.

Product tours are an essential tool for a product manager in guiding users towards their "aha" moment or showcasing high-value features that are being underused.

By offering contextual guidance while your users interact with your product, you help them recognize your product value quickly and take the right action to get their job done.

Creating product tours is both art and science . It requires design and styling, copywriting mastery, as well as data analysis, testing, and iteration until a tour perfectly meets your user needs. 

So how exactly do you create product tours that are effective at customer onboarding? Read on, we'll explain key guidelines in detail, and showcase some of the best examples of product tours out there.

Here is a quick summary video to tell you what this guide will be about:

Product tours are also known as product walkthroughs, in-app guides, onboarding tours, or product tutorials. Either way, they are a powerful tool for user engagement and product adoption. 

What makes a tour successful? To be effective, a tour should be short and non-intrusive, timely and relevant, contextual and informative. 

Each tour will have its purpose , whether it’s to onboard new users, walk existing users through a major interface redesign, or showcase new features. 

There’s no one-size-fits-all, but keep in mind that our Benchmark Report shows that three-step tours are the most effective , with a completion rate of 72%. 

Some of the key guidelines on how to create successful product tours include breaking one long tour into several shorter ones, using clear and concise copy, offering self-serve support, and continuous iteration. We go into details for each guideline below 👇

And, we dissect six best-performing product tour examples for your inspiration.

What are product tours?

Product tours are interactive guides that give s a walkthrough of the product's key features. Their primary goal is to turn new users into active users and drive product adoption, ultimately achieving product-led growth.

On a technical level, product tours are composed of in-app messages that form the onboarding process. They are experiences layered over the product itself and provides an interactive guide while the user is navigating the app.

What are not product tours?

Before we go further into what makes a great product tour, let's talk about what isn't a product tour because there can be some confusion.

Product tours are tools of customer engagement. In other words, they interact with the end-user to boost feature adoption. They are also experiences contained within the product itself.

This means that anything else than the above isn't exactly a product tour. Let's go over two particular examples.

Employee onboarding 

Employee onboarding is the process of integrating new employees into the workplace and helping them adjust to the company's internal processes. It involves activities such as orientation sessions, and training programs.

While there are similarities between employee and product tours, such as the need for clear and structured guidance, they are very different. Product tours focus on user onboarding, which is introducing new users to a product or service, ensuring that they can navigate and utilize it efficiently.

Employee onboarding, on the other hand, is designed to help new hires become productive members of the organization and align with the company's goals and objectives.

Product demos

Product demos are interactive presentations that showcase a product's features to potential customers, aiming to persuade them to make a purchase.

Think of it as a difference between a movie and a video game. A product demo is a movie, because you're simply watching what is occuring, while a product tour is a video game, because you're actively involved in what's happening on the screen.

Remember, true interactive product tours consist of in-app guidance used to onboard users and drive feature adoption.

6 essential guidelines for a successful product tour

So now that we've covered what a product tour is, let's talk about what it takes to create successful product tours that convert new users and help existing users deepen their product knowledge.

Each tour you create will have its purpose – to onboard new users, walk existing users through a major redesign, showcase a new feature, guide customers through a product plan upgrade, or something else that is relevant to your product. 

Let's look into the most important principles and guidelines that will help you build engaging tours.

1. Don't lecture 🤐

When someone signs up for your product, they are excited to play with it and are often not prepared for long introductory tutorials. Showing a comprehensive tour as soon as they land inside your product for the first time will often be met with resistance – users will immediately seek to close/dismiss it. 

In fact, keeping things short has a lot of benefits. We analyzed 58 million Tours made with Chameleon – started within a period of 12 months – and found that top-performing product tours have a clear message with 25 words per step . That's the same length as a Tweet, so each step needs to be concise and instantly understandable. Otherwise, a tour could easily become overwhelming.

Why is this important?

Users typically want to get a "lay of the land" with your product before they are ready for guidance. That's why you need to gradually reveal your tours and offer just the right information at the right time.

Once users understand the basics of your product and how it helps them solve their problems, there will be plenty of time to introduce more advanced functionalities. 

Key takeaways:

Ask whether users are interested in a tour as the first step. Offer a “Snooze” button to enable users to come back at their own convenience. 

Remember that tours are part of your product marketing, so ensure that the messaging and design are compelling, engaging, and aligned with your brand

Use a less-invasive step design (e.g. don't cover the whole screen), or you could risk annoying users. You can go with slide-outs and modals, or enable users to start a tour by triggering a certain element on the page (e.g. icon or a hotspot).

2. Break up the user journey💔

People learn by doing , so giving users a chance to implement your guidance is critical. Long tours increase anxiety because users worry they have to ingest a lot of information before they can use it. And this is also backed up by psychology.

Miller's Law states that the average person can keep up to around seven items in their working memory. This means that the fewer items your users have to retain, the more successful they will be in learning new information. This is why you should build your Tours in as few steps as possible.

Findings from our 2022 Benchmark Report show that three-step tours are the most effective with a completion rate of 72% , three-step tours are the most effective, hands down. Add one step and the completion rate drops to 45%, while seven-step tours have a completion rate of only 16%.

In other words, people like shorter tours.

With timely, relevant, and contextual tours, you will navigate users step by step through each action they need to take. This way, you avoid overwhelming them with too much information to comprehend at once. Here is our CEO Pulkit explaining more in detail why this is so important:

Don't try to teach everything. Pick a single user action as the goal, and create a 3-step tour to convince a user to take that action.

Create many smaller tours rather than a single long tour. With Chameleon, you can also prioritize and sequence your Tours.

Copy is your #1 lever, make it clear, concise, and benefit-focused. Use copy to encourage users, make them feel comfortable, and put off any doubts they may have.

3. Provide value 💡

Users should feel thankful after seeing your tour. It should not be annoying or draining in any way for them to complete the tour, so don't ask them to undertake lots of work to get value.

Instead, surprise and delight them with additional information that they would not have otherwise gleaned from your interface.

If users don't find your tours valuable, they will exit and be less open to further teaching in the future – so it's vital that you don't reduce your credibility by building irrelevant tours.

On the other hand, our benchmark data shows that users are 4.5x more likely to complete a second tour if they complete the first instead of dismissing it.

Review your tour: Did you enjoy going through it? Ask your teammates, too. And, don't forget to ask your users directly for their feedback. 

You can use Customer Effort Score surveys (more specific and actionable than NPS) to measure user satisfaction with key features or UX/UI elements. 

Assess how well your tours are performing – make sure you have connected your product analytics tool to see a bigger picture. For this, if you're using Chameleon, leverage deep integrations with Mixpanel, Heap, Amplitude, and other tools to easily see performance data.

4. Embrace self-discovery 🔦

Although it's natural to want to pull your users through all of the hoops you want them to jump through, using product tours to do this will fail. You simply cannot force a user to use your product, and highlighting everything you want them to do is a bad way to encourage engagement.

For instance, our research shows that enabling users to take a tour at their own pace by providing a  “Snooze” button  will increase the chance of more users taking the tour and, eventually, completing it. Our 2023 Benchmark Report found that when given the option to snooze, one in five users will come back to the Tour to finish it, which is much better than them skipping it altogether.

Or consider onboarding checklists. These self-serve widgets allow users to go through the onboarding process at their own pace, and increasingly it is becoming a preferred method of onboarding in contrast to linear product tours.

Don't take our word for it. That's what the users say. Our 2023 Benchmark Report revealed that Tours started from Launchers had a 61.65% completion rate , which is almost double the average.

The BJ Fogg Behavior Model explains that people take action when they are motivated, they have the ability, and they are triggered, so you need a combination of these three elements to keep your users engaged. Focus on motivating users to take the action and offer self-serve support to enable users to learn at their own pace.  

Keep behavioral principles in mind when creating a tour, and make sure your users have the motivation, ability, and the right prompt to take action.

Focus your copy on explaining why a user should take certain actions; what value will they gain from doing so.

Use tours to highlight the most fundamental aspects of your product. For other ancillary features, use single-step tours as signposts.

5. Don't set it and forget it 😴

Traditionally, user onboarding was a set-and-forget project – teams would spend weeks overhauling the onboarding flow, then shift focus away, and repeat after 12 months. This is an inefficient and ineffective way to use product tours. Instead, collect feedback constantly on your product tours and iterate based on user feedback to continuously improve them.

For instance, a simple in-app survey like this one from Paypal below can go a long way in gathering constant feedback:

To keep up with ever-evolving user needs, apply Agile principles to the tour creation. Once you've built your tour, focus on collecting user feedback, analyzing the performance data, and iterate on until you're satisfied with the outcome.

Be outcome-driven, not output-driven. Focus on a key quantitative goal and continue to focus on improving your product tour until you get there.

Set a conversion goal, beyond the completion of the tour. For example, you can use Chameleon for this, as it lets you track goals (such as clicks) without writing any code.

Provide clear accountability to someone on your team to own product tours and be responsible for regular updates.

6. Timing and context are key

Lastly, when it comes to delivering a great product tour, it's important to give users value exactly when and where they need it. For instance, if you have a tour that tells the user about a new feature, it should only launch when that feature is present on the page.

Our data from the 2023 Benchmark Report suggests that Tours positioned relative to on-page triggers have a completion rate of 69.56% which is well over the average, meaning that Tours that are contextually related to what is on-page are much more well-received.

Or better yet, have your Tours trigger only when there is user interest. Such as when users hover over certain icons to find out more or click on an element. Below are some examples of this.

Another way to do this is to target different user segments to see what context is best for optimal engagement. Not all product tours have to be shown to everyone. Show the right ones to the right users.

If your Tour pops out when it isn't wanted or it isn't related to what is being served, it'll only cause a negative experience for the user.

On the other hand, if your Tour actually helps the user along and educates them, that adds constructively to the experience, which means they're more likely to find value in your product.

Be mindful of the context that your tour is being launched under. Is it related to the experience? Is it something the user will find useful? The answer should be nothing but yes.

Think about when you're serving the Tour. Is it actually wanted? Or is it just a nuisance? Your Tours should be gentle nudges, not an intrusion. Try to trigger your Tours when there is a sign of user interest, such as a hover or a click over the element.

6 excellent product tour examples for your inspiration

We gathered some excellent real-life examples to show you how SaaS companies are using product tours effectively. Let's dive in.

Psst... If you want to see more examples, browse our Inspiration Gallery .

Example #1: Heap

Heap is a product analytics platform, and the first-time setup is more complex than something you simply use like Dropbox or Gmail. It's B2B software that needs to be configured for your product, so it comes as an 'empty bucket' that the user has to invest in.

Source: Heap

To reduce friction and help users make it through the rocky first mile, Heap built its product tour to coach the user through tasks that make its product's specific capabilities clear: set events, segment users, track conversions, and build reports.

Its tour has two interlinked parts – a user onboarding checklist and hotspots that trigger tooltips, showing the user how to complete each checklist task.

The tooltip copy helps clarify feature-specific language by offering examples that are rooted in a Heap user's everyday work.

The checklist gives users context on their setup progress and acts as a powerful motivator. Ticking checklist tasks sends small bursts of dopamine to the brain and makes your users feel good. 😄

Example #2: Typeform

Source: Typeform

As an online forms software, Typeform is a Swiss army knife that can be used for lead generation, event registration, IT incident reports, fun office quizzes, and more. Because it's so open-ended, Typeform's onboarding tour depends on the user’s job to be done and whether they want to start from scratch or use a template.

The templates offered are a masterclass in Typeform best practices. They use advanced features like logic jumps and custom branding to cement the product's possibilities in the user's head and coach the user to make successful forms. 

For Typeform, the pre-made forms themselves act as the product tours – sequential, educational, and driven by tangible examples. This is a great way to drive users to the “aha!” moment quickly.

Example #3: Slack

We are familiar with the explosive growth Slack has had, and a big component of it was how easy, friendly, and fun it was to set up at the beginning.

Source: Slack

Slack uses bright tooltips and personable copy in its now-legendary product tour . The series of tooltips highlight public channels and direct messages to help the user understand the differences, benefits, and product terminology.

As well as clearly communicating brand personality with a laid-back tone, the product tour gets you chatting with a bot straight away to instantly teach you the core mechanics.

Want to create a similar tour for your product? Check out the video below to see how to re-create Slack's user onboarding experience with Chameleon 😎

Chameleon Recipes: Recreating Slack's User Onboarding

Example #4: Dropbox Paper

Dropbox Paper understands that its users want to create collaborative documents that are easy to share and fun to use. So, its product tour is built into a gorgeous example document – Getting Started with Dropbox Paper.

Source: Dropbox Paper

The document is packed with hotspots that show rich video tooltips explaining the core features of Paper: changing formatting, adding files, and – of course – inserting emoji.

In a fun product aimed at creatives instead of enterprise executives, it makes a lot of sense to sell the benefits of emoji so early; Dropbox shows the feature off even before it explains how to format code or embed files 🤓

Example #5: Airtable

It looks delightfully like it was built by Fisher-Price, but Airtable is a very complex product that condenses the power of an SQL database into something as simple as Google Sheets.

Source: Airtable

To simplify that inherent complexity, Airtable's product tour shows snippets of high-level information and practical gifs on a self-serve basis .

The multicolored row of icons in the bottom right each represents one part of the tour and highlights a specific feature with its core benefit and a call-to-action.

Example #6: Pipefy

With Chameleon Launchers, Pipefy created a self-serve onboarding checklist, which can be toggled on and off. It also added a progress bar to keep people on track wherever they are in the onboarding process.

What you should look for in a good product tour software

Now that you know how to build great product tours, you might be thinking about getting a product tour tool or in order to create interactive walkthroughs.

There are many options out there and you may be unsure of which is the best product tour software for you. So we want to leave you with essential features that you should have when you get one.

No-code editor

First and foremost, your tool should be code free, so that you could do everything without relying on your engineering team. What makes a product tour software a great solution is that it saves resources, and a big part of that comes from not having to take development support.

Therefore, the tool of your choice should require zero coding knowledge to create an effective interactive product tour.

Fully customizable styling

Nothing derails the user journey like an experience that looks way off your brand style. From simple things like fonts, colors, and button shapes to custom CSS, you should be able to tailor every single in-product experience to look 100% on-brand .

Deep integrations

Your team likely uses a stack of tools for various purposes, whether it's a CRM or an advanced analytics tool. Therefore, for the best results, your product tour software should be able to integrate deeply with a broad range of other SaaS products.

Now you might be thinking, why don't you just get an all-in-one tool rather than a focused and extensive product tour software? This is true, there are few like this, such as Intercom Product Tours, which is a product tour add on to its core offering of customer communication.

The problem with jack-of-all-trades tools is that they're always missing something compared to the next best product tour software alternative, and they also may not accommodate your specific needs from a product tour tool. There is merit to integrating the best tools together to create a stack that is optimally customized to your goals. 

Native A/B testing

We talked about why it's important to take feedback and iterate your tours to improve. For that, it's best to experiment and test different versions of your product walkthroughs to know what really works.

Thus, you should be able to set up native A/B testing right from your product tour solution.

Contextual targeting

A product walkthrough that gives the same experience to every user is not as effective as a hyper-targeted one. Because user behavior may diverge depending on various attributes such as profiles, as well as key actions taken during the user journey.

You can create a much more user friendly product tour by tailoring tours according to different context. For that, you need product tour features that allow you to target and adapt.

For instance, with Chameleon you can create custom audiences and configure environments, as well as decide how certain Tours will trigger.

Thorough Help Documentation

Even if support is top-notch, they can't be there for you 24/7. In fact, the best kind of support is one that solves the problem before you ever have to get in touch with the support team. That's where the help documentation shines.

Great help documentation improves user onboarding, reduces the learning curve, provides consistent and accurate information, enables self-service support, and ensures scalability and accessibility. Overall, it enhances user satisfaction and promotes effective utilization of the tool.

So watch for how effective and thorough the tool's help docs are.

Chameleon's help center provides answers for all kinds of issues and troubles.

Technical reliability

Last, but not least, technical reliability is a must-have. If your product adoption software is slowing your product down overall, or it's making your product less usable, that defeats the purpose.

So make sure to look out for how technically robust the tool is. Try out all sorts of functionalities in various contexts. If your product has a specific requirement, make sure that the requirement is smoothly fulfilled with the tool. These include but are not limited to:

Mobile support

Single Page Application support

iFrame support

Shadow DOM support

100% uptime

If your app is built on one of these frameworks, make sure it's supported by your tool of choice.

5 Product Tour Builders You Should Check Out

Now that we've talked about everything that has to do with product tours, and what you should look for in product tour software, we'll leave you with a simple list of recommendations

1. Chameleon: The best-in-class product adoption platform

We pinky promise that we say this with no bias. Chameleon is currently the product adoption platform with the deepest configuration and customization options.

From the way you can style your experiences to match your brand, as well as set granular targeting options, Chameleon is what you need if you're looking to create sophisticated product tours.

Pricing starts at $279 a month for up to 2,000 MAUs.

👉 Explore an interactive demo and see how easy it is to build a product Tour with Chameleon, without any code.

2. Appcues: If you need iOS and Android mobile product tours

If you want to create product tours for mobile apps, then Appcues is your answer. Appcues is one of the most popular tools in the product adoption space, but what really sets it apart is native mobile onboarding for iOS and Android applications.

Pricing starts at $249 a month for up to 2,500 MAUs and cost is adjusted depending on how many users you'll be tracking as well as what more features you need.

3. Pendo: For those looking for product tours and onboarding in one

If you're looking for analytics tools in addition to product tours, then Pendo is what you might be looking for. Pendo is a bit of a jack of all trades. Every product tour software comes with some kind of analytics dashboard, but Pendo's analytics solution is more advanced than your typical product tour builder.

So if you want to have both analytics and product tours in one solution instead of paying for two. This is an option. If you have an existing analytics tool, Pendo might be an overkill.

4. UserGuiding: The budget option that is simple and straightforward

If the price tag of the above tools scares you a bit, then there is a cheaper option: UserGuiding. at $89 a month for up to 2,500 MAUs, it essentially has all the basic product tour features you would need to build something with.

Of course, as you get deeper into building more sophisticated product tours, you might want to invest in something better, but if you're budget-conscious, UserGuiding is where you can start.

5. IntroJS: An open-source library for DIY product teams

IntroJS is not exactly a builder. It is a lightweight JavaScript library for creating interactive product tours and user onboarding. For teams with dev resource to spare, IntroJS can be a reasonable option, especially because it involves almost no cost at a one time fee of $9.99 for a commercial license.

Plus, it seems to have more support and frequent updates than other open source JavaScript libraries, which makes sense considering big brands like Amzon and SAP use the library.

Engage more users and drive customer success with masterful product tours

Take away these core guidelines and key principles, create guided tours, and start testing and iterating until perfect. It's time for you to apply these lessons to your own product tour.

Before you know it, you'll be building effective product tours that can drive lots of happiness (and learning!) for your users , as well as increased user engagement for your product.

We're always happy to help – if you'd like to speak with one of our product specialists to learn what product tours you should be building based on your goals, let's talk! You can book a demo below, or start using Chameleon for free to explore by yourself and get a sense of what your next product will look like.

Build in-app guides to retain users

Chameleon makes it easy for product teams to create product tours, tooltips, onboarding checklists, and in-app surveys without code.

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The Ultimate Guide to Product Tours in 2024

Modern enterprise software buyers have a lot of choices. Instead of long, drawn-out RFPs, buyers want to see products firsthand. Forrester research shows that 60% of buyers will go to a vendor’s website before accepting an online or in-person sales meeting.

As a result, the ability to effectively showcase the value and features of your offering to users is critical. Product tours, or product demos , have emerged as a powerful tool to engage, educate, and convert prospective users. This comprehensive guide will dive into detail on product tours, exploring what they are, why they matter, and how to create them successfully. We will also discuss the tools and software that can streamline the process, as well as showcase some of the best product tours.

What is a Product Tour?

A product tour is an interactive, guided walkthrough that introduces users to the key features, functionalities, and benefits of a digital product or service. Think of it as a virtual guide taking users on a journey through your product, highlighting its value and guiding them to their desired outcomes.

The Importance of Product Tours

Product tours are not just a nice-to-have in your product marketing strategy , they are a strategic tool that plays a pivotal role in bridging the gap between your offering and your users. In fact, product tours can be more effective than traditional PLG tactics such as SaaS free trials. Understanding the significance of product tours is crucial for businesses looking to engage, educate, and convert users effectively.

1. Faster Sales Cycles and Higher Conversion Rates

The moment a user visits your website, their level of engagement can determine whether they stay, explore your product, and eventually speak with sales or convert into customers. This is a use case where product tours shine. Product tours capture users’ attention right from the start, allowing them to experience the product for themselves before committing to a sales conversation. After speaking with sales, your champions can use product tours as a tool to convert other committee decision-makers.

By engaging prospective buyers and potential customers, assisting them in onboarding, and ensuring they discover the product’s key features, tours can significantly boost conversion rates. Users who understand a product thoroughly are more likely to take the desired key actions, whether it’s making a purchase or adopting a higher product tier than they have today.

2. Onboarding Assistance

The onboarding process can be a make-or-break moment for many users. If it’s overly complex or confusing, users may abandon your product before experiencing its true value. Product tours act as expert guides during this critical phase, ensuring that users get started quickly and smoothly. They serve as a roadmap, increasing customer satisfaction and reducing any initial hesitation users may have.

3. Feature Adoption & Discovery

Many complex products offer a wide variety of features and capabilities. However, users may not be aware of all these features, or how to use them effectively. This is where interactive guides like product tours are effective educators. They systematically introduce users to each feature, explaining its value and providing hands-on experience. This ensures that users don’t miss out on any of the product’s capabilities.

In summary, product tours are a strategic tool that can significantly impact conversion rates, customer engagement, onboarding success, and feature utilization. When designed thoughtfully and executed effectively, product tours become the cornerstone of a user-centric approach, fostering positive user experiences and long-lasting relationships with your product or service.

Essential Elements of a Successful Product Tour

Creating effective product tours involves integrating several critical elements that collectively enhance user experience and maximize the tour’s effectiveness. These elements ensure that users not only engage with the tour but also gain a deep understanding of your product or service.

User-Friendly Design

At the core of a successful product tour is a user-friendly design. A well-thought-out design serves as the foundation upon which the entire tour is built. It encompasses both the visual aesthetics and the navigational aspects of the tour. Ideally, your product tour will look and feel like your real product, and show off your product in the best possible light.

• Visual Aesthetics:  A visually appealing design captivates users from the moment they start the tour. It should align with your brand identity, while putting the product’s most prominent features front and center.
• Navigation: Navigational ease is equally crucial. Users should be able to effortlessly move through the tour. This reduces friction and ensures that users remain focused on the tour’s content.

Interactive Presentation

Interactivity is a hallmark of an effective product tour. Interactive product tours and product walkthroughs transform a passive viewing experience into an engaging journey where users can visualize themselves using your product and immerse themselves in the content.

• Engagement: Interactive elements, such as tooltips, quizzes, and surveys, grab users’ attention and maintain their interest throughout the tour. That way, users are not passive observers, but active participants in the product tour experience.
• Effective Recall: People tend to remember information better when they actively engage with it. Interactive elements make it more likely that users will retain the knowledge shared during the tour and ultimately become more qualified prospects.
• User Feedback: Interactive tours provide valuable opportunities for collecting user feedback. Users don’t always have to participate in solicited feedback such as surveys. Interactive demo platforms provide user analytics that detail areas of engagement, so you can pinpoint which areas of your product tour generate the most engagement.

Clear, Concise Information

The effective communication of information is key during a product tour. Clarity and conciseness are essential to ensure that users grasp the key messages without feeling overwhelmed.

• Effective Communication: Clear and concise information ensures that users not only receive the message but also understand it. Try to avoid complex jargon and lengthy explanations in favor of straightforward language.
• Time Efficiency: Today’s users appreciate efficiency. Keeping descriptions brief allows users to quickly digest essential details without spending excessive time on the tour.
• Reduced Cognitive Load: Cognitive load refers to the mental effort required to process information. A well-structured tour with clear and concise information minimizes cognitive load, making it easier for users to absorb and retain knowledge.

Achieving the right balance between brevity and completeness can be challenging, but it is crucial. While it’s essential to provide sufficient information, it’s equally vital not to overwhelm users with unnecessary details. That’s why any successful product tour is built upon these essential elements: a user-friendly design that captivates users visually and simplifies navigation, interactive elements that engage users and facilitate effective learning, and clear, concise information that ensures effective communication.

Mastering these elements can significantly enhance the impact of your product tour, resulting in more engaged users and higher rates of conversion. Keep in mind that choosing an interactive demo platform with analytics will help you understand exactly how your buyers are engaging with your product tour, so you can refine your tour to optimize conversions.

Step-by-Step Guide to Creating Product Tours

Now let’s answer the question: How do you create a product tour? Let’s navigate through this journey step by step.

Step 1: Define the Flow of the Product Tour

Defining the flow of your product tour is where the journey begins. It’s the foundational step that shapes the entire tour experience. However, it’s not without its challenges and potential setbacks. Here are a few things to consider in this process.

• Clarity of Purpose: Defining the flow is essential to ensure that your tour aligns with your objectives. Without a clear purpose, your tour may wander aimlessly, leaving users confused and disengaged. A lack of a well-defined purpose can result in a disjointed and confusing tour that fails to meet user expectations. For example, if the objective is site conversions, you want to think about where to put your CTA. If it’s new feature awareness, it’s important to hide all other features that might serve as a distraction.
• User-Centric Approach: Structuring the tour based on user needs and goals is recommended, but a one-size-fits all tour may not be the right approach for your company. Users are diverse, and their pain points or use cases may vary dramatically. Incorrect assumptions about user segment preferences can lead to a tour that doesn’t resonate with the target audience, so it’s worth investing in a tool that can streamline the process of creating more personalized tours targeted at a variety of personas.
• Efficient Development: A well-defined flow can streamline the development process if you aren’t using an interactive demo platform. Even so, when requirements change, adapting the tour can be time-consuming. Keep in mind that frequent changes in requirements can disrupt the development timeline, potentially delaying the tour’s launch. Working with a low-code or no-code tool can help product marketers and other stakeholders like sales AEs build interactive product tours themselves, minimizing involvement from developers or SEs.

Step 2: Design Each Step of the Product Tour

Designing each step of the product walkthrough involves creating the visuals, interactive elements, and content that will guide users. When crafting your product tour, keep the following things in mind:

• Visual Appeal: Effective design captivates users and leaves a lasting impression. However, creating a visually appealing product tour can be resource-intensive, requiring skilled designers and creative effort. Using a dedicated interactive demo creation tool can make your product tour look and feel exactly like your product, taking the lift off of designers and creatives on your team.
• Alignment with Brand: Consistent design reinforces your brand identity, but achieving this alignment can be challenging. Maintaining a harmonious visual theme throughout the tour while accommodating various design elements can be complex. Keep in mind that consistent branding strengthens brand recognition and trust.
• User Engagement: Thoughtful design can keep users engaged throughout the tour, but it also raises concerns about implementation. Making design changes after implementation can be a complex and time-consuming process if you aren’t using an interactive demo tool. An inflexible design can result in a static tour that fails to adapt to changing user needs or feedback.

Step 3: Implement User Feedback

User feedback is invaluable for refining your product tour over time. With the right user analytics, this process becomes much simpler.

• Continuous Improvement: Embracing user feedback is essential for tour enhancement over time. However, the process of collecting, analyzing, and implementing feedback can be resource-intensive, requiring dedicated efforts. It doesn’t have to be that way. Choose a solution that provides product tour advanced analytics, so you can understand exactly which aspects of your demo resonate with your users.
• User-Centric Approach: Implementing user suggestions demonstrates that you value their input, but it can be challenging to strike the right balance. Differing opinions among users can lead to conflicting feedback. When in doubt, it may be easiest to tailor multiple, custom demos if feedback differs dramatically.
• Bug Detection: Users can be valuable bug detectors, but addressing technical issues highlighted by active users can be resource and time-consuming. It’s possible to avoid technical demo failures by using a demo creation tool that’s divorced from your product’s backend, so that if anything goes wrong with your software in production, demo users won’t see it.

Creating a Product Tour with the Best Product Tour Tool

Many marketers and product teams develop product tours without the aid of a dedicated demo creation platform. The process often involves the following steps:

• Seeking Expert Guidance: Product marketers reach out to technical experts, typically SEs or developers, for insights into the latest features or updates. Technical experts, while willing to help, often have tight schedules, leaving marketers with limited time for guidance and collaboration.
• Manual Recording:  The SE creating the demo usually then enters the live product environment and manually records each step of the user experience, from login to navigation. The process can be meticulous and time-consuming, demanding substantial effort.
• Dependency on Live Product: Since the team is dependent on a live product, a lot can go wrong. Also, teams often need to wait until new features are live before creating the next demo, leading to a cyclical process of having to reinvent the wheel for each new tour.

Leveraging a Demo Creation Platform

To contrast, many teams use a dedicated demo creation platform, such as Reprise, to craft product tours. This method introduces efficiency into the process, since it’s easy to create a tour without substantial effort from developers or SEs. Here are some of the key benefits of using a demo creation platform:

• Selective Screen Capture: Teams select only the screens they wish to feature in the demo, bypassing the need for time-consuming login or homepage steps. In some cases, they can access test environments to preview features that may not be available yet.
• Focused Content: Rather than elaborating on every single feature, demo creators can  focus on capturing the ‘aha moments,’ or the critical interactions that resonate with users and accelerate time-to-value.
• Efficiency and Precision: The entire process — including demo creation, data cleanup, and anonymization — can be completed in a matter of hours, without the need for coding skills. If you need to tailor more demos to a different persona, it’s easy to start with a golden demo and make edits to customize it to each user group.
• Flexibility for Updates: When new features are introduced, demo creators can effortlessly swap out a few screens, avoiding the need to recreate the entire demo.

Modern B2B buyers increasingly seek tangible experiences with products. Marketers or product teams relying on a manual approach may struggle to bridge the gap between technical functionality and user experience, limiting their ability to offer immersive demos. To contrast, leveraging demo creation software empowers marketers to create interactive, engaging, and personalized experiences without the need for coding skills. This approach frees up SEs for strategic, technical demos later in the sales cycle, where their time and talent is best spent.

Inside the Reprise Interactive Demo Creation Platform

Product demos on a company’s website are one of the first resources buyers use during their evaluation process. According to Gartner, modern buyers only spend 17% of their time meeting with suppliers, and highly value when companies provide information (like product tours) up front to navigate their purchase. Once the prospect reaches sales, demos become a critical tool in accelerating the buying cycle even further. Sales AEs and SEs leverage demos to tell detailed stories, showcasing how products meet prospects’ specific pain points.

The Reprise demo creation platform is meant to address needs throughout the GTM lifecycle, via three integrated products:

• Reprise Reveal™: easy customization of live demos by presales and sales teams for a first call
• Reprise Replay™: creation of interactive product tours and guided demos by marketing and presales teams
• Reprise Replicate™: cloning of a full application to create a reusable, interactive demo environment

The goal is to make it easy to start with Reprise, and provide the flexibility, extensibility, scale and security to expand to hundreds or thousands of enterprise users across multiple use cases.

For product tours specifically, demo creators can build their own interactive product demos quickly and easily. Walk-through guides that help tell a product’s story — without extensive technical resources. Global find and replace capabilities make it easy to edit demos and anonymize data on the fly. Finally, demo analytics and user activity insights show teams which demos are performing the best, and which features resonate most with specific users.

Best Product Tours

So, now that we know how to create one, what makes the best product tour? Let’s walk through some of the criteria that make product tours most effective:

• Clarity: Focus only on the aspects of your product that are most relevant to the target user, avoiding a “feature dump” style of demo that can easily lose users in the details.
• Engagement: Regularly review your demo analytics to understand what parts of your demo generate the most engagement with users. Refine your demos over time and focus them on what resonates best.
• Conversion: The right product tour can help you generate leads and convert them to  qualified prospects for your sales team. In fact, Reprise-powered demos delivered 60% uplift in average website interactions converted to leads, and a 50% increase in average conversion from lead to pipeline.
• Reusability and Customization: With a demo creation platform like Reprise, you can reuse and customize demos to avoid reinventing the wheel. That way, you can create custom demos based on certain features, pain points, or use cases. According to the same study cited above, Reprise users experienced a 400% increase in demo capacity, without SE involvement.

Top Product Tour Examples

The Reprise platform enables teams to create interactive product tours for a variety of use cases. Here are a few examples of highly effective Reprise-powered demos.

• Pendo, a product experience company, leverages interactive walkthroughs as an alternative to free trials for prospects. The company’s marketing team has spun up an extensive demo library to showcase all of its offerings. The company’s demos are the highest-performing CTA, dominating website conversions and scaling to 200,000 visitors per month.

• EvaluAgent’s quality assurance platform is so robust that it almost needs to be test driven in order to grasp its full potential. As a result, the EvaluAgent team launched an entire library of custom, interactive product tours that highlight specific product features. The brand sees more than 400 monthly visits to its interactive product tours, resulting in faster sales cycles. Check out how EvaluAgent created a library of product feature demos , with popups like the one in the screenshot below.

We hope this guide has been helpful to get you started on your journey to creating effective product tours. Let’s address some of the most common questions.

 How Do I Make a Product Tour?

Creating a product tour involves defining the flow, designing each step, and implementing interactive elements. Utilizing a demo creation platform like Reprise can streamline the process.

How Effective Are Product Tours?

Well-crafted product tours can significantly enhance user engagement and conversion rates, delivering more qualified leads to your sales team. As noted above, Reprise-powered product tours and demos delivered 60% uplift in average website interactions converted to leads, and a 50% increase in average conversion from lead to pipeline.

How Do You Make a Good Product Tour?

A good product tour is user-friendly, interactive, and provides clear, concise information. It aligns with user needs and objectives, and doesn’t overwhelm the user with too much information on features and functionality.

What Are Product Tour Trends to Watch?

More and more companies will be considering how to incorporate demos throughout their GTM lifecycle — not just as an initial product tour on the website. For example, companies will expand their use cases for demos to include live demos, interactive demos, conferences and events, and leave-behinds for committee decision-makers. As a result, the role of an all-in-one, interactive demo platform will become more prominent. It will become crucial to enable sales and marketing teams to deliver hundreds or even thousands of demos without the need for extra technical resources.

In this comprehensive guide, we’ve covered everything you need to know about product tours in 2023, from their fundamental elements to the step-by-step process of creating them to some of the best examples in the industry. Remember, the key to a successful product tour is to take a user-centric approach. Think about how to tailor your demo to your key personas and use cases to deliver a memorable and engaging experience for your audience.

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Thinkific Plus

Essential product tour best practices for engaging user experiences, share this article.

Discover the top product tour best practices to enhance user engagement and provide a seamless onboarding experience. Learn from real-world examples and expert tips.

Skip Ahead: 

All you need to know about product tours

What is a product tour, key elements of an effective product tour, step-by-step guide to creating a product tour.

• Checklist for product tour design

Real-world examples of successful product tours

Measuring the success of your product tour, common mistakes to avoid.

You know your product has the potential to transform the way people learn online. But the key to unlocking this potential lies in how you introduce it to your users. That’s where product tours come in — they’re not just a feature, they are your first interaction with the user, setting the tone for their entire experience.

The success of your customers hinges on how well they can navigate and engage with your product from the get-go. This article is crafted to guide you through the nuances of creating product tours that are informative,  engaging, and tailored to your audience’s needs.

By the end of this read, you’ll have a clear understanding of best practices to craft product tours that resonate with your audience. Our goal is to equip you with the knowledge and confidence to create experiences that educate and empower your users, fostering a connection with your product from the first click.

A product tour is your first chance to communicate with your users. It’s an interactive guide that introduces your digital product’s key features and functionalities. The purpose? To make users feel comfortable and confident as they navigate your platform. Think of it as a friendly, knowledgeable guide that walks new users through your digital landscape, helping them understand how to get the most out of your product from the start.

Product tours are critical in user onboarding and throughout the user journey. They’re the bridge connecting users to your product’s value proposition. A well-crafted tour not only showcases the features but also aligns them with the user’s needs and goals, ensuring they understand the immediate benefits of your platform. This understanding transforms a first-time user into a long-term, engaged learner.

Why they should be used

Users frequently face a learning curve in the digital world, especially with sophisticated software. Product tours are instrumental in smoothing this journey, perfectly balancing instructional support with user autonomy. Here are key reasons why product tours are essential:

• Streamlining user experience: A thoughtfully designed product tour simplifies the learning curve, particularly for complex enterprise SaaS products. It focuses on teaching users about the key features most relevant to their roles, making the learning process more intuitive and less daunting.
• Driving meaningful action: Beyond just showcasing features, product tours guide users to take action. This approach of ‘learning by doing’ ensures knowledge retention and helps users master your product more quickly. It’s about moving from passive observation to active participation.
• Enhancing user engagement: Well-executed product tours reduce friction in the onboarding process. A smooth initial experience with your product increases the likelihood of continued engagement, helping users recognize and appreciate your tool’s value. This is pivotal in boosting user retention rates.
• Expedited onboarding: Product tours accelerate the learning process. By guiding users through essential features and functions, they enable quicker proficiency and reduce the time it takes for users to derive value from your product.
• Reduced support requests: By providing a clear and comprehensive introduction to your product, these tours can significantly decrease the volume of support inquiries. Users are more likely to understand how to use your product effectively, encountering fewer issues requiring support.
• Fostering the ‘Aha’ moment: The ultimate goal of user onboarding is to lead users to the ‘aha moment’ — the point where they recognize the value of your product. A well-crafted product tour can hasten this realization, propelling users toward full product adoption .

They are not product demos

Product demos are like interactive presentations aimed at potential customers. They showcase a product’s features and benefits to persuade the audience toward a purchase. However, unlike product tours, demos are typically passive experiences where the audience observes rather than interacts.

If a product demo is a movie, a product tour is more like a video game. In a movie (demo), you’re an observer of what’s happening, while in a video game (product tour), you’re actively engaged and involved in the experience.

Product tours are defined by their interactive, in-app nature. They’re tools for onboarding users to a product, helping them understand and adopt its features effectively. This sets them apart from other forms of customer engagement and educational tools.

Crafting a product tour that resonates with your users involves several critical elements. Here’s an expanded look at what makes a product tour not just functional but impactful:

Personalization and contextual engagement

• Segmented approach: Tailor your product tours to different user roles, offering a personalized experience that speaks directly to each user’s unique needs and objectives.
• Action-triggered tours: Initiate tours based on specific user actions, ensuring that tutorials are contextually relevant and appear at just the right moment.
• Match UI patterns with use cases: Choose UI patterns best suited for each part of your tour. For example, use pop-up modals for welcome messages and tooltips for quick feature explanations.
• Design consistency: Ensure a seamless experience by maintaining consistency in design across all elements of your product tour.
• Conciseness and relevance: Keep your product tours brief and focused, quickly demonstrating your product’s value without overwhelming users with lengthy steps.
• Focus on the ‘why’: Go beyond instructions to explain the value behind each action, fostering deeper user engagement and adoption.
• Continuous updates: Regularly review and update your product tours based on user interaction data, optimizing the onboarding experience.
• Skip option: Allow users the flexibility to skip the tour, catering to those who prefer a more hands-on approach or are already familiar with your product.

Engagement techniques

• Interactive elements: Use features like clickable areas, animations, or quizzes to keep users engaged and promote active learning.
• Pacing: Find the right balance in the pace of your tour to maintain user interest while allowing sufficient time for information absorption.

Clarity and simplicity

• Clear and concise content: Provide straightforward, jargon-free information. Each step should clearly contribute to the user’s journey and understanding.
• Purpose-driven steps: Ensure every part of the tour serves a meaningful purpose in the broader context of user education and engagement.

Creating an engaging and effective product tour is a structured process. Let’s walk through the essential steps:

Planning your product tour

Effective planning is the foundation of a successful product tour. Here’s how to approach this phase with precision and purpose:

• Define objectives: Start with a clear vision of your goal. Are you aiming to increase feature adoption, enhance user engagement, or reduce onboarding time? Your objectives will guide every aspect of your tour.
• Identify key features: Determine the critical features and functionalities that need to be highlighted. Understand how these align with your users’ needs and contribute to the overall value of your product.
• Map the user journey: Visualize the user’s path during the tour. Consider the logical flow of information — how one step leads to another- to ensure a coherent narrative that gradually builds users’ understanding and skills.
• Sequence and structure: Decide on the order in which to present information. The sequence should feel natural and intuitive, guiding users from basic features to more complex functionalities.
• End goal visualization: Remember the ultimate goal of enabling users to effectively understand and utilize your product. Every element of the tour should contribute towards this end.

Designing for different user segments

When crafting your product tour, recognize each user’s uniqueness. Design a tour that adapts to various user segments, acknowledging their differing experience levels, interests, and usage patterns. This tailored approach is not just about inclusion but effectively connecting with every user.

• Segmentation by needs and interests: Understand that users have diverse needs and preferences. A survey reveals that 67% of customers favor self-exploration over extensive interactions with representatives. This preference highlights the importance of delivering a product tour that aligns with individual user preferences.
• Customized content for each segment: Avoid overwhelming users with generic or irrelevant information. Customize your tour by dividing your audience into distinct segments and then tailor the content to suit each group. This might involve creating different versions of your tour or using adaptive content that evolves based on user actions and feedback.
• Engagement through relevance: By providing a product tour experience specific to their needs and interests, you’re more likely to see higher levels of engagement. Tailored tours make new customers or prospects feel seen and understood, leading to better outcomes in terms of their learning, engagement, and overall satisfaction with your product.
• Continuous adaptation: Remember that user needs can evolve. Review user feedback and engagement data regularly to refine your customer segmentation strategies. This ongoing adaptation ensures that your product tour remains relevant and effective for all user segments over time.

The key to designing for different user segments while avoiding learning barriers is balancing personalization and inclusivity. By acknowledging the unique journey of each user, you create a product tour that resonates more deeply, fostering a sense of belonging and understanding. This approach enhances the user experience and reinforces your product’s perception as user-centric and adaptable to diverse needs.

Choose the right UI pattern

Selecting the most effective UI pattern for your product tour involves understanding the options available and their unique strengths. Here’s a breakdown of different UI patterns and how they can be utilized:

• Pop-ups: These can range from simple splash screen graphics to modal windows requiring user action. Pop-ups quickly engage users and explain the value of your application. They are effective for immediate engagement and conveying key information at the start of a product tour.
• Interactive walkthroughs: These provide step-by-step instructions for key workflows within your application. Users learn about processes as they actively engage with the product tour. Interactive walkthroughs are particularly useful for complex applications, simplifying training and enhancing user understanding during initial onboarding or feature rollouts.
• Hotspots (Beacons): Small icons or alerts, hotspots draw attention to specific application elements. They’re great for delivering information about feature updates or workflow changes. Hotspots enable a self-serve onboarding process, allowing users to interact with training material at their own pace.
• Tooltips: Tooltips offer a quick overview of a feature or UI element’s function. They are less intrusive than guided product walkthroughs and are excellent for providing concise, crucial information without prompting users to take action.
• Explainer videos: Integrating explainer videos with pop-up modal windows can create engaging welcome messages for new users. A video overview of key features upon first login can significantly increase the likelihood of users engaging with and understanding your product.
• Task lists: Reflecting the concept of sustained acceleration, task lists help maintain momentum and enthusiasm throughout the user’s interaction with the product. They effectively guide users through actions or learning objectives, keeping them engaged and on track.
• Progress bars: These visually indicate a user’s progress through the product tour. By showing how many steps are in the tour and how much progress has been made, progress bars offer a sense of control and achievement. They are crucial for managing user expectations and motivation throughout the tour.

When combining these UI patterns, the goal remains consistent: to engage users interactively at all stages of technology adoption. Well-designed product tours cater to a wide range of users, from tech-savvy to slower adopters, without overwhelming or frustrating them.

Crafting engaging content

The content of your product tour is where you connect with users. Make it count by focusing on these key aspects:

• Clarity and brevity: Use clear, concise language that’s easy to understand. Avoid jargon and overly technical terms that might confuse new users.
• Visual aids: Enhance your text with relevant visuals. Videos can provide an overview, screenshots can highlight key features, and infographics can simplify complex concepts.
• Interactivity: Incorporate elements like clickable areas, animations, or quizzes. This not only maintains user interest but also encourages active learning.
• Relevance: Tailor the content to reflect the users’ context and needs. Show how your product solves their specific problems or enhances their work or lifestyle.
• Supportive tone: Adopt a friendly and encouraging tone, mirroring a knowledgeable guide or mentor. This helps in building trust and makes the learning process more enjoyable.
• Consistent brand voice: Ensure the content reflects your brand’s voice and personality. Consistency in tone and style across all your communications reinforces your brand identity.

Checklist for Product Tour Design

• Define Objectives: Clearly articulate your goal with your product tour.
• Identify Key Features: Select the essential features and functionalities to highlight.
• Understand Your Audience: Gather data on your user segments to tailor the tour.
• Map the User Journey: Plan the tour flow from start to finish.
• Create Engaging Content: Develop clear, concise, and visually appealing content.
• Incorporate Interactivity: Use elements like quizzes or clickable areas to engage users.
• Test and Iterate: Pilot the tour with a small group of users and refine it based on feedback.
• Monitor Engagement: Use analytics to track how users interact with your tour.
• Optimize for Different Devices: Ensure the tour works seamlessly across all platforms.
• Update Regularly: Keep the tour current with any changes in your product.

Following this step-by-step guide and checklist will help you create a product tour that introduces users to your product and engages and educates them , setting the stage for a successful and long-lasting relationship with your platform.

Learning from successful examples can provide invaluable insights into creating effective product tours. Let’s explore some case studies:

Case studies and analysis

Slack’s product tour is notable for its unique blend of collaboration highlights and interactive personalization. The tour, guided by Slackbot, a friendly chatbot, asks users about their preferences and tailors the experience accordingly. This conversational approach makes the tour more engaging and helps users quickly grasp the collaborative nature of the platform and how it can enhance their work processes.

Asana greets new users with a guided setup to create their first project – a crucial step that showcases the tool’s utility. Users receive personalized app guidance post-tour, leading to their ‘aha’ moment. Asana enhances its onboarding process with contextually relevant tooltips, ensuring users feel supported throughout their journey.

Evernote’s tour helps users kickstart their experience by guiding them to create their first note and then progressing to more advanced features. The tour includes an onboarding checklist, allowing users to complete tasks and experience a sense of achievement as they explore the tool’s functionalities.

Canva begins its tour with a quick, 2-minute onboarding video, followed by a hands-on experience where users are prompted to create a design using templates. The journey concludes with a demonstration of sharing or downloading their creation, seamlessly integrating learning with doing.

Dropbox focuses on core functionalities, providing clear, step-by-step guidance through each feature. The tour includes practical exercises, allowing users to try out features — enhancing retention and building user confidence in navigating the platform.

What makes them stand out

These examples excel due to their strategic fusion of clarity, engagement, and personalization. They use a mix of conversational interfaces, interactive elements, and visual guides to maintain user interest. Each tour is tailored to the user’s needs and interests, facilitating a deeper understanding of the product and fostering a positive initial experience.

To ensure your product tour achieves its objectives to transform your user’s journey, you’ll need to measure its effectiveness accurately.

Key metrics to track

• Completion rate: This directly indicates how engaging and appropriately paced your tour is. High completion rates suggest that your tour is resonating well with users.
• User feedback: Direct insights from users are invaluable. They provide a qualitative measure of what’s working and areas needing improvement.
• Engagement metrics: Observing which parts of the tour users spend the most time on and which features they interact with can reveal a lot about their preferences and pain points.
• Conversion rate: Ultimately, the effectiveness of your product tour is also measured by the actions users take afterward, like signing up or making a purchase.

Tools and techniques for analysis

Here are some tools and techniques, along with insights into their unique capabilities, to help you analyze and refine your product tours:

Analytics tools

• Google Analytics/Mixpanel: These platforms offer comprehensive insights into user interactions with your tour. They provide valuable data on user behavior, tour engagement, and conversion rates, enabling you to see what’s working and what’s not.
• Pendo: Known for its deep product usage insights, Pendo helps you understand how customers interact with your product. This information is invaluable in identifying the most needed aspects of your product tours, though Pendo may have limitations in self-help content creation compared to other tools.

A/B testing

A/B testing is essential for fine-tuning your product tour. By comparing different versions, you can understand which elements resonate best with your audience.

• Whatfix : While primarily an interactive guide creation tool with an easy-to-use editor, Whatfix can be a valuable asset in setting up A/B tests, especially since it doesn’t require extensive coding knowledge.
• Appcues : This tool, focusing on product-led growth, integrates seamlessly with your product to make UI patterns appear native. However, its analytics features might not be as comprehensive as some of its competitors.

User feedback tools

• User Surveys: Conducting surveys is a direct way to gather qualitative feedback. This feedback is crucial for understanding the user’s perspective on your product tour.
• WalkMe : Though robust in features, WalkMe might require IT assistance to create content. It can be an excellent tool for gathering user feedback, especially in more complex product environments.

Heatmaps and user behavior analysis

• Hotjar : Creating heatmaps, Hotjar provides visual insights into where and how users interact with your tour, revealing user behavior patterns that might not be obvious through traditional analytics.
• Userlane : This tool is particularly suited to small and medium-sized businesses. While it may not offer the depth of customization larger enterprises might need, it’s effective for straightforward product tour analysis.
• Storylane : Ideal for engaging website visitors, Storylane allows you to create automated, code-free demos that can enhance your product’s experience. It’s a tool that facilitates engagement and product-led growth by enabling you to clone your environment quickly and provide an optimal product experience.

Each of these tools and techniques offers unique benefits. The key is choosing those that align best with your specific needs and goals, ensuring that your product tour educates, engages, and converts.

Selecting the right product tour software

When choosing a product tour tool, consider these essential features:

• No-code editor: A tool that doesn’t require coding allows you to create tours without relying on your engineering team, saving time and resources.
• Fully customizable styling: Your product tour should reflect your brand style. Look for options that offer customization in fonts, colors, button shapes, and custom CSS customization.
• Deep integrations: The best product tour software should seamlessly integrate with your existing tools, be it a CRM or analytics platform.
• Native A/B testing: Inbuilt A/B testing capabilities are vital for refining your tours based on user responses and behavior.
• Contextual targeting: Hyper-targeted tours, adapted according to user behavior and profiles, provide a more personalized and effective user experience.
• Comprehensive help documentation: Ensure the tool comes with thorough help documentation, critical for user onboarding and self-service support.
• Technical reliability: The tool should be robust and support various functionalities, such as mobile and single-page applications while ensuring it doesn’t hinder your product’s performance.

Remember, the right tool should align with your goals, balancing comprehensive features and user-friendly functionality.

Creating an effective product tour is a journey marked by learning and adaptation. However, certain common pitfalls can hinder this process. At Thinkific Plus, we believe in guiding you away from these mistakes, ensuring your product tours are as effective and user-friendly as possible.

Avoiding information overload

Packaging your product tour with as much information as possible is tempting, but this often leads to user overwhelm. The key is to focus on clarity and brevity:

• Focus on essentials: Highlight your product’s most crucial features. Determine what your users need to know first to get started.
• Simplicity is key: Use clear, straightforward language. Technical jargon can be off-putting unless your audience specifically requires it.
• Digestible content: Break down information into smaller, easily digestible segments. This approach helps users absorb and retain information more effectively.

The objective is to inform your users, not to flood them with information. A well-structured tour guides users through your product effortlessly, enhancing their understanding and engagement.

Embracing user feedback

Ignoring user feedback is like sailing without a compass. User insights are crucial for the continuous improvement of your product tour:

• Active feedback collection: Use surveys, direct communication, and user testing to gather feedback. This should be an ongoing process, not a one-time event.
• Adapt and improve: Analyze feedback to understand user needs and pain points, and be prepared to make changes based on what you learn.
• Evolving with your users: Your product tour should evolve alongside your product and users. Regular updates based on user feedback ensure it stays relevant and effective.

We believe in the power of listening to and learning from users. Their insights are the key to refining your product tour and making it an integral and evolving part of the user experience.

What are the key components of an effective product tour?

The key components include clarity and simplicity of content, engaging and interactive elements, personalization to cater to different user segments, and consistent alignment with user needs and goals.

How can I measure the success of my product tour?

Measure success through metrics like completion rates, user feedback, engagement metrics, and conversion rates. Utilize tools like analytics software, A/B testing, user surveys, and heatmaps for comprehensive analysis.

What are some common pitfalls in designing product tours?

Common pitfalls include overloading users with information, neglecting the importance of user feedback, lack of personalization, and failing to keep the content updated and relevant.

Conclusion 

As we conclude our exploration of creating impactful product tours, the essential takeaways are clarity, engagement, and personalization. It’s about striking the right balance — providing enough guidance to be insightful, yet not so much that it becomes overwhelming. Continuously adapt and refine your approach based on customer feedback, ensuring your tours remain relevant and resonate with your audience.

Download our free Product Tour Planning Guide

If you’re ready to take the next step and get personalized guidance to streamline your Product Tours with online learning, get pricing details, and a live demo of Thinkific Plus, don’t hesitate to reach out to our experts.

Request a call with a member of our Thinkific Plus solutions team today, and let us help you unlock the full potential of your online learning journey.

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Stephanie is a content marketing expert with a passion for connecting the dots of strategy and content. She has worked with industry leaders including HubSpot, Oracle, Travel + Leisure, and Forbes.

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Product Tours: A Definitive Guide to Enhance User Engagement

Product tours are a helpful tool used by product managers when guiding their users to find value in their products. By guiding how users interact with your product, you highlight how your product can add value to their everyday life.

Effective product tours are a combination of science and art. It equally requires data analysis and design to match the needs of your users perfectly.

So, the big question is: How can product tours enhance user engagement ? This article will give you a definitive guide to using product tours to increase engagement.

But first, what is a product tour?

Table of Contents

What is a product tour?

What is not a product tour, #1. new users may need more information, #2. it saves time and money, #3. it builds trust, components of good product tours, #1. focus on your key features, #2. promote a dependable brand experience, #3. provide value, #4. trigger product tours with user action, #5. embrace self-discovery, #6. personalize, #7. timing and context are key, #2. typeform, #1. userpilot, #3. appcues, #4. userguiding, machine learning in finance: 12 essential applications, how to create interactive compliance training for bank employees, how fintech apps are using gamification to increase user engagement, top gamification companies for employee & customer engagement.

Product tours serve as a guide that provides a complete walkthrough of your product’s features. Its main goal is to encourage new users to become active and drive product adoption . This will lead to product-led growth and, ultimately, product success.

Source: appcues

Interactive product tours are created with in-app messages that make user onboarding easier. It’s composed of tutorials that help users navigate the app. It helps companies simplify the onboarding process as well as boost user engagement.

To understand product tours better, let’s discuss what they are not.

Some product managers must distinguish product tours from product demos, employee onboarding, or client onboarding.

A product tour is a customer engagement tool that interacts with end-user to boost product adoption rates. It’s a set of experiences within the product itself. Therefore anything else that does not focus on the product experience is not a product tour.

Product demos are used to show off your product’s new features and are used to drive sales. Hence, they focus on selling rather than guiding users as they explore your product.

Why do you need a product tour?

Only some products out there have a product tour, so you may need to be more familiar with why your product requires it. Here are three reasons why your product needs a product tour:

Imagine signing up for a new product you’re very interested in. After signing up, you can explore and navigate the product independently.

Isn’t it confusing not to be given any guidance as to how you can maximise and fit the product into your routine?

Doesn’t it make you want to exit the app or the website and not give it another go?

Some product managers must remember that, although they are very familiar with the product they developed, their new users must be.

A good product tour highlights the value of your product, making it easier to understand.

A product tour will save you and your users time. 

You can also save money with a successful product tour. New users will likely engage with your product immediately because of the tour. This will pique their interest and prevents customer churn.

Guiding your users straight to what they expect from your product shows reliability. It shows that you are willing to walk them through and save them the trouble of figuring out everything independently. This builds trust and helps you gain loyal customers seeking your business.

You can use your product tour to build trust with your customers. That’s why you need to know what makes a product tour exceptional.

Product tours are simply what the word implies – a quick tour highlighting your product’s key features and functionalities.

However, these engaging tours are critical to boosting user engagement, so keep that in mind when designing your product tours. They should fit perfectly into all the stages of the product adoption cycle.

Product tours start after new users sign up and log into your product. At that point, ensure that your tour includes the following components:

• Initial product overview or tutorial – The first thing your users need to see upon logging in is an initial product walkthrough. The product overview may be the tour itself. However, the tour can still include some important elements for better results.
• Interactive guidance –   You can add chatbots to accompany your users as they go through your product tours. You can use it to provide easy-access information and minimise the need for technical support. This helps users navigate your product flawlessly and become productive in no time.
• Live messaging options – Adding a live messaging option is helpful if your users need to talk to customer service. With this feature, you give them the convenience of choosing what kind of help they want.

Provide your users with all the information they need to reach their “Aha!” moment. You must introduce your product’s core features as soon as they log in.

Guidelines for creating the perfect product tours

Now that you know what product tours are, let’s discuss creating a successful product tour to increase user engagement.

Every product tour has its purpose. It may be to onboard new users, walk current users through a product update, or highlight a new feature.

Creating the perfect product tour must be your top priority regardless of your main goal. Here’s a definitive guide to making the ideal product tours:

A good product tour should be clear and definitive. It must define the product and its features, but only some things at a time.

Focus on the most essential elements of your product. Provide meaning to your product and what users can accomplish with it.

Source: fastercapital

Let’s say you are to create a product tour for a social media app. Here are the key features you can highlight:

• Point to where the search tab is
• Where the friend list is
• Where their subscriptions are listed, and
• How to subscribe and follow content creators

Answer your users’ questions while displaying how simple the functions are and how they can easily navigate the app.

Maintaining a consistent brand experience across your channels is very important. Remember that to have an excellent user experience, your brand must have a consistent design, tone of voice and approach. This includes your onboarding, training, support, and product tours.

When your brand experience is inconsistent, your users will likely feel confused because specific standards are unmet.

To maintain brand consistency, design a user journey map. This will help you lay out the stages of the user journey and align the experience around your customers’ perspectives.

Product tours should never be disrupting or draining from your customers’ point of view. Instead, they should feel thankful and at ease during the tour. So introduce your product’s value as soon as you can.

If your customers don’t find tours valuable, they’ll likely exit and won’t be open to anything similar. That’s why it’s essential to create relevant and efficient product tours.

Product tours don’t have to start after users sign up for your product. It’s much better to trigger these tours with a specific user action to give it more context.

A quick overview is helpful, but initiating the tour in one go will overwhelm your users.

Give your users ample time to get used to your software and provide guidance whenever they hit a milestone. What’s the use of rushing them to keep them in your mobile apps anyway?

One of your main goals is to show your users the gem that is your product. However, always telling them which way to go differs from how to achieve this. You can’t limit what your users will do with your product.

According to research , users who are free complete the tour at their own pace are more likely to complete it. You can add a pause button to allow users to return to the product tour whenever they want.

Creating generic product tours for all users is just as good as not creating a product tour. If you want to appeal to all users by making one basic product tour, you will likely appeal to none.

You can personalise product tours through segmentation and gamification.

Segment product tours according to user roles

To personalise your product tours, segment users based on their characteristics and purpose for using the product. You can also segment users based on their language preference, product version, user persona , and geographical location.

Source: clevertap

You can implement user segmentation by:

• Tracking user behaviour – Use a product analytics tool to add information about product usage and user behaviour. Understand how the different groups use your product and create product tours that are interesting for them.
• Comparing activity – After putting your users into groups, you can compare the different types of your users. This will help you understand how to create a tailor-made product tour just for them. You can also increase engagement for users with low activity and prevent them from churning.
• Measuring impact – By measuring the impact of your product tour on different user segments, you can make relevant changes to increase user engagement.

Applying gamification strategies

Another way of personalising product tours is through gamification .

Gamification is the application of game-like elements, such as challenges and rewards, to encourage participation and engagement.

Here’s how to gamify your product tours for a more personal touch:

• Avatars – Allow users to design their avatars in a way that resonates with them. This adds to your product’s fun value and excites them of what’s to come.
• Checklists – Providing a list of all the stages of your product tour helps keep users focused and attentive. Knowing what’s in store gives your users a grasp of the tour and how it will help them.
• Rewards – Some users may need more motivation to finish your product tour. That’s why you can use a rewards system to spice it up. Rewarding users with coupons at your store is the best and most effective way to motivate them.
• Badges – To ensure that users will return and finish your product tour, reward them with badges for every stage they accomplish. This allows them to recognise their progress and encourages them to go through and finish the tour.

The last tip for a perfect product tour is to showcase your product’s value exactly when your users need it. If you create a product tour about a new feature, launch it when the feature is already on the page.

If your product tour is misplaced where it’s relevant, it might cause a negative experience for the users. However, when your tour pops up exactly when it’s needed, it enforces the value of your product. Find the perfect combination of timing and context for your product tours, and you’re golden.

Best product tour examples of 2023

Demio is a webinar hosting company with one of the best product tours because of how interactive it is.

The highlight of their tour is a fake webinar for their users. The webinar will start with a Demio employee explaining what the webinar is all about. They will then give you the hosting spotlight and allow you to share your webcam and presentation.

Source: demio

To make things more exciting, some fake guests will attend to give you the feel of using the product.

Demio perfectly captures the meaning of a successful product tour that highlights the value of its product. All of this while giving their users the time of their lives!

Typeform is an all-in-one online forms platform that their clients use for registrations, incident reports, lead generation, and many more. Because of its vast platform, Typeform’s product tours vary for different users.

What makes Typeform’s product tour unique is its laid-back and friendly tone. They let the users get comfortable before the tour.

Typeform replaced the start button with a  “Show me the highlights” button, as seen below. This conveys that the tour will be quick and concise, only showing the essential features of their product.

Source: typeform

If their client doesn’t want to start from scratch, Typeform offers masterclass templates relevant to their needs. They use these templates as product tours to educate, engage, and drive their customers to make successful forms.

Introducing their users to various unique templates is an excellent way to establish their value.

Slack is one of the most successful messaging apps many corporations use today. 

For their product tour, Slack uses helpful tooltips and personable copies. Their tooltips explain how public channels and direct messages work and how to differentiate each one.

Source: slack

Slack also perfects brand consistency with its app and website’s design and laid-back tone. The product tour encourages you to chat with the bot to learn the key features and mechanics of the product.

Best product tour software to create engaging product tours

Userpilot is a product tour software that provides personalised in-app experiences that help their clients increase engagement. 

Aside from their friendly interface, they also offer many ways to segment users. Here are some ways Userpilot segments your customer base:

• Custom event
• Feature tags

Your product tours should be a memorable experience for your users. That’s what Mambo is all about. This gamification platform helps businesses enhance user engagement and experience with game-like strategies.

Mambo adds competition and rewards to your product tour, making it fun and engaging. With custom app gamification, you can provide a personalised experience your users can access anytime from any device.

An interactive product tour that excites your users about your product is what you need to increase user engagement.

Since its launch in 2013, Appcues made a massive wave of transformation to the SaaS product tour landscape. 

With its easy product tour builder, you can create elegant visualisations for product walkthroughs and slideshows. You can construct tooltips and slideouts across your product tour to make your users’ journey smooth.

Whether you want to enhance your existing product tour or start from scratch, Appcues will guide you through every step.

If you want to create great product tours but need more coding knowledge, userguiding is the product tour tool for you.

Its code-free software lets you choose the popups you want for your product tour. You can also select the type of welcome modal you need by adding the details and images.

Userguiding allows you to design great product tours easily and on a budget!

Finding ways to enhance user engagement is undoubtedly one of your top priorities as a product manager. A successful product tour will increase engagement, improve onboarding, increase adoption, and help generate more sales.

Following this definitive guide, you can earn more significant returns from your product tours today and in the long run.

To create a fun and interactive product tour, book a demo with Mambo today!

Download your free “Gamification Guide”

Get your PDF now and start transforming your approach to digital engagement!

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How to create effective product tours that users will love‍.

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Product tours (or product walkthroughs) introduce new users to apps by giving them the lay of the land. You can think of them like interactive tutorials—they help users get comfy with your UI while guiding them to the core processes that bring value to your product. Great product tours set users up for long-term engagement and increase the odds of product activation , product adoption , and user retention .

If you want to keep new users as customers, your product has to work seamlessly from the start —and there’s no better retention mechanism than a stellar product tour.

What is a product tour?

A product tour is a guided walkthrough of a product or service, typically presented to users after they sign up or first log in. Product tours are used to onboard new users, introduce them to a product's key features and value, and help them get started using it. They’re different from product demos , which intend to show a custom solution to a specific user need.

Why use a product tour?

You should expect adopting any new software to come with a bit of a learning curve. A product tour helps users navigate this friction while promptly revealing an app’s important value-laden features. Good tours walk a tightrope between annoying users with over-engagement and frustrating users with under-assistance.

They act as a guided tour for new customers learning how to use your SaaS product for the first time. Product tours:

• Compel users to take specific, meaningful actions in your app. Instead of leaving users to figure out your app on their own, product tours influence user behavior by explaining why each step is important and guiding users to take critical actions within your product.
• Guide users toward their aha moment. An aha moment is when users first realize the value that your product provides. Users who stumble upon their aha moment understand how your product improves their work (or life). This isn't always something they'll discover on their own—but a product tour makes that discovery process a heck ton easier.
• Can be simple to build and experiment with. ‍Tools like Appcues allow you to create or amend a product tour without making software changes within your app. This makes experimenting with your onboarding process a breeze and quickly uncovers what resonates with your users.

ONBOARD SMARTER

Ready to tour appcues' product tour software.

• Use in-app guides to educate users
• Increase activation with personalized flows
• Drive feature adoption to improve stickiness

10 tips for building successful product tours

Every product has different features, and every user has different needs—that’s why effective product tours look different for every app. That being said, here are 10 best practices for designing a great product tour that moves users through your flywheel and onto the next stage in their journey.

• Be sequential : Don't just show users a random collection of tooltips without any clear structure. Each step in your product tour should be clearly defined, and each step should move users further down the path to activation.
• Focus on the core value : Explaining every little feature will only lead to frustrated and annoyed users. Make sure you're only highlighting necessary features users need to experience your product's core value to keep them truckin' along to their aha moment. (You can always introduce additional features later.)
• Keep things short and sweet : New users are keen to get started using your app. Respect their time by making sure your tour is brief. Unnecessary steps add unnecessary friction to the onboarding process. Less is more—and three to five steps are usually plenty for an onboarding flow.
• Provide clear next steps : The best product tours clearly explain the next step a user should take. How do they begin adding their data? Do they need to sign up for a paid subscription first? Users can’t take the next step without first knowing where to start, so show them!
• Make sure to provide further help : A successful product tour will improve customer success. This means you must stay on top of users’ progress with your product features. Provide links to additional content, interactive guides, and access to real-time customer support as they continue to explore your app. And let them know where they can go to find the product tour if they need to walk through a step again.
• Personalization is key: Think of your product tour as a personal guide tailored to each user's needs. It's not about one-size-fits-all—it's about fitting like a glove. Segment your tours based on user roles or behaviors. This way, a newbie gets the beginner's introduction, while the seasoned user gets the advanced tips. It’s like having a personal shopper—they know just what you need.
• Keep your tours up-to-date: Your app evolves, and so should your product tours. Regularly review how your tours are performing. Are users dropping off at a certain point? Maybe that step is the equivalent of a party guest who overstays their welcome. Update and tweak your tours based on user feedback and engagement data. It's like keeping your playlist fresh—nobody wants to hear last year's hits at this year's party.
• Monitor user engagement: Keep an eye on how users interact with your product tours. Use analytics to understand where they find value and where they don’t. Think of it as being a good host at a party—you want to make sure everyone's having a good time, and if they’re not, you change the music.
• Constantly seek feedback: Encourage users to give feedback on your product tours. It's like asking your guests for their favorite dessert recipes—it helps you serve up exactly what they want next time. This input can be invaluable in refining and improving the user experience.
• Offer a ‘skip’ option: Not everyone wants the grand tour. Some users might want to dive right in. Respect their familiarity and confidence with a ‘skip tour’ option. It’s like offering a self-service buffet alongside a sit-down meal. Everyone gets to enjoy their experience in their own way. Plus, this flexibility can prevent user frustration and keep the experience positive.

Andrew Capland , PLG Advisor and Growth Leader, gives us a bit of insight into how he's structured product tours:

"The main challenge with product tours is that most display 1x (usually when the page/feature loads for the first time) and then disappear forever. That's challenging because many users want to explore on their own first - then have guidance later. With that in mind, I've found the best tours can be minimized and then viewed when the user is ready. Ideally, combined with a checklist or "getting started" page. Something that provides help when they need it - on their terms."

While there's no one-size-fits-all best product tour format, there are best use cases for onboarding flow design patterns ; using UI patterns like tooltips, hotspots, and modal windows engages users and educates them on how to use your product.

Types of product tours

Crafting an engaging product tour is a bit like hosting a lively party—every element should spark interest, guide your guests, and make them feel right at home—and remember, variety is key. Here’s a roundup of the different UI patterns you can mix and match for your product tour. Think of these as your party essentials, each bringing its unique flair to the event!

• Pop-ups: Pop-ups are like those friendly neighborhood billboards, popping up at the right moment to highlight the good stuff. They range from simple splash screens to modal windows demanding a bit of action. Think of them as your app's way of saying, "Hey, check this out!" They're quick, effective, and get the message across without much fuss.
• Interactive walkthroughs: Imagine having a savvy friend guide you through a new city. That's what interactive walkthroughs do for your app. They're like personal tour guides for users, showing them the ropes step-by-step, making even the most complex processes feel like a walk in the park.
• Hotspots: Hotspots are the subtle nudges in your app that say, "Psst, look here." These little beacons of wisdom draw users to specific points, perfect for highlighting updates or tucked-away features. They're like the hidden gems of your app, waiting to be discovered.
• Tooltips: Tooltips are the whisperers of the app world. They hover around, offering nuggets of wisdom about features or elements, without pushing users to act. They're there to inform and enlighten, offering insights in bite-sized pieces.
• Explainer videos: Combine the charm of a good story with the clarity of a demonstration, and you get explainer videos. They're like mini-movies for your app, greeting new users with a visual feast that walks them through your app's coolest features.
• Task lists: These are your app's to-do lists, guiding users through tasks with a clear sense of direction and purpose. They're like breadcrumbs leading to the heart of your app, ensuring users don't miss out on anything important.
• Progress bars: Like mile markers on a road trip, progress bars show users how far they've journeyed in your app and how much more adventure lies ahead. They're a visual pat on the back, encouraging users to keep going and explore all that your app offers.

No matter the mix, the aim is the same: engaging users in a journey of discovery through your app. It's about making learning interactive, fun, and effective for all types of users.

How to choose the right UI pattern for your product tour

Selecting the right UI pattern for your product tour is like picking the right music for your party—it sets the tone and keeps the vibe just right. Here’s how to ensure you’re making the best choice for your users:

Assess your app’s complexity

Just like a complex dish needs more detailed instructions, a complex app requires more comprehensive guidance. If your app is a multi-layered lasagna, packed with features and intricacies, you'll need a full-on guided tour to help users digest it all. But if it's more like a simple, yet elegant bruschetta, a few tooltips or hotspots might suffice. 

Below you’ll see how Zenefits uses a blend of modal windows and tooltips to smoothly guide users through its HR platform. It’s a perfect example of matching the tour complexity with the app's nature.

Know your audience

Just as a good host knows their guests' tastes, understand who your users are. Are they digital natives who navigate apps like a fish in water? Or are they folks who might need a bit more hand-holding? 

It's important to match the UI pattern you choose with the needs of your users and the requirements of your app. More complex apps might require more targeted onboarding guidance , while straightforward apps might only require basic tips.

You should also think about your users' motivation. How likely are they to complete a more extensive product tour? How tech-savvy are they? It's important to empathize with users as you choose which UI pattern to apply to your product tour.

These are the 3 most popular UI patterns for building product tours :

If your users are like tech-savvy partygoers, a light touch with hotspots or brief tooltips, much like Asana's "Add New" button highlight, could be the way to go. 

For those who are more like first-time guests in the digital world, consider a more structured approach with interactive walkthroughs or even explainer videos. Remember, it's all about making your guests feel at home.

Align UI patterns with user motivation

Think of this as choosing the right music for your party. How engaged are your users likely to be? Are they ready for a deep-dive tour, or would they prefer the highlights? This is where you gauge the room's mood. 

If your users are eager learners, ready to explore every nook and cranny of your app, then a detailed tour with progress bars or task lists might be the ticket. But if they're only popping in for a quick visit, a simple tooltip or a brief explainer video might be the better choice. It's about reading the room and adjusting the volume accordingly.

3 amazing product tour examples

There’s no better way to level up your product tour game than looking at great examples in action. Here are several of the best IRL product tour examples and product walkthroughs that set the bar for what you can achieve.

Personal finance management app Mint built its product tour to guide users through a lengthy setup process that involves everyone’s favorite task: typing in sensitive personal information. Mint uses tooltips to make what would otherwise be a thorny starting process a cinch.

After entering their email address, Mint asks users to add all of their bank accounts. Mint knows that most people don’t enjoy tracking down all of their financial information and giving it to a private company, so they include a reassuring sidebar on the right side of the screen to build trust with users. The sidebar includes a checklist of the steps required to get started, while including blurbs highlighting its dedication to security and the trust of its millions of clients.

After that, Mint liberally uses tooltips to point out the most important features within the app. The tooltips employ bold colors to contrast against the rest of the UI. It also includes CTAs and options for more information for users who want to engage with the feature immediately. For everyone else, the “Next Tip” button stands out brightly against the dark gray tooltip.

Mint’s tooltips also employ the use of gentle animations to further draw attention to its onboarding tips.

HR platform Zenefits uses a combination of modal windows and tooltips to acquaint users with its app. Its product tour funnels users to a demo version of its platform that allows them to learn about and engage with important features before venturing off on their own.

First, Zenefits uses modal windows for users to input the information required to get started.

Another modal window then informs the user that they’ll be working inside a demo version of the software. It also uses this as an opportunity to have users review its Terms and Privacy policy.

From here, Zenefits guides users from function to function with the use of tooltips. The tooltips point directly to the features mentioned in the copy. The product walkthrough thoughtfully includes a “Back” button within each tooltip in the event a user accidentally hits the “Next” button.

Zenefits also grays out the area behind the tooltip and feature to emphasize the feature’s location within the UI.

Product tours should stay short to retain users’ attention, but sometimes complex products require more guidance. Enterprise software company Zuora bills itself as an “all-in-one” solution. It offers a full stack of subscription management tools to stand out from competitors. Users must understand how to work every tool in its stack to see the full benefit of the product. This means its product tour runs long by most standards.

Zuora solves this problem through the smart use of modal windows. Early in the product tour, new users select whether their interest in the app concerns “Product & Growth” or “Finance & Accounting.” This allows Zuora to immediately introduce users with targeted in-app messaging to the features that brought them to the product in the first place.

Zuora uses tooltips as the framework for most of its product tour. Too many tooltips will disengage readers and can lead to customers clicking “Next” without reading anything. Zuora throws in a few action-driven tooltips to prevent this from happening:

It wraps up its lengthy product tour with a modal window congratulating the user. This final modal contains a video that allows curious users to find more helpful information on how to use the product to get results. Users who’ve seen enough can click the “Done” button in the bottom right corner.

4 best product tour software to consider

There are plenty of free, paid, and open-source tools to build modal windows, tooltips, and more for your product tour or walkthrough. It's great to have options, but the reality for most SaaS companies is that building your own product tour from scratch isn't cost-effective . This rings especially true once you factor in the costs of maintenance and iteration. Instead, consider using dedicated tour-building software to build your product tours. Such platforms are usually more efficient, easier to use, and less expensive in the long run than their alternatives.There are many platforms out there that can help you build a user-friendly product tour, including:

Of course, we're biased! But Appcues has nearly a decade of experience in the product tour space. Companies like Amplitude, Heap, and Hotjar use Appcues to enhance their user onboarding and product experience. Its easy-to-use tour builder allows you to create pleasing walkthroughs without getting bogged down in coding. Tooltips, slideouts, hot tips, and modal windows can all be constructed in Appcues and implemented across tours and flows. It’s the premier tool for companies looking to enhance their product tours or build their first one from scratch.

Consider Appcues for its:

• Array of UI patterns
• Easy installation
• Code-free tracking and powerful analytics
• Many integration options, including Salesforce, Slack, and Mixpanel
• Mobile app support

Check out this step-by-step guide to creating interactive product tours in Appcues quickly and efficiently.

Pendo allows you to create product tours across your website and mobile apps. Its UI pattern toolbox includes banners and lightboxes to add flavor to your walkthroughs. Its analytics functionality is powerful and works well for product managers whose interest in analytics capabilities exceeds their need to improve the user experience.

Userpilot is another popular option for product tours. You can build tooltips, checklists, and more using its no-code builder. Userpilot backs its tour-building features with analytics tools to help segment users and test flows for optimized performance, though these features are not as robust as some of its competitors.

Level up your product tours

Remember that no one experience fits every customer’s needs. Just like your product, your tour should evolve based on user feedback and changing needs. Your returning customers, for example, will appreciate tours that recognize their familiarity, offering them new insights instead of a repetitive run-through.

The key to a successful product tour is continuous improvement. You’re in the unique position of knowing your product intimately, but stepping outside that familiarity is crucial, and seeing the tour through your users' eyes is even more crucial. 

Use tools like A/B testing, usability tests, microsurveys, and product metrics to fine-tune your approach. This isn’t only about making your tour better—it’s about making it the best it can be for every user, every time.

And if you’re hungry for more insights on crafting standout product experiences, we’ve got just the thing. Dive into our collection of wisdom with 20 Proven Strategies for Creating More Impactful Product Experiences . This guide is your next step towards mastering the art of engaging and effective product tours. 

Customers returning to your product after some time away won’t want to watch a full-fledged product tour again. It’s worth creating different product tours for unique user segments to provide more personalized and pleasing UX.

And one final piece of advice: test your product tours thoroughly. You and your team know your product inside and out, so your experiences with your product are inherently biased. Employ A/B testing, usability tests, micro surveys, and track product metrics to optimize your tour experience and balance between being helpful without being obtrusive.

How do I make a product tour?

Creating a product tour is like crafting a story—it needs a beginning, middle, and end. Start by identifying the key features and functionalities you want to showcase. Use a tool like Appcues to build the tour without heavy coding. Keep it interactive, simple, and focused on delivering value. Test it out, gather feedback, and don’t be afraid to iterate.

How effective are product tours?

Product tours can be incredibly effective if done right. They're like the friendly neighborhood guide who helps new residents settle in. A well-designed tour can boost user engagement, increase product adoption, and reduce time-to-value. However, their effectiveness hinges on their relevance, brevity, and clarity.

How do you improve a product tour?

Improving a product tour is like tuning a musical instrument—it requires attention and regular adjustments. Use analytics to understand where users drop off or engage the most. Personalize the tour for different user segments, and always allow for feedback. Keep the content updated, and ensure that the tour aligns with your product's new features.

What are product tour trends to watch?

Some product tour trends to keep an eye on include increased personalization, the use of AI and machine learning for more dynamic tours, integration of multimedia elements like videos and animations, and the rise of mobile-friendly tours. Also, watch for more immersive experiences, like augmented reality tours, as technology evolves.

What is a product walkthrough?

A product walkthrough is a step-by-step guided tour within an application, designed to familiarize users with its main features and functionalities. It's like having a knowledgeable friend walk you through a new device, ensuring you know all the cool things it can do and how to use them.

What is a feature tour?

A feature tour focuses specifically on showcasing the features of a product. It's more detailed and feature-centric than a general product tour. Think of it as a highlight reel for your app, spotlighting each feature with explanations and demonstrations, helping users understand and utilize your product’s capabilities to the fullest.

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How to Create the Best Interactive Product Tour in 2024

Understanding your audience 

Setting clear objectives , research and competitive analysis, analytics and iterative improvements , storyboarding, interactive elements and features, content creation guidelines, user testing and feedback , optimizing for mobile devices, promotion and distribution, choosing the right platform, using interactive product tours to build a winning b2b sales strategy.

These days, it feels like every company and their mother are pulling out all the glitz and glamor to present their products to prospects. 

Don’t get us wrong. How you present your product is important. But it’s about how you do it. 

2024 is the year to delve into interactive product tours to ramp up the power of your sales and customer engagement strategies. By offering unparalleled insights into products with just a click, you can take a more memorable and impactful approach to your lead nurturing strategy . 

Because let’s face it, as a collective, our attention spans are increasingly fleeting. Interactive product tours stand out by providing detailed sales demonstrations that uniquely speak to each user in a manner that not only informs them on the value of your product, but will also engage them. 

With the right approach, an interactive product tour can transform the user experience, leading to higher engagement, improved understanding, and ultimately, delighted customers.

So, join us as we break down everything you need to know about creating the best interactive product tour. 

Create interactive product tours today with Walnut >  

Creating the best interactive product tours requires having a deep understanding of your target audience and their respective journeys. 

If you haven’t already defined your user personas, now is the time to do so. This will allow you to tailor the live sales demo experience to meet their specific preferences and needs by considering factors such as demographics, behaviors, and goals.

Personalization is key here, as it’s the ultimate way to show your prospects you care for them and their needs. 

In addition, by segmenting your product tours based on user roles or behaviors, you create a more relevant and engaging experience that’ll increase the likelihood of them saying “yes.” 

However, while working on your product tour, remember that your audience has varying degrees of comfort with technology. So, be sure to stick to the essential features of your product that present the most value to prospects, while also leaning on building confidence and trust. 

If you start creating an interactive product tour without clear objectives, that’s pretty much like winging a series of paid ad campaigns without any form of strategy set in place. 

It’s crucial to start off with a firm grasp of your goals—whether it’s elevating feature adoption, boosting user engagement, or streamlining the onboarding process. 

Setting such objectives will shape the structure of your product tour, and also ensure that every element introduced is purposeful and impactful for your audience.

It’s also important to delve deep into competitive analysis to understand how your peers introduce themselves to users. This step is crucial in identifying your unique selling points and differentiating your product tour in a crowded market. 

Pay close attention to how competitors highlight key features, sequence their information, and guide users through the buying journey. Adopting best practices while infusing your product tour with innovative elements that reflect your product’s unique value proposition can set you apart.

Visualizing the end goal for your users is paramount. Your product tour should not only acquaint users with the product’s features, but also inspire confidence in its utility. 

By mapping out a user journey that is logical, intuitive, and aligned with your defined objectives, you create a coherent narrative that incrementally builds the user’s understanding and skills. Every step of the tour should be a stepping stone towards enabling users to fully harness the power of your product, ensuring a seamless transition from curious buyer to proficient user.

Diving into the creation of an interactive product tour demands thorough market research and competitive analysis. 

But what we’re referring to here is the analysis of competing product tours. The purpose isn’t to copy what everyone else is doing. 

Rather, it is to understand your competition’s approach while also uncovering opportunities to innovate and stand out from the rest of the pack. This will allow you to grasp the prevailing trends, identify what resonates with users, and pinpoint areas that you know you can easily improve on.

This form of competitive analysis is instrumental in highlighting your product’s unique selling points, as it provides a clear landscape of how competitors communicate their value proposition and engage with their audience. 

Embracing best practices in market research and competitive analysis ensures your product tour is not just another drop in the digital ocean, but a beacon that guides users effectively towards realizing the unique value your product delivers. Through this lens, every aspect of your product tour becomes a strategic move to elevate your product’s visibility and appeal in a crowded marketplace.

When it comes to perfecting an interactive product tour, the journey is continuous, and it is underscored by the powerful role of analytics and performance tracking. 

Your initial demo won’t be perfect, but it will serve as a starting point, and its real value will lie in leveraging data for ongoing refinement. 

Analytics are a lifesaver because they offer insights into how users interact with your product tour, while also pinpointing areas of engagement, and identifying stages where improvements may be needed.

Your team will need to be open for continuous improvement by closely monitoring performance metrics. This will allow you to adjust and optimize each element of the tour to better meet user needs and expectations. 

This process is not about seeking perfection on the first attempt, but rather about being responsive and adaptable, using real-time feedback to incrementally enhance the user experience. 

To build an effective product tour, you’re also going to need to rely on storyboarding.

Storyboarding refers to visually organizing your interactive product tour, to ensure your message is conveyed with clarity and impact. 

At the heart of effective storyboarding is the flow design. This helps in setting the stage for a compelling narrative that guides users through your product’s features and benefits. This process begins with defining the flow of your product tour, a task that requires a thoughtful balance between your objectives and the needs of your users.

The flow needs to lead users on a journey that progressively builds their understanding and engagement with your product, with each step of the tour meticulously designed to contribute to a cohesive story. 

Visual elements play a crucial role in enhancing the overall experience. Imagine taking users by the hand, leading them through your product’s landscape where every feature and benefit is a scenic stop. This journey is thoughtfully plotted to deepen their understanding and investment in what you’re showing them. And here, visuals aren’t just decor; they’re powerful tools that grab attention and make a lasting impression.

When tailoring each step of the tour, it’s about viewing it through the user’s eyes—acknowledging the diversity in their backgrounds and challenges, and customizing the content accordingly. Adding interactivity turns the tour from a monologue into a dialogue, boosting engagement.

But the storyboard isn’t set in stone. It evolves through user feedback, a critical step where your product tour undergoes continuous refinement. This feedback loop is your product tour’s lifeline, ensuring it stays relevant and resonates deeply with your audience. 

Through this process of ongoing enhancement, informed by user insights and analytics, your product tour doesn’t just keep pace with expectations—it sets new standards.

Integrating interactive features and elements into your product tour transforms it from a passive presentation to an engaging journey. 

These kinds of engagement tools are much like hosting a lively party where every element sparks interest and makes guests feel right at home. Variety is key, with each UI pattern bringing its unique flair to the event for user interaction.

Interactive tours serve as personal guides, leading users step-by-step through your product, simplifying complex processes into manageable chunks. Hotspots, the subtle nudges within your app, draw attention to specific points of interest, encouraging discovery and exploration.

Tooltips provide bite-sized pieces of information without demanding action, enhancing understanding with minimal intrusion. 

Together, it all helps create an immersive experience that not only educates but also engages, ensuring your software makes a lasting impression.

Content creation for interactive product tours requires a blend of engagement and education, aiming to capture the attention of today’s software buyers who prefer experiencing products directly over hearing sales pitches. 

The core of a standout product tour lies in delivering content that is not only rich in information and visually captivating, but also clearly demonstrates your product’s benefits and value.

The ultimate aim is to connect your product with its potential users in a way that not only educates and engages, but also streamlines the path to conversion and onboarding. 

By embracing these guidelines for content creation—prioritizing a design that speaks to users, ensuring interactivity, and maintaining clarity in your messaging—you lay the groundwork for a product tour that resonates deeply with viewers

And this will enrich their experience with your product from the first click.

Conducting user testing is a critical step in validating the effectiveness of your interactive product tour. 

It offers a direct line to understanding how real users interact with your product tour, what they find engaging, and where they may encounter confusion or barriers. This process is not a one-off event, but rather an ongoing cycle of feedback loops and iteration, essential for refining and optimizing the tour experience.

Interactive tours provide opportunities for collecting user feedback, not limited to direct inquiries like surveys. Advanced analytics from interactive demo platforms can reveal detailed engagement metrics, highlighting which aspects of your product tour captivate users’ attention the most. This data simplifies the task of identifying strengths and pinpointing areas needing improvement for lead nurturing .

Embracing a continuous improvement mindset is vital. While gathering, analyzing, and acting upon user feedback can seem daunting, leveraging solutions with robust analytics capabilities can streamline this process. These insights allow for targeted enhancements, ensuring that every iteration of your product tour resonates more effectively with your audience.

It is worth noting that navigating through varied user opinions to make meaningful improvements can be challenging. It’s sometimes necessary to create customized versions of your product tour to cater to distinct user segments, ensuring relevance and effectiveness across diverse audiences.

Additionally, users can inadvertently help detect bugs or technical issues. Addressing these promptly enhances the tour’s reliability, ensuring a seamless experience. Utilizing tools that separate the demo environment from your product’s back-end can safeguard against exposing users to any technical glitches, maintaining the integrity of the user experience. 

Through this iterative process of testing, feedback collection, and refinement, you can continually enhance your interactive product tour, making it an ever-more powerful tool in your engagement and conversion arsenal.

These days, optimizing your interactive product tour for mobile devices isn’t just ‘nice-to-have.’ 

If anything it’s a necessity. That being said, you need to ensure your product tour delivers a friction-free experience across various screen sizes and operating systems with responsive design. 

This will also ensure cross-device compatibility. With all the tech that’s available, there’s no excuse for not being able to provide customer delight .

Mobile optimization enhances user engagement and accessibility on any internet-connected smart device, whether it’s a smartphone, tablet, or desktop, making it easier for potential customers to explore your product anywhere and at any time.

There are many marketing tactics that can maximize the visibility and impact of your product tour. 

It’s highly recommended to go beyond social media promotions and enforce a multi-channel approach to reach your target audience. Email campaigns, tailored to highlight the value and uniqueness of your product, can spark interest and encourage clicks from those already interested in your offering. 

Forming partnerships with related businesses or platforms can further extend your reach, introducing your product to new but relevant audiences. 

By strategically leveraging these promotion strategies and distribution channels, you can significantly increase the engagement and effectiveness of your product tour, turning viewers into users and advocates.

When it comes to selecting the right platform for interactive product tours, you wouldn’t just want to choose randomly from the first page of your Google results. 

This is a very important decision that can significantly impact your product tours’ effectiveness. 

Beyond having a smooth UX, you want to make sure your platform of choice offers in-depth analytics. This will enable you to gauge how buyers interact with your tour, which is invaluable for ongoing refinement.

At the end of the day, a platform that offers robust analytics, flexibility in creating diverse tours, and supports your promotional strategies will be key to maximizing the impact of your interactive product tours. 

You know, like Walnut (wink, wink).

Creating an effective interactive product tour in 2024 has become a core requirement for engaging and converting tech-savvy users. 

This journey starts with understanding your audience, crafting a compelling narrative through storyboarding, and integrating interactive elements to create an engaging user experience. 

Additionally you wouldn’t want to forget the importance of optimizing for mobile devices, utilizing effective promotion and distribution strategies, and choosing the right platform are crucial steps towards ensuring your product tour reaches its full potential. 

Strategically implementing these guidelines will not only enhance your product’s visibility, but also significantly improve your user engagement and conversion rates.

What are you waiting for? Start creating winning interactive product tours by clicking that “Get Started” button.

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Building Product Tours: The design process behind our onboarding tool

Gustavs Cirulis

Principal Product Designer, Intercom

@gustavscirulis

Main illustration: Tim Gilligan

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Every product design project is a bit like climbing a hill . You ascend the hill to gain perspective on the surrounding terrain, but you don’t know what’s on the other side – you’re figuring out how to approach the problem, and you uncover and resolve the unknowns.

Once on top of the hill you have a clear view – you can see the shape of the landscape and make out the path down, you can picture what needs to be done to make progress.

This is a story of climbing uphill for Product Tours , our recently launched onboarding tool . It is a story of how we went from a broad problem to a validated concept through various twists and turns, and how we used feedback loops along the way to course correct our approach.

Starting in broad strokes

A high-quality customer onboarding experience is crucial for long-term growth of a business. All too often, however, those onboarding experiences can leave customers stumbling around in the dark without sufficient guidance to get started.

Our in-app messages are a great tool for engaging in conversation with new signups and telling them how to get started, but they weren’t designed to show them.

To fix this we began by writing an Intermission , our name for a project brief, and defining the Jobs-to-be-Done for this problem:

• Primary: When a new user arrives in my product, I want to guide them through the core elements and get them set up so that they start to get value from the product as quickly as possible.
• Secondary: When we release a new feature to our existing users, I want to make people aware of the new feature, orient them and help them get set up so that they can begin to get value out of the new feature.

In addition to the Intermission, we set out guiding principles that we believed in, principles that would provide a framework for evaluating our options and help us in making decisions:

• Learn by doing:  You should learn by actively engaging with the product, not passively reading about it.
• Take advantage of the Intercom platform: Intercom offers a whole suite of tools that you can use to engage with customers. Our solution needs to fit in and leverage the rest of the Intercom.
• Drive key activation and engagement metrics: Our solution needs to prove that it’s impacting the metrics you care about.

“We wanted our solution to be oriented around the ‘aha’ moment”

Seeking direction at this early stage, we relied on some of our research which found that many products have an activation metric to measure if the customer has turned into an active user. They also have a related but distinct “aha” moment when new signups really understand and see the value of the product for themselves. We wanted our solution to be oriented around the “aha” moment and measurable by the activation metric.

We looked at real products that serve our target audience and considered how a great onboarding experience might look like for them. Product tours had been one of the top feature requests for some time, so we knew there was a demand for it. And we already had a few ideas that we had been talking about for a while and were eager to test – simple pointer messages that you could use to highlight something in your product, fully interactive tours where users would be walked though how to use the product, and video tours where you could talk your users through the product.

To test these ideas out, we quickly created multiple opinionated and distinctive prototypes in Invision that captured these ideas. We designed realistic onboarding flows for real products. The goal was not to design the actual solution that we’d want to ship to everyone, but rather to better understand the space by creating a few tangible ideas that we could test ourselves and with our customers.

We focused only on the end-user experience, ignoring how a customer might set it up behind the scenes in Intercom. Once we’d know what a good end-user experience looks like, we’d come back and figure out how it could be set up.

Validating with customers

After making these early concepts more tangible, we were excited about the potential of Product Tours. But to better understand if that’s what our customers really needed, we combined the best ideas from all of them into one concept and set up interviews with businesses that had requested product tours before and with end-users who would experience them.

During these interviews we asked companies about how they currently solve this job, what’s working, and what isn’t. Then we showed them a simple Invision prototype and asked them to go through it and tell us what they’re thinking. We received a lot of positive signals, particularly about how to interact with the product to proceed. On top of that we learned about specific ways businesses would use these tours, and the questions and concerns that arose.

Based on these findings we were happy to proceed further with product tours and explore them in more detail.

Turning it into a system

Now that we had an approximate idea for how end-user experience might work and determined that there was demand for it, we had to figure out how it would fit into the wider Intercom product and how we would design the system behind it.

Since one of our principles was that our solution would take advantage of the existing Intercom platform, we wanted tours to be reusable objects that could be sent anywhere; inserted when talking to customers via the Inbox; embedded in messages and articles; and triggered automatically by themselves. Furthermore, you should be able to measure how effective the tours are across all of these channels.

Starting small to learn

We had found a high-level solution that the whole team was excited about and we saw clear demand from our customers. Had we reached the top of the hill? We could begin our journey downhill by breaking it down into concrete tasks we should design and build. But we avoided that temptation.

One of our product principles is “think big, start small,” which means that we think ambitiously, but always try to find the smallest coherent solution that goes in our desired direction while enabling us to ship and learn early.

So we took a step back to think about how we might do that. We broke the idea of interactive tours down into a spectrum of options of varying levels of sophistication:

• Pointer in-app message type
• View-only tours
• Basic interactive tours
• Advanced interactive tours
• And a whole different take on how to solve the underlying job – onboarding checklists

For each of them we considered:

• How effective is it against the jobs to be done that we originally set out?
• How easy would it be for companies to set up?
• What’s the level of change necessary to our existing product?
• What’s the effort to build this?

1. Pointer in-app message type

We already had multiple types of in-app messages, so the most basic version of tours might be to introduce a new in-app message type that can be pointed at anything in an interface.

It would be a simple solution that requires little change to our existing product and would be easy to ship and learn from, but it would only solve one of the two jobs we want to solve – announcing new features, rather than a comprehensive onboarding experience.

2. View-only tours

The second option was stringing multiple pointer messages together to create view-only tours. You could point things out in your product and talk about them, guiding users across multiple pages, but they wouldn’t be able to interact with the product themselves.

In addition to working well for announcing new features, this could also be used for guiding new signups though your product. But it was against one of our guiding principles of “learning by doing”. While better than just reading about your product, it still would be a passive experience.

3. Basic interactive tours

We could take it a level up by introducing the ability to progress the tour by clicking on the element that is being highlighted by the pointer message This would make tours much more engaging by enabling users to learn by doing.

But we had concerns that it might be too easy to get into situations where the tour breaks. For example, if a message point out a submit button and a user clicked on it, they could end up getting an error because they hadn’t filled out all of the fields. Since the tour would only track clicks on the submit button, it wouldn’t be aware that the product was actually not in the right state and show you content that doesn’t make sense in the context.

4. Advanced interactive tours

To remove this brittleness problem we came up with a more advanced way to detect if your product is in the right state – instead of tracking clicks we’d look for a specific element that only appears when you’re in the correct state of the product.

This seemed like an innovative solution that was likely to produce the most reliable tours, but it would be a design challenge to enable customers to easily set up such tours.

5. Onboarding checklists

While thinking about the spectrum of options for tours, we also considered whether we should take a completely different approach to solve the same underlying problem. Instead of guiding new signups through the product, we could present a check-list of activities they should do. So instead of showing you how to do something, we would tell you what to do and guide you towards it.

Making a decision

We came to the conclusion that Product Tours and checklists are not competing options, but instead they’re complementary. We could do both. But since we had heard so much positive feedback about Product Tours we decided that it represented the bigger opportunity to begin with.

In the spectrum of options for Product Tours we decided to proceed with the advanced interactive tours because it solved the jobs best, was a lot more reliable than basic tours and wasn’t much more expensive to build.

But we knew we’d have to solve a big design challenge – the tour setup process was going to be more difficult to understand than just selecting a button and saying that the tour should proceed if users click on it. Instead you would have to select a unique element that only appears after a user performs an action.

This was the type of a design problem where you can only really evaluate it when you use it with real data. So after designing a few interactive prototypes in Invision, myself and Eoin Nolan , a principal engineer on our team, paired up to create a prototype that would allow you to build real tours on real products.

Our prototype for building real tours

Our motivation at this point was merely to learn if companies could easily build tours for themselves, so we didn’t invest a lot of time in getting the design just right or writing the code to be of production quality.

This ended up being a much better way to test our design because we could test it on any website and try out a bunch of different types of tours quickly. And because we didn’t build production quality code or design, we could move very quickly.

To put it to a real test we set up interviews with customers and asked them to create tours on their own sites.

We ended up doing multiple rounds of testing, each time iterating on our design based on previous findings. But ultimately the results were mixed. Some customers were able to build their tours without any problems while others got very confused and were unable to create tours because their mental model for how the builder should work didn’t match what we had built.

Going beyond the product design

In addition to these findings, we were hearing from the leadership team that they had concerns about the business and market implications for this direction. They were concerned that this might be too powerful and complex for our target audience. Given its complexity, would only a small portion of our customers use it? Would most businesses be better served with something simpler?

To test these concerns, we decided to evaluate our spectrum of options against these additional criteria:

• What appeals to the broadest market?
• What appeals to our top customer segments?
• What appeals to adjacent use cases?

We went back to our options and evaluated which ones could add most value within the constraints of these criteria.

At that point, we concluded that we should move forward with view-only tours. While this required us to reconsider the importance of our initial guiding principle of learning by doing, we determined that view-only tours would be adequate for the majority of our customers across different use-cases and still represented a big market opportunity.

And importantly, proceeding with view-only tours would also allow us to ship and learn earlier and avoid investing a lot of time and effort in finding the perfect solution for the more complicated set up process. If we found that it’s important later down the line we could build it on top of view-only tours.

“Our initial principle that our onboarding solution had to encourage learning by doing was vindicated”

This gave us enough confidence to shift from an uphill exploration mode into downhill execution mode, but continued to evaluate our solution with real customers along the way.

It was during beta that we realized the direction we were taking with view-only tours was indeed too simple and limited – many beta testers expressed their need to allow users to progress the tour by interacting with the product. Our initial principle that our onboarding solution had to encourage learning by doing was vindicated, so we carefully increased the scope and reintroduced the ability to progress the tour by interacting with the product.

That time spent building view-only tours was not wasted, however – by beginning with the simpler approach first we were able to ship and learn early, avoid over-optimizing for an advanced feature, and made the most common use-case simple and focused.

Lessons after climbing the hill

There were a number of lessons to take away from this:

• Look for opportunities to include many feedback loops in your design process . They enabled us to make rapid, informed decisions and course correct our approach based on what our customers really need.
• Consider that the most effective and innovative solution might not be the right solution . By considering market and business needs you can understand where the biggest opportunities lie and you might be able to achieve more with less.
• This approach might take you back to the solution you had in your head from the beginning . And that’s okay. After going through this process we gained so much more confidence that it’s the right thing for us, our customers, and that we’re not missing out on different opportunities.

Ultimately we believe that Product Tours will enable businesses to grow by onboarding their new signups in an engaging way that drives them to success. Give it a try .

If this sounds like the sort of challenge you would love to work on, we’re hiring designers and design managers in Dublin, San Francisco and London.

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Home Blog How to Create Interactive Product Tours to Enhance the Onboarding Experience

How to Create Interactive Product Tours to Enhance the Onboarding Experience

June 27, 2022 Edwin Kooistra

Onboarding is an essential process for products. It’s the time when you hook new users and get them interested in your product. One way to do this is by using product tours to show new users around.

In this blog post, we’ll show you how to create interactive product tours and what benefits they can bring to your onboarding experience.

What is a Product Tour?

A product tour is a guided tour of a product or service. It is usually created by the company that makes the product or provides the service to show potential customers what the product or service can do and how to use it.

Moreover, product tours can be in person, over the phone, or online. They are often given as part of a product demonstration or presentation. SaaS product tours can introduce new products or services or show potential customers how to use existing products or services.

Product tours are a great way to learn about a product or service before buying it. They can also help you decide whether a product or service is right for you.

Why are Creating Product Tours Essential?

Product tours are essential because they help product users learn about the product and its features. They can also be used to promote a product or to increase customer satisfaction. Product tours can have many benefits, including:

1. Improved product understanding and engagement: By providing a guided tour of the product, users can better understand how to use it and its features. This can lead to increased product engagement and satisfaction.

2. Increased product adoption: By making it easy for users to learn about a product, product tours can increase the likelihood of adopting and using it.

3. Boosted sales and conversions: Product tours can be used to promote a product, leading to increased sales and conversions.

4. Improved customer satisfaction: By providing a guided tour of the product, customers can be helped to use it more effectively and troubleshoot any problems they may have. This can lead to improved customer satisfaction.

5. Greater product awareness: SaaS product tours can help to increase awareness of a product, leading to increased sales and adoption.

5 Type of Product Tours

There are several types of product tours for SaaS products, each with advantages and disadvantages. Below is a list of some of the most popular types of product tours, along with information on what makes each one unique:

• Guided Tour
• Interactive Tour
• Screenshot Tour

1 – Guided Tour

A guided tour is a type of product walkthrough that takes the user step-by-step through the key features and functionality of the software. This type of tour is typically very comprehensive and can be quite helpful for new users who want to learn about the software before using it. However, guided tours can also be quite long and detailed, making them daunting for some users.

2 – Interactive Tour

An interactive tour is a type of product tour that allows the user to explore the software on their own, at their own pace. This type of tour typically includes comprehensive information about the software. Still, it is presented in a way that is less linear and more flexible, making it more user-friendly for some people.

3 – Video Tour

A video tour is a type of product tour that uses video to show users how to use the software. This tour can benefit new users as it provides a clear and concise overview of the software. However, video tours can also be long and detailed, making them daunting for some users.

4 – Screenshot Tour

A screenshot tour is a type of product tour that uses screenshots to show users how to use the software. This tour can benefit new users as it provides a clear and concise overview of the software. However, screenshot tours can also be long and detailed, making them daunting for some users.

5 – Text Tour

A text tour is a product tour that uses text to explain how to use the software. This tour can benefit new users as it provides a clear and concise overview of the software. However, text tours can also be long and detailed, making them daunting for some users.

5 Steps to build better Product Tours for your SaaS Business

Building a better product tour for your software as a service (SaaS) can help new users learn the ropes and existing users stay up to date on new features. Product tours can be delivered in many ways, but some critical steps to keep in mind are as follows:

• Plan your product tour around key user goals
• Keep it short and sweet
• Make it interactive
• Personalize the experience
• Test, test, and test

1 – Plan your Product Tour around key user goals

Consider what your users want to accomplish with your software, and design your tour accordingly. What are the essential features of your product? What will help your users achieve their objectives? Focus on those areas in your time.

2 – Keep it short and sweet

Your users’ attention span is limited, so ensure your tour is concise and to the point. Highlight the most important features and benefits of your product without overwhelming users with too much information at once.

3 – Make it interactive

Product tours should be interactive and engaging so users can get the most out of them. Use multimedia content such as images, videos, and animations to bring your tour to life. And provide opportunities for users to try out your product themselves to see how it works in real-world scenarios.

4 – Personalize the experience

Tailor your product tour to each user based on their needs and interests. This will help ensure they get the most relevant and helpful information from your time.

5 – Test, test, and test

Before you launch your product tour, test it thoroughly to ensure that everything works as intended. Get feedback from beta testers and other users to see if any areas need improvement. And once you’ve launched the tour, continue to monitor it and make changes as required.

5 Tips for using your Product Tour Effectively

Here are a few tips for making the most of your product tour:

• Start with the basics
• Keep it concise
• Use engaging visuals
• Highlight key benefits
• Use calls to action

1. Start with the basics

Ensure that your product tour’s best practices cover all of your product’s basic features and functionality. This will give users an excellent foundation to build upon as they explore the rest of your product.

2. Keep it concise

Don’t try to cover too much ground in your product tour. Stick to the essential information and leave out any extraneous details.

3. Use engaging visuals

Utilize images, videos, or other visuals to help bring your product tour to life. This will make it more enjoyable for users to follow along and understand what you’re trying to communicate.

4. Highlight key benefits

Throughout your product tour, highlight how using your product can benefit users. This will help motivate them to stick with the tour and see how your product can help them achieve their goals.

5. Use calls to action

Encourage users to take specific steps throughout your product tour. For example, you might ask them to sign up for a free trial or download a white paper. You can keep users engaged by providing clear calls to action and helping them get the most out of your product tour.

By following these tips, you can create a practical product tour to help users learn about your product and see how it can benefit them. By providing a great user experience, you can encourage users to stick with your product and keep using it long after the tour.

4 Best Product Tour Examples for Inspiration

There are many different ways to design a product tour. Some common examples include:

• Google Drive

1 – Dropbox

It is a file sharing and storage service that allows users to sync files across devices and share them with others. The product tour example for Dropbox walks users through the service’s various features, including creating and sharing folders, accessing files offline, and using the security features to protect their data.

2 – Google Drive

It is a cloud-based storage service that allows users to store and access their files anywhere. The product tour for Google Drive walks users through the service’s various features, including how to create and share documents, collaborate with others in real time, and access their files offline.

3 – OneDrive

Microsoft’s cloud-based storage service allows users to store and access their files from anywhere. The product tour for OneDrive walks users through the service’s various features, including how to create and share documents, collaborate with others in real time, and access their files offline.

4 – iCloud

Apple’s cloud-based storage service allows users to store and access their files from anywhere. The product tour for iCloud walks users through the service’s various features, including how to create and share documents, collaborate with others in real-time and access their files offline.

Wrapping up

Creating interactive product tours is essential to providing a great onboarding experience for your SaaS. By following the steps we’ve outlined, you can make better product tours that help users understand how your product works and increase their confidence in using it. We hope these examples have given you some inspiration for creating your product tour.

Edwin Kooistra - Product Marketer & Founder

Technology can be a huge differentiator but leveraging emerging technologies can be challenging. After my degree in Business Information Technology I decided to work on the provider side of Technology, because I believe Technology providers play an important role in guiding enterprises on their digital journey. Besides helping tech businesses to optimize their growth and go-to-market strategies, I also like to write about the topic. I hope you find it useful!

Related Content

13 Best Product Tour Software for your SaaS in 2024 [UPDATED Ultimate Guide]

31 min read

Product tour software is a must if you want to improve your user onboarding and provide interactive guidance to your customers. But how to choose the right one?

Well, it depends on several factors, including your company size, budget, and technical resources to implement and use the tool.

Let’s dive straight into the best product tour software we’ve carefully selected based on the requirements of SaaS companies of different sizes. We picked the best 13 options for you.

• Product tour software is any tool meant for building product guides and in-app onboarding, to improve new user activation rate , trial-to-paid conversion rate, and overall user retention.
• Benefits: The tools help product managers and PMMs build these in-app experiences without (almost any) coding – and without relying on their engineering team. This means product tour tools help product teams work more independently on their onboarding flows and save time and money.
• There are a few key features of a good product guidance tool:
• Easy installation and a truly no-code product tour builder, with no-code styling options.
• Interactive walkthroughs – a more effective onboarding UI pattern than linear product tours, allowing your users to learn by doing;
• Analytics + segmentation options – so you can segment your users based on their attributes and in-app behavior and show relevant content to each group, as well as understand the performance of your tours.
• A/B testing
• Versioning and team features.
• Integrations (especially with analytics tools and CRMs).
• Pricing – which tools offer the best value for money, considering your individual requirement, and what are the technical and security differences between the different, seemingly “equal” options?
• Here are the best 13 Product Tour Tools for your SaaS, based on the selection criteria listed above:
• Userguiding
• Product Fruits

Try Userpilot and Take Your Product Tours to the Next Level

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What is product tour software?

Product tour software is a tool designed for building in-app product tours for user onboarding. They allow you to provide contextual in-app guidance, enhance user experience, and turn new customers into active users. Most product tour tools allow you to build these guides largely code-free (or low-code) – which will save you tons of money and time in terms of your engineering resources.

Let’s see some of the key benefits of a product tour tool and the features a good tool should have, before diving into the in-depth comparison.

Why do you need product tour software?

Product tour software has become a must for most SaaS companies and for some really good reasons.

Here are the key benefits of using tools for building product tours (+ rather than hard-coding them yourself):

• Since the tools allow you to build in-app experiences code-free, they give your product team (product managers and marketers) more control over the shape and look of your onboarding. You don’t need to wait for your devs to finish the sprint anymore before experimenting with your onboarding flows to improve trial-to-paid conversion rates!
• You free up your engineering resources to do what really matters – working on building and improving your product.
• Product tour tools typically have in-built analytics, experimentation suite, version control, roles & permissions, and code-free styling…it would literally take millions for your dev team to develop these solutions from scratch. And without them – you’re walking in the dark – and can’t measure the engagement with your onboarding, experiment, or quickly change it if needed.
• Some product guidance software offers the option to build tours on top of third-party apps – to foster digital adoption for the employee onboarding use case.

Hopefully, this convinces you really need a tool to build your product tours, and that it’s a not a good idea to just ask your devs to build them from scratch 😉 but before we dive into the list of the best software, let’s quickly look at the features you should be searching for when choosing a product tour tool.

Must-have features of good product tour software

Now, good product tour software solutions should have the following features:

• Code-free product tour building and styling + easy installation This one is a no-brainer; since the main benefit of using a product guide tool is to be able to build the tours quickly without coding, you need to check if the tool is really code-free – and doesn’t require tons of development resources to install and implement in the first place.
• Triggering options: Everybody hates linear product tours read more about the better interactive walkthroughs here. Interactive walkthroughs essentially “wait” for your user to take the required action before showing them the next step, while linear product tours only show a series of tooltips with a “next” button – often overwhelming your users. A good product tour software should also allow real-time, event-based triggering of the in-app experiences – allowing you to respond to users’ actions in real-time.
• Usage and Engagement Analytics + sophisticated user segmentation : on the one hand, you need to know what your users are doing and be able to segment them – both by user attributes and behavior (in-app events) – so that you can trigger the right product tours to the right segment of people. Your product guides are most effective when they are really relevant and personalized to the users’ role and JTBD – so segmentation capabilities are a must. Also – to make sure your product guides are actually successful, you need to know how your users are engaging with them – so the completion rate of each step, and goal completion – are the minimum of analytics you should expect of a product guidance tool.
• A/B testing : to make sure your product guides are actually successful, you need to be able to run experiments – testing one version of your onboarding flow against another version, and seeing which one leads to a better outcome – higher goal completion, or higher conversion rate. Few product tour tools offer that, unfortunately.
• Roles & permissions + version control: if you’re a member of a larger product team, you should be able to use the tool collaboratively. So being able to invite your team members , having different roles and permissions, and being able to see the different versions of your onboarding flow and revert any “unplanned” or unfortunate changes – is a big plus.
• Integrations: being able to push the data from your product analytics tool (e.g. Amplitude, Mixpanel) or to and from your CRM (Salesforce, Hubspot) is critical to both get the relevant data into your product tour software solution, and to pass the data from your in-app onboarding to your CRM, email automation platforms etc.
• Pricing – obviously, you don’t want to pay thousands of dollars for features you aren’t going to be even using. On the other hand – there’s no point in saving $50 per month and getting saddled with a buggy, half-baked solution that doesn’t meet your technical and security requirements (you should aim for SOC-2 Type II certified tools).

Now that you know what to look out for, let’s look at the best tools – and compare them based on the above criteria.

Best product tour software tools for SaaS companies

Now let’s go over the best tools to create product tours:

Product Tour Software #1: Userpilot

Product tours are an effective way to show new users what a product can do and reduce the time-to-value (TTV) for them. Userpilot lets you build advanced product tours, set contextual triggers, and target specific audiences, all without writing a single line of code.

Here are the Userpilot features that you can use to build a product tour for your users:

No-code flow builder in Userpilot

Pros of building your interactive product tours with Userpilot

• You create interactive product tours with Userpilot directly on top of your app, mimicking your users’ behavior as you do it. This is (in my option) the most intuitive way of building user onboarding without code:
• You can build branched and fully interactive walkthroughs/product guides . Using our unique Driven Actions system, you can set event-based triggers for different elements of the tour. For example, you can require a user to complete a text field or go to another page in your app before moving on. This turns a passive tour into something much more interactive and conducive to learning, which minimizes Time To First Value . In this way, Userpilot is highly focused on helping you drive user activation.
• Userpilot is one of only two tools on the market that offer real-time, event-based triggering of the onboarding flows. This means you can react to your user behavior in real-time!
• We have a visual WYSIWYG builder with a comprehensive range of UX elements including native tooltips , hotspots, checklists , welcome screens, modals, microsurveys , slideouts, resource centers, and more
• To take your product tour to the next level, we also have a range of segmentation and personalization options. For users who have different use cases, you can build different experiences that are relevant to them:
• You can supercharge your product growth with actionable insights from Trend analysis, spot drop-offs and improve trial-to-paid conversion rate with Funnels, and understand the impact of your efforts better with Cohort Analysis.
• Did we mention our easy-to-use, visual interface allows you to build any experience or UI pattern in minutes, without code?
• Userpilot is also quick and easy to deploy, requiring only a Chrome extension download and installation of a JS snippet across your site.
• You can easily pass all your in-app events and user attributes via Segment integration.
• As one of the very few tools that offer experimentation capabilities, Userpilot allows you to A/B test different versions of your onboarding experiences to achieve your growth goals.

• Plus, Userpilot has 14 survey templates to choose from that help you collect both qualitative and quantitative feedback from your users. These include customer satisfaction benchmarks like CSAT or CES surveys and open-ended questions about specific features.

• Userpilot has a wide range of one-click integrations, both with analytics tools (Amplitude, Heap, Mixpanel, Google Analytics), CRMs (Hubspot), and webhooks.
• It offers excellent value for money with all features being available without any limitations in all plans.
• Get a free demo of Userpilot to see how it can drive your SaaS product growth.

Cons of Userpilot

• It doesn’t work on mobile apps. Yet. Keep an eye out!
• It’s not suitable for employee onboarding on third-party apps such as Salesforce or Hubspot.

RELATED: In our last blog, we showed you what you need to do to build awesome product tours and walkthroughs . Check it out if you’re looking for more tips on creating your next product tour!

Userpilot pricing

Userpilot’s transparent pricing ranges from $249/month on the entry-level end to an Enterprise tier for larger companies.

Furthermore, Userpilot’s entry-level plan includes access to all UI patterns and should include everything that most mid-market SaaS businesses need to get started.

• Starter : The entry-level Starter plan starts at $249/month and includes features like segmentation, product analytics, reporting, user engagement , NPS feedback, and customization.
• Growth : The Growth plan starts at $749/month and includes features like resource centers , advanced event-based triggers, unlimited feature tagging, AI-powered content localization, EU hosting options, and a dedicated customer success manager.
• Enterprise : The Enterprise plan uses custom pricing and includes all the features from Starter + Growth plus custom roles/permissions, access to premium integrations , priority support, custom contract, SLA, SAML SSO, activity logs, security audit, and compliance (SOC 2/GDPR).

Product Tour Software #2: Intercom

You’re probably already familiar with Intercom, the conversational marketing and engagement platform, also known for its product tour software.

Well, they also have an add-on called Intercom Product Tours .

Don’t get me wrong. The Intercom product is great. But Intercom Product Tours is only really suitable for really basic product tours, as we’ve discussed in an earlier blog.

• It only supports linear onboarding – that is, a series of non-interactive information panels like in the picture above, not interactive product tours:
• The UX is quite basic, which limits how contextual the cues given can be. There are no modals, slideouts, checklists or hotspots, for example. If you are supporting multiple use cases and multiple audience segments, or if your product has a lot of different functionality, this one-size-fits-all approach is problematic.
• Intercom Product Tours doesn’t support A/B testing. So how will you work out whether your onboarding can be improved?

• Although it claims to be no-code, in fact the styling you can employ without CSS coding is pretty limited. If you want complete control over the look and feel, you’re doing to need a web developer on the case.

Finally, Intercom Product Tours is only available as an add-on to the main Intercom product.

That is, you can’t buy it separately – you have to spend at least $149 per month extra on top of your Intercom subscription.

Pros of Intercom

• If you’re a diehard Intercom user and your onboarding needs are simple, it integrates seamlessly with the rest of their tools
• The frameless videos look great!

Cons of Intercom

• Linear tours only, no real interactivity
• Restricted range of user experiences
• Styling requires coding – you can always tell if someone’s been using Intercom’s product tour software, because the product tours always look kinda the same…
• Entry-point pricing may seem attractive, but it increases sharply with the growing number of users you may have. There’s no transparent pricing on Intercom’s website.

Intercom product tour pricing

Intercom’s product tours are an add-on so you can only get them if you already have a subscription with them. (Intercom’s pricing plans are notoriously complicated and tricky to navigate). The basic Starter plan starts at $74 and you’ll have to pay $199/mo for the product tours feature.

Product Tour Software #3: Appcues

Appcues has been around for years in the product onboarding space, and their service offers a comprehensive range of product tour features.

It supports the full range of different UX elements, giving you lots of design options for designing onboarding tours .

But, Appcues still only supports linear onboarding.

Their “Flows” don’t drive users to complete tasks – they are passive.

That’s ok for onboarding materials in a help center, perhaps. Linear onboarding of this sort is good for very basic introductory steps.

But when a user is actively engaged in a task, they want the help available right then and there – contextually. This is called reactive onboarding – because you’re reacting to your user’s behavior in-app in real-time.

Conversely, linear tours used as a form of proactive onboarding are just annoying for users who aren’t interested in the feature at the time you’ve decided to train them on it.

I also find Appcues a bit difficult to use. Perhaps that’s because they’ve added so many bits and pieces to the service over the years.

But I don’t like having to switch between pages when I’m designing a Flow.

Pros of Appcues

• Lots of UX options mean that you can be really imaginative with your tours
• Appcues produces loads of great content, on their own blog and on Really Good UX

Cons of Appcues

But as any tool, Appcues is not without its flaws – and at this price point, we think you may really want to consider some options that offer the same or more advanced functionality, but at a lower price tag:

• Appcues lacks certain transition actions like driven actions, scroll position, or page change, which would make product tours more interactive.
• It heavily limits the functionality available in the lowest (Essentials) plan. If you need checklists, more than 10 events, or more than 5 user segments, you’ll need to upgrade to the Growth plan (starting at $879/mo payable annually, which means you need to fork out more than $10,500 to start using Appcues for more use cases.
• Appcues doesn’t have a resource center feature, meaning you can’t use it to offer self-service support to your users.
• Native styling options are limited – full control again depends on CSS coding
• Linear onboarding really limits its ability to drive user activation

Appcues pricing

Pricing for Appcues starts at $249 per month, with the platform offering three distinct tiers – Essentials, Growth, and Enterprise. The total cost can vary depending on the number of monthly active users (MAU). For instance, the Essential plan starts at $249 per month for 2500 MAU but jumps to $299 for 5000 MAU.

It’s also worth noting that Appcues is pricier than some of the other product adoption tools available in the market, including Userpilot. For instance, Userpilot’s basic tier (Starter) lets you add up to 10 audience segments and includes the complete set of UI patterns.

Product Tour Software #4: Pendo

Pendo is a comprehensive digital adoption platform with impressive analytics, in-app feedback, and product adoption features.

It caters primarily to enterprise users and probably has the most advanced analytics of all the tools we’re covering in this article. But it all comes at a price.

Pros of Pendo

Despite the price and its steep learning curve, Pendo does have a few pros compared to its competitors.

• Pendo is known for its good and easy-to-use analytics tools like Paths, Retention, and Funnels. (As of Q1 2023, Userpilot will have the same analytics features, with more robust functionality). These may not be necessary though if you’re looking just for tour software.
• Pendo has a shareable product-planning tool to organize customer feedback and prioritize high-value features. It helps keep teams aligned with the shared feature-planning guide.
• It works on web apps and mobile apps so if you need both, this might be a good choice for you.

Cons of Pendo

Surprisingly for a product guidance and engagement tool that claims to be “all in one” you can’t act directly on the user analytics from Pendo in Pendo.

That’s because Pendo doesn’t allow you to target users segmented by in-app events with the in-app guides you’ve built with it.

Here’s a short list of Pendo’s cons:

• It doesn’t allow you to trigger experiences based on in-app events either. This is probably because of tech debt – but makes Pendo’s analytics pretty much NOT actionable.
• Pendo offers limited onboarding elements, which means you can’t always create the best experience for your users. If you want checklists these can only be accessed from the Resource Center which defeats the purpose of having them in the first place.
• Pendo’s pricing is only available to you if you ask for a quote. The company doesn’t list pricing on its site for the higher tiers. However, some reviews say they have prices starting at $20,000-$25,000 per year for a single product, and around $50,000 per year for the mid-tier package. This might be Pendo’s biggest downside.

If you’re looking for a tool that shows you user analytics in real-time and allows you to trigger in-app experiences based on in-app events and user behavior in real-time – Userpilot offers these features (and at a lower price tag too).

Pendo Pricing

Pendo has 4 pricing plans divided into 2 tiers (“plans to get started” and “plans to grow”), and 2 products (“engage” and “adopt”).

The basic “plans to get started” start at $7000 per year, paid annually only. This plan doesn’t make a lot of sense as it has extremely limited features (compared to Userpilot’s “Traction” plan , which gives you all the features and integrations + up to 2,500 MAUs for $2988!):

• no Resource Center
• no integrations (!)
• only basic analytics

The “growth” plans to only available to you if you ask for a quote. The company doesn’t list pricing on its site for the higher tiers. However, some reviews say they have prices starting at $20,000-$25,000 per year for a single product, and around $50,000 per year for the mid-tier package.

The tricky part when it comes to Pendo’s pricing is that you get to pay separately for different modules:

• Pendo Free: up to 500 MAU, single-app, and basic functionality and analytics.
• Pendo Starter $7000/year: 2,000 MAU limit, multi-app, and access to premium features like NPS but it doesn’t include advanced analytics or integrations.
• Pendo Growth: Custom MAU, single-app, NPS and PES, resource center, and access to support compared to lower plans.
• Pendo Portfolio: Custom MAU, multi-app, cross-journey reports, experimentation, and 1 free integration included.
• Pendo Premium: Custom MAU, multi-app, everything in other plans plus custom roles and permissions and advanced security.
• Pendo Feedback: collecting feature requests is a separate module with custom pricing.
• Pendo Adopt: employee onboarding is a separate module with custom pricing.

Create Product Tours with Userpilot for Better Pricing

Product tour software #5: walkme.

If anything, WalkMe is even better known than Appcues. It has massive brand recognition and so is the first name that comes to mind when many people are looking for product tour software.

WalkMe used to be on-premise software that you had to install locally, but now it is pure SaaS – which is a great improvement.

One really interesting feature is WalkMe’s context-intelligent algorithm, which attempts to work out user needs and intentions and then serve up the most appropriate tours and onboarding flows.

Pros of WalkMe

• Lots of name recognition and a strong brand reputation
• Loads of features – it aims to provide a complete Digital Adoption Platform, including analytics, A/B testing and task automation
• Product tours don’t have to be completely linear, but reviews suggest that not all use cases can be accommodated
• Works on 3-rd party apps, so you can build digital adoption flows on e.g. Salesforce of Hubspot to train your employees with it

Cons of WalkMe

• One of the most expensive product tour software options out there
• Very hard to install and actually use – requires a lot of technical set up and dev resources to customize ( read this case study of a customer who switched from Walkme to Userpilot and saved dozens of dev hours)
• Only suitable for large enterprises
• Best for employee training and onboarding, not user onboarding
• poor value for money – with even the “startup plans” in the area of $12,000 per year and going up to $55,000 per annum.
• only annual plans available
• no free trial to actually check how it works.

RELATED: [Case Study] How Touchright Software saved hours of dev time after switching from Walkme to Userpilot

WalkMe pricing

WalkMe is popular with enterprise-level businesses, who appreciate its massive range of features (which go way beyond WalkMe product tours – it’s an entire Digital Adoption Platform) and very high-security spec.

That’s pretty amazing when it works well, but it comes at a price. WalkMe pricing is bespoke, but it tends to range from anywhere between $9,000 and $50,000.

But that number of features can be intimidating and hard to get to grips with. A wide variety of templates (pictured above) helps with that, but WalkMe really delivers best when you have a lot of time (and development support) to dedicate to it.

Product Tour Software #6: WhatFix

WhatFix has a lot of great functionality – including the ability to create product tours of the sort we believe are essential to driving user activation.

Here’s an example of designing a tooltip in WhatFix.

That makes WhatFix a real competitor, but there are some important caveats to be aware of.

Firstly, in-app styling is pretty basic – which means, once again, you’ll need CSS skills or resources to get your onboarding experiences aligned with the look and feel of the rest of your app.

Pros of WhatFix

• Offers interactive walkthroughs.
• Lots of different UX options.
• Easy to install via Chrome extension and JS snippet.

Cons of WhatFix

• Only has basic in-app styling options.
• No A/B testing in-app or built-in analytics. It does, however, support Google Analytics integration.
• Bespoke pricing makes it hard to know who to recommend WhatFix to.
• WhatFix’s customer support seems to not be the best. Check out the review sites and you’ll see a lot of grumbles.

WhatFix pricing

WhatFix is very cagey on pricing . No bands are given on-site – it’s by quote only. Not to mention, there is no free trial option.

Product Tour Software #7: Chameleon

This is another onboarding and product tour software service.

Chameleon has a lot of good features and can definitely hold its own against rivals like Appcues .

It offers a wide variety of UX elements (tooltips, hotspots, beacons etc) and can be used to build complicated walkthroughs. It also has an innovative “launcher” function which you can use to deploy checklists and other widget elements.

It has advanced user segmentation and personalization (which it did not until recently), and event-based triggers – although these are not as customizable as, say, Userpilot offers.

Personally, I find the UI fairly hard to use – maybe because it has so many elements.

Chameleon’s main differentiator is that they will do the styling coding for you. This is great if you have very specific look and feel needs for your product tours but lack the resources in-house to execute it.

Pros of Chameleon

• Highly competitive range of UX and tools.
• Extensive range of integrations, with tools like Mixpanel, Amplitude, Heap, Intercom, Zapier, Slack etc.
• Bespoke coding makes it perhaps the most suitable option for services with a really distinctive look and feel needs.

Cons of Chameleon

• Bespoke coding, of course, will slow down the speed at which it can be deployed.
• Access to a lot of the best features are restricted on the lower pricing tiers (eg the Startup package offers only 5 microsurveys and 1 launcher, and it omits A/B testing entirely).

Chameleon pricing

Chameleon offers three pricing plans:

• Startup: from $349/ mo with limited features
• Growth: from $899/mo
• Enterprise: enhanced security and support with custom pricing

Considering Chameleon? Try a Better Alternative

Product tour software #8: userlane.

Userlane is a code-free digital adoption platform that allows you to create in-app interactive content to guide new users and increase product adoption.

Pros of Userlane

Userlane is a popular digital adoption tools and comes with many benefits. Here are its pros.

• Lanes are easy to set up and implement.
• Easy to add gamification elements to your onboarding.
• Includes real-time analytics so you can identify behavior trends and act on them.
• Doesn’t require technical knowledge as it’s mostly code-free.

Cons of Userlane

However, this tool has some flaws so it’s better to get an overview of its cons iif you’re thinking of buying it:

• Not that many integration options. As of now, it has integrations with Confluence, Zendesk, and KnowledgeOwl.
• Some of the UI patterns, like hotspots and tooltips, aren’t as functional as users might like.
• Offers only interactive walkthroughs, known as lanes.
• Works only in the dashboard and can’t be launched in a Chrome extension as most of its competitors, like Userpilot does.
• Unclear pricing.

Userlane Pricing

Userlane’s pricing is not public and you should reach out to their sales team to get a quote.

But keep in mind that it is based on two things: the number of guided users and the product features you want access to.

Product Tour Software #9: Helphero

If you’re looking for really inexpensive product tour software, Helphero is one of the best. It starts at just $55 per month for up to 1,000 users, making it affordable for even really small businesses. It’s also fairly simple to use thanks to its Chrome Extension that allows you to build the product onboarding tours directly on top of your app, but unfortunately, the builder is a bit clunky and the styling options are very limited (+ there are no templates unlike in e.g. Userpilot ).

Of course, this is not true interactivity of the sort Userpilot enables because it only depends on a click input. As the tooltip itself says, the click is just a substitute for a “Next” button in a linear flow – but nevertheless, it’s a smart way of using the functionality.

Pros of Helphero

• The price makes it accessible to even the smallest companies.
• A surprisingly wide range of UX elements, including checklists.
• Simple integration with Intercom, making it a real competitor to Intercom Product Tours
• Some basic engagement and usage analytics:

Cons of Helphero

• At the end of the day, it’s still restricted to linear and branching onboarding.
• Styling options are limited unless you’re able to use CSS.
• A/B testing is only available to technical users who can code

• If you have a lot of users per month, Helphero’s competitive advantage on price quickly disappears.

Helphero pricing

• 14-day free trial
• Up to 2500 MAU: $115/month
• Up to 5000 MAU: $179/month
• Up to 10.000 MAU: $249/month
• Up to 20.000 MAU: $299/month
• More than 20.000 MAU: Custom plan

Product Tour Software #10: Userguiding

UserGuiding is a lower-cost, entry-level product adoption tool offering a range of features to help companies onboard new customers and boost product adoption.

UserGuiding excels at building simple onboarding experiences for users. It includes a no-code builder, segmentation options, and easily added UI patterns like hotspots, tooltips, and modals.

Although it also has some other goodies like a resource center and analytics, the meat of this product is its onboarding flow builder. If all you’re looking for is a relatively easy way to build simple onboarding flows, this could be a great choice for you. However, people looking for more analytics, customization, or complex integrations should probably look elsewhere.

Pros of Userguiding

There are some advantages when it comes to choosing UserGuiding. Here are its pros:

• For small startups or independent businesses, the price is an attractive element to consider.
• A good variety of UI patterns to choose from when building flows and guides
• Unlike some of the more expensive options, you can choose to add a Resource Center (a bonus for self-service support).
• For a budget tool, UserGuiding still offers integrations with other applications, such as Mixpanel, Hubspot, Woopra, Slack, Webhook, etc.

Cons of Userguiding

Though UserGuiding is a solid product many improvements are still needed. The cons of using UserGuiding include:

• There are many bugs and performance issues when using the tool. The UI is also fairly tricky to navigate.
• It has limited functionality, particularly on the basic plan. There you only have a small range of features available – all with the UserGuiding watermark/branding.
• Technical knowledge is required to get the maximum out of this product.
• Customization and design options for UI patterns aren’t the greatest.
• The most valuable integrations are limited only to the Enterprise plan!
• For the Hubspot Integration: Hubspot Enterprise Plan is required. To enable Userguiding’s integration, you must be subscribed to Hubspot’s enterprise plan.

Userguiding Pricing

UserGuiding’s pricing model is far simpler than others on our list. There are three tiers, each one charging a set amount for access to certain tools.

Here are its packages:

• Basic will give you access to only the most essential onboarding tools: Starting at $99/mo or $69/mo (if you buy the yearly contract), this budget option has a few limitations to consider (i.e. just 1 Team Member, a limit of 20 guides, and 2 checklists, UserGuiding branding on all UI patterns).
• Professional adds unlimited guides, hotspots, and checklists. Starting at $399/mo or $299 /mo if billed yearly.
• Corporate gives you access to everything plus personalized coaching. Starting at $699/mo or $499/mo for a yearly plan.

Product Tour Software #11: Userflow

Userflow is a lower-end product tour builder with a rather user-friendly interface and simplified analytics. It’s suitable for startups (with pricing starting at $200).

Pros of Userflow

Userflow offers several benefits for product tours, including:

• Easy to use (well…for some): Userflow’s drag-and-drop interface allows you to build the flows in the dashboard and see an overview of the whole flow (all steps) at once. Some people really like using the visual way of building the whole flow on a dashboard rather than inside your app. This has some limitations too, which we’ll discuss in the next section though.
• Customizable: Using Userflow, product tours can be customized with branding elements, visual design, and interactivity.
• Data-driven: Userflow provides simple analytics and feedback tools, enabling product teams to track user engagement and make data-driven improvements to the tour over time.

• Supports A/B testing: Userflow allows product teams to test different versions of product tours and compare the results, helping to determine the best approach for their users.
• Integrations: The Userflow product tour tracking and analysis tool integrates with a variety of other tools, including Google Analytics, Intercom, and Slack.

The Userflow platform offers a powerful and flexible solution for creating and designing product tours, helping to educate users and drive adoption.

Cons of Userflow

Although Userflow has many advantages, there are also quite a few drawbacks:

• You don’t build your flows directly on top of your app, which can be confusing (and I personally find it counterintuitive). In order to select an element you want to attach the tooltip to, you need to open a chrome extension that takes a snapshot of your interface:

• This makes the whole process of building your product tour in Userflow a bit clunky:

• Limited customization options: While Userflow provides a range of customization options, some users may find the level of control and flexibility limited compared to other tools or custom development.
• Learning curve: While Userflow is designed to be user-friendly, there may be a learning curve for some users as they get used to the interface and features. For instance, you don’t build your product tour on top of your own interface – you have to build it in the dashboard, and then take a weird snapshot of your UI to select an element you want to e.g. attach your tooltips to:
• Integration limitations: While Userflow integrates with a range of other tools, it may not be compatible with all platforms or systems, and integration with some tools may be limited.
• Requires internet connection: Userflow is a cloud-based tool and requires an internet connection to use, which may be an issue for some users.
• Technical limitations: Userflow may not be suitable for complex or highly customized product tours, and some users may find the technical limitations of the tool to be restrictive.

Overall, Userflow is a powerful and flexible tool for creating product tours, but it may not be the best fit for all users and may have some limitations depending on the specific needs and requirements of a product. As with any tool, it’s important to carefully evaluate the benefits and drawbacks before making a decision to use it.

Userflow pricing

Userflow, as of March 2023, has 3 pricing plans:

• Startup – starting from $200 for 3,000 MAUs, billed annually – this plan also heavily limits the features available: to only 1 checklist and 10 launchers (flows), no NPS surveys, no no-code event tracking, no localization etc.
• Pro – $600 billed annually, so $7200 per year – this plan includes all the features
• Enterprise – only on-demand pricing – this plan includes all in Pro + custom limits, SSO and custom contract.

Product Tour Software #12: Stonly

Stonly positions itself as a budget-friendly alternative to their more expensive competitors, but in fact – it’s more of a CS tool for building knowledge bases than a product adoption tool for onboarding. Similarly to Intercom Product Tours , Stonly’s tour builder feels like a makeshift add-on to the Knowledge Bases rather than a fully-fledged product (compared to its competitors like Userpilot or Appcues).

So it may be good for startups and small businesses with few users and per-view pricing model (which may become super-expensive once you have more users!) and that want a tool primarily for the Knowledge Base use case.

Stonly’s product tours are not the most intuitive (and require quite a bit of coding), and it come with limited integrations. In fact – it’s setup and builder are extremely confusing: you can build the tours both in the Stonly dashboard and on top of your app, but then you need to go back to the dashboard to edit the content of the steps you’ve just built in the Chrome Extension? 🤔 This doesn’t make much sense…

Let’s look at it’s pros & cons for product tours in more detail.

Pros of Stonly

• The ability to support multiple languages
• Small companies with fewer initial views will benefit from this pricing model
• Integrated analytics
• Front, Zendesk, Freshdesk, and Segment integrations
• Knowledge base functionality included

Cons of Stonly

• Extremely confusing builder
• Pretty code-heavy product tour setup for a “no-code tool”
• Confusing installation: it’s impossible to install it for a non-technical user:

• Requires some knowledge of CSS to customize – the customization options are worse than the market standard
• Doesn’t allow you to add content to your product guides (text) directly in the Chrome Extension:

• There is a lack of certain popular product tour features, such as progress bars and checklists

Stonly Pricing

Stonly, as of 2023, has only two plans on its pricing page:

• $249 (or $199 if you pay annually) for up to 4,000 views, then pay as you go – which may become very expensive if you have more MAUs or very active users that use your tool daily.
• custom quote – for enterprise clients only.To be perfectly honest – at the $249 monthly price point you would be better off throwing in the extra $50 and get a monthly subscription of a more intuitive and robust product guidance tool like Userpilot for it.

Product Tour Software #13: Product Fruits

Product Fruits is a platform designed to help you tackle issues related to software adoption. With a focus on seamless customer onboarding , this tool allows companies to create engaging in-app journeys.

Pros of Product Fruits

Product Fruits s is one of the cheapest user onboarding tools on the market, so it may be a go-to tool to build product tours for really small startups on a budget under $100.

It’s most commonly quoted pros include:

• the responsiveness of the CS team
• easy set up

Cons of Product Fruits

There are several downsides to this affordable product tour solution though:

• only basic, linear product tours
• clunky UX – making it quite difficult to use
• only basic form of a resource center and checklists
• no native surveys
• no reporting for the Resource Center (“life ring widget”)
• the product tour triggering can be quite buggy

Product Fruits Pricing

Although Product Fruits is still one of the cheapest solutions on the market, its plans went up in price by about 20% recently:

• Core from $79 for 1,500 users
• Boost $129 for 1,500 users and then $249 for up to 5000 MAUs.
• Enterprise – custom quote only.

Beyond the product tour software – How to get the best results

When it comes to selecting the best product tour software, there is some general advice that is very relevant:

It’s not how much you’ve got – it’s how you use it that counts.

Badly designed, badly-targeted product tours don’t achieve the desired results, interactive or not. Good design is all about knowing your audience and knowing your user journey.

In this final section, we’ll share our thoughts on the things you should be doing to make sure your product tours and interactive walkthroughs can soar.

#1 Segment and personalize as much as you can

Contextual microsurveys are brilliant for collecting information that allows you to customize onboarding without boring the user.

Just a few simple questions at strategic moments can give you essential insight into what is important to a user – what value means to them and what they’re hoping to achieve.

Motivation and Ability are both dependent on giving people the right information at the time they need it – so the more you can segment users by these criteria, the more relevant you can make their bespoke tours.

#2 Before or after sign-up?

Have you thought about onboarding people before they’re even signed-up users ?

If you’re involved in Product-Led Marketing, then a product tour can be one of the best marketing tools imaginable!

This is something that SalesFlare actually did – basically using their entire walkthrough as a product demo (9:30).

Ask yourself: will this get users to Aha quicker than making them sign up first?

#3 Help center is vital

Your product tours will get users a long way, but there will always be some questions or problems you haven’t anticipated.

So you’re going to need to complement your walkthroughs with:

• FAQs and Document Centers: when users proactively get into the weeds, it’s important that you cater to their more advanced needs.
• Live Chat: sometimes, self-serve will only get you so far. Occasionally, a user will come across a problem that needs human help to solve.

Even if you have thought of everything, there will always be some users who need hand-holding and reassurance and who can’t get to grips with a tutorial.

Your activation strategy needs a comprehensive help center just as much as it needs product tours. Fortunately, that’s part of the Userpilot offering as well…

#4 Iterate using analytics

One of the main problems we see again and again with product tours is that they are treated as “one-and-done” features.

Which is crazy.

A marketer would never just say “Well, that’s the landing page sorted” and simply walk away. They look at the performance data and optimize over time!

So why would a product manager set up all his or her onboarding flows and just move on?

You need to be tying your product tours to activation or other KPIs and tracking the impact they have. If you’re not able to correlate interaction with your tours to users’ engagement or success metrics, you’re missing out on important opportunities to improve.

So, it’s vital to choose a walkthrough software that comes with event-tracking abilities, so that you can leverage in-app events to generate actionable insights.

For example, in Userpilot, you can spot drop-offs in the onboarding process and improve the trial-to-paid conversion rate with Funnels .

#5 Know your user journey

If you’re going to produce a comprehensive onboarding system comprised of short, segmented, contextually-triggered interactive walkthroughs you’re going to need to know your product, your audience, and their use cases inside and out.

To be able to hand-hold users through every step of the journey in detail… that’s a lot of work! No wonder so many people just avoid it and put a one-size-fits-all linear product tour in place instead.

This is where you just need to be an awesome product manager who can put themselves into every user scenario imaginable (and some that aren’t…) and plan out the right solution to each problem. The software can only take you so far with that.

Want to learn more about our product tour software?

Userpilot is by far the best product tours software tool out there that gets you the best value for your money. Not to mention it’s easy to use! Book a demo today with Userpilot !

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13 Product Tour Metrics You Need to Track in 2024

Are your product tours working the way you imagined and intended them to?  Understanding the journey from initial user interest to full product adoption is essential to identifying what’s working well and where is a room for improvement. Without tracking and analyzing the right product tour metrics, you’re left guessing about user behavior and the effectiveness of your onboarding tools .

Chances are, you’ve already invested both money and valuable time in an onboarding or digital adoption platform (DAP). You or your customer success team has started creating product tours, hints, and popups, all designed to help users easily explore, learn, and engage with your SaaS product. Or to encourage them to upgrade from a free to a paid version or a higher tier. But how do you measure the success of these efforts?

To evaluate the effectiveness of your product tours and other product onboarding and adoption features, you should consider and combine two approaches:

Direct: Product tour metrics and DAP stats

These metrics clearly show how users or customers interact with your product tours and onboarding features. They reveal what works well in your DAP flows, what users are interested in, what they skip, and where they may spend more time than expected.

Insight into how your product tours are (not) working is also useful when the expected improvements in product/user metrics (onboarding, adoption, retention) are not happening. In short, Product adoption metrics and product tour metrics are related, and they impact each other. When measuring how things work, always remember there are also other ways to find out what does work (or not) not and why – simply by asking your users using feedback forms and surveys.

Understanding how your product tours perform is crucial, especially when you don’t see the expected improvements in broader product or user metrics such as onboarding, adoption, or retention. Essentially, these metrics are interconnected: poor results from product and user metrics might indicate that your product tours need refinement. In contrast, the quality of those tours can directly influence whether the desired improvements in product and user metrics are achieved.

Indirect: Product and user metrics

We’ve already described some user onboarding metrics in one of our earlier blog posts, so this time, we will do a quick recap in the form of a shortlist at the end of this blog post. 

These metrics don’t reveal specific details about how users interact with product tours and other key features you’ve created in your onboarding platform. Still, they are interlinked – after all, you probably bought Product Fruits or another DAP to improve product onboarding and user adoption metrics. Remember, that product and user metrics often determine what you need to focus on with your product tours, checklists, or hints, and the quality of the content in your DAP impacts these metrics.

Product Tour Metrics and DAP stats

When you create interactive product tours, you should bear in mind that they are not the end but the means. Your goal is probably a satisfied user who is familiar with your product, knows how to use all relevant features, and is informed at a suitable time or moment about new features, improvements or relevant upgrade options. The product tour and other digital adoption platform (DAP) metrics are used to verify tour functionality, usage, and user satisfaction with them (and indirectly with your product) and improve the onboarding flow overall. 

Most metrics listed below are typically measured by digital adoption or onboarding platforms, with built-in analytics . You may need third-party tools or functionality of the SaaS product to measure others, such as goal achievement.

Tip: You can also create variations of a certain tour (i.e. A and B) to validate performance – like an A/B test.

User Engagement with Product Tours

Tracking these product tour metrics to see how users interact with your interactive flows is essential to understanding their effectiveness. Here are key metrics to consider:

1. Tour Completion Rate

The tour completion rate measures the percentage of users who finish the entire tour, partially complete or skip it altogether. A low completion rate may indicate way too extensive product tour, that needs to be shorter or more engaging.

At Product Fruits, we generally recommend limiting tours to around five cards, but this can vary depending on the application and user profile. You can also break longer tours into multiple short ones.

2. Step-by-Step Engagement

Beyond the completion rate, typical product tour software analytics often allows to monitor user interactions at each step of the tour. You can visualize it in the form of a funnel, showing the drop-off rate between individual steps of the tour (or tour cards) – as already shown in the image above.

This data reveals how many users and where lose interest and provides insight into whether the tour needs to be revised, shortened, or more engaging.

Tip: The fact that most users skip rest of the tour after certain card may not be a problem in itself. Some users may already have enough information, while others will benefit from rest of the tour. Consider using feedback or survey to validate quality of tour and user satisfaction.

3. Time Spent on Each Step

Another useful metric tour analytics provides is the time users spend on individual tour elements. 

Extremely short times might suggest that the content is obvious, redundant, or unclear, while longer durations could indicate complexity.

Tip: Check the content of given card. Is it just a short text? Lot of text? Video? How engaging is it, how much time would you spend? Always use your judgment.

4. Goal achievement

Most product tours are built around specific goals, such as completing the onboarding of a new user, guiding an existing user through a redesign or new feature, or reintroducing a feature that has been underused or forgotten. 

Completing most (or even all) of the product tour does not guarantee that users will actually reach the desired goal. You should therefore look for ways to check and measure – either in the onboarding platform or in the product itself – if the specific goal was achieved. 

Tip: While onboarding tools and DAPs typically do not have advanced goal tracking functionality, there may be other tools you can use in place, such custom event available in Product Fruits.

5. Task List Completion Metrics

Product onboarding and digital adoption platforms usually offer checklists —lists of tasks to be completed by users, typically after they sign in for the first time (or, for example, after a major UI overhaul). 

These checklists often initiate interactions, such as hints and short product tours. This is another opportunity for product onboarding analytics, as you can evaluate how users complete essential tasks.

6. Task List Completion Rate

New users should ideally complete the entire checklist. Therefore, you might consider the completion rate—the percentage of users who complete all suggested tasks during onboarding—as one of the key metrics.

The percentage of users who complete the entire task list might often be relatively low. Therefore, you may look at other data provided by your onboarding platform or DAP, such as the percentage of users who at least “touched” the checklists, the percentage who actively dismissed them, and how these numbers change over time.

7. Checklist Items Drop-Off

Just as with product tours, users interacting with checklists may complete only some items. You can usually measure where (after which item in the list) they stopped following the checklist or actively dismissed it. You can pinpoint which items were completed and which were ignored, especially if the checklist allows completion in any order.

8. Time to Task Completion

You may also want to measure how long it takes users to finish each task in the checklist. This helps identify areas where users might need more guidance or where your product itself might be too complex for some users.

Analytics Beyond Tours

Onboarding platforms can do much more than introducing new users to your product. Many of those functions have some tracking and analytics functionality – sometimes it is best to combine not just them, but also their analytical capabilities to paint the whole picture. Below are some additional features you can use and measure for ongoing user education and engagement in Product Fruits:

9. Hints and tooltips

Hints provide quick suggestions or explanations of specific features. Track their views and dismissals to gauge their usefulness and relevance to users. A high dismissal rate sometimes indicates that the tooltip content isn’t necessary or is poorly timed.

10. Feature Announcements

Introduce new features with eye-catching in-app messages using functions like banners, newsfeeds, or pop-ups. These allow you to create customized in-app announcements at the right time and place, with a reasonable degree of “user distraction” within your application. You can, for example, track the number of views for these announcements and their impact on feature adoption.

11. Contextual Help

Offer guidance that matches what users are doing in real time. You can set triggers that display help content based on specific user actions or page visits. This approach reduces user frustration and speeds up task completion by providing relevant support precisely when needed.

12. Knowledge Base Usage

If you are using an onboarding platform’s knowledge base function (e.g., to provide more details on topics covered by product tours or hints), it makes perfect sense to measure which knowledge base (KB) articles are most frequently accessed. This also illustrates what users typically struggle with or need deeper guidance on.

13. Feedback Collection

Gather user opinions through well-timed in-app surveys. Most DAPs and onboarding platforms offer a variety of survey tools that you can deploy at specific points in the user journey. You might ask for feedback in emoticons, NPS, or a numeric scale score after a user completes a task or set of tasks or when using a new feature for a set period.

Analyze response rates and sentiment to identify areas for improvement in both your SaaS product and onboarding process. This direct line to user feedback can guide your product development priorities.

If you are already a Product Fruits user, explore more about the available tours and other analytics functions in our knowledge base. And if you are new to onboarding, see how Product Fruits drives product adoption now (first 14 days on us )!

Product and User Metrics

Product onboarding and adoption metrics clearly show how well new users engage with and derive value from your product. They can also reveal whether your onboarding process will encourage users to explore key features and fully adopt the product. Moreover, you can identify how many users and where are stuck, providing ideas on resolving these churn points with onboarding tools like product tour software. 

As we already mentioned, while it’s always important to track the performance of product tours themselves, a well-crafted set of product tours (and other onboarding/ product adoption interactions) will also impact the broader onboarding metrics listed below. Consider using them to guide your product tour strategy and see if it actually helps to improve user onboarding, retention, and engagement.

Overview of product and user metrics

• Conversion Rate
• Adoption Rate
• Time-to-Value
• Activation Rate
• Usage Frequency
• Customer Lifetime Value (CLV)
• Average Session Duration
• Upsell Rate
• Net Promoter Score (NPS)
• Customer tickets

You can learn more about some of these metrics in one of our previous blog posts.

What’s Next for Your Product Tour?

Peter Drucker famously said, “You can’t manage what you don’t measure.” While this statement may not be absolute or universal, it applies to product onboarding and its elements, like product tours.

Tracking these product tour metrics and general user onboarding progress can reveal strengths and weaknesses in your product adoption process, tools you have created to improve it, and your product itself. They highlight where users engage the most and where they encounter difficulties. With this knowledge, you can make informed decisions to improve user onboarding, conversion, adoption, and retention. If users are skipping some steps in your tours or spending an excessive amount of time on others, investigate why and adjust accordingly.

Your onboarding and product tours should evolve with your product and user needs. With Product Fruits, you can easily update and test different elements. This ongoing improvement ultimately leads to more satisfied users and better business results.

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We are Sergey and Simon, a Russian and a Frenchman, both  passionate about Moscow, Saint-Petersburg and classic cars. Together, we have created Put-in tours. Our goal is to help you experience Russian culture off the beaten path. Join us onboard our classic Soviet van and let’s get rolling!

In Moscow we offer you a city tour to discover most of the city in an original way as well as a night tour to admire the lights. Our pubcrawl is ideal to explore Moscow’s night-life and have fun. If you are craving to discover Russian culture, come impress your senses during our monastery diner or join our 100% Russian Banya Excursion . The latest will also bring you to Sergiyev Posad and it’s famous monastery!

For the most extreme travellers, our shooting tour will deliver your daily dose of adrenaline whereas our tank excursion will let you ride a real tank and shoot a bazooka.

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For years ROSMOULD has been the only trade show dedicated to mould making and related industries on the CIS and post-Soviet territory. With 250 participants from 20 countries and over 6000 trade visitors, ROSMOULD stands alone in Eastern Europe's mould industry.

ROSMOULD is traditionally supported by the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of the Russian Federation and the Association of Russian Automakers (ARA).

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Shortlist for the $10000 BRP Design Challenge announced - vote for the People's Choice!

Posted by Michael O'Brien on 12th Sep 2024

Congratulations to everyone who made the shortlist for our $10,000  Basic Roleplaying Design Challenge ! 

This is Chaosium's TTRPG design competition which financially assists new and upcoming creators in bringing their games to  independent publication (be that digital or print). We seek to empower designers from all walks of life, with original ideas, concepts, and systems, with the goal of seeing all shortlisted entries eventually published independently. 

We received 195 entries, and from these our judges have shortlisted ten. Each shortlisted entry receives USD$500. Three winners from the shortlist will each receive a further USD$2000. All winners also receive a trophy.

The three winners will be announced after the People's Choice voting has closed—that's right, you can vote for your favourite right now! The People's Choice winner will receive a further USD$500 (in addition to any other prize).

Vote  here !

BRP Design Challenge Shortlist (in random order)

Titanosphere by Rakados Titanosphere immerses players in the pulp science fiction action of giant monsters, colossal mecha, and transforming heroes of classic TV shows and Monster movies using a unique bonded characters system putting them in control of both a human protagonist a gigantic counterpart called titan. This split allows Titanosphere to seamlessly weave together scenes of human drama and action alongside earth-shaking brawls between giant monsters, robots, and super powered heroes.

Vanguard by Tyrant Nemesis A cutting-edge space cruiser, lost in a remote and unexplored region of space with its worst enemy, together they must unite to survive or die separately. Aliens, scarce resources, secret experiments, deranged soldiers and conspiracies in the darkness of space are just some of the threats that will loom over the crew.

In Death by J.D. Trotte r IN DEATH is the only tabletop roleplaying game which takes grounded and realistic player characters and throws them into the dark and tragic world of the Afterlife. Players take on the role of Souls to explore purgatory, the underworld, and where the world of the living overlaps with the dead. Brandishing ancient and historical weapons, abilities such as ghostly hauntings or godly miracles, and fighting against the diminishing undead, demons, and worse, what will your players achieve IN DEATH?

Rustbelt by Matthew Tansek Imagine a ruined world where you get to choose what is restored and what is not. Rustbelt is an absolute blast, both to create games for and to play in. Full of innovative abilities, it gives players loads of strategic choices while giving GMs the ability to leverage the bedrock of the BRP core rules. Fresh ways to approach workhorse interactions like combat and skill checks make it stand out from the crowd while keeping to a unique metallic theme of gritty adventure and heart-pounding action.

Season of Magic by Sam Robson How far would you go for someone in need? Play as a witch equipped with knowledge, magic, and the kind heart necessary to heal even the deepest wounds and bitterest hearts.

Starlust Secrets by Μάριος Καγιασης Starlust: Secrets establishes itself in a previously unexplored market; it's a sci-fi intrigue game set in space, that focuses on the social aspect of the game and dramatic conflict. The game includes alien species, advanced weapons, starships and robots to discover, but it’s primary features are its rules for social interactions. Its rules encourage players to consider NPCs and PCs as individuals. Critical and creative thinking is encouraged in social confrontations.

A Looking Glass Jukebox by Mark Holsworth A Looking Glass Jukebox is a genre mashup of sixties rock bands, psychedelic absurdity, and alternate realities. It is Spinal Tap through the looking glass, The Beatles on The Magical Mystery Tour, The Monkeys in Head, The Archies knocking on The Doors of Perception, and The Partridge Family on acid…

Kleio by Ian Hathaway & Errico Borro Kleio is a game written by a historian and an archeologist in collaboration with the History and Games Lab of the University of Edinburgh. We want to create a fun ttrpg usable for public history and in-class education at different levels. In Kleio, you play as a history enthusiast known as a Diver who, thanks to advanced AI, can experience the past firsthand. Each of Kleio’s scenarios contain quick to explore nodes combining traditional BPR gameplay with that of board games.

The Prince of Masks by Steve Devaney The Prince of Masks is a surreal, baroque, dark fantasy setting inspired by psychological archetypes, and mythological/religious symbolism. Humanity is trapped in a region surrounded by ancient cyclopean statues that radiate such intense fear that no mortal can pass between them and escape. The primary adversary is a fey, vampiric race that uses eldritch sorcery to manipulate humanity, and prevent it from attaining its true potential.

Nuna by Tedankhamen Bonnah Welcome to Nuna (The Land), a world where ice entombs the old cities of men and mystical beasts stalk the tundra. Here, Inuit and Settlers (Vikings, Whalers, & Scientists) co-operate to survive, uncover the lost treasures of the frozen world, and bring them back to build their communities. Created by a NunatuKavut (Labrador Inuit) and professor of Global Society Studies, this game straddles both the indigenous and modern worlds in which the author grew up.

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All BRP Design Challenge entrants retain ownership of their work in its entirety. Chaosium does not require the signing over of rights of any kind in order to enter the BRP Design Challenge.

Winners and shortlisted entries will also retain ownership and—regardless of what winnings may be received as part of this competition—may still publish their games royalty-free under the  ORC license .

Chaosium thanks the 195 TTRPG creators who submitted to the BRP Design Challenge: be proud—you created something, and you put it out there!

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• #Basic Roleplaying
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