Use-case picker in Trello onboarding: +36% activation
Commentary byLiftArchiveOur analysis, not theirsTrello reported a 36% lift in activation from a mix of personalization experiments, including asking new users to pick their use case and tailoring onboarding to the answer.
Because several changes were combined, the lift can't be credited to the use-case question alone.
Trello ran the experiments; they were published in a Growth.Design case study.
- Activation: up 36%, per Growth.Design, from a set of personalization experiments combined.
- The share due to the use-case question alone is not known.
- No sample, duration or primary source was given.
The change
The variant asks for a use case and tailors the starting board to it.
Simplified mockup drawn by LiftArchive from the shared screenshots.
Control
New users went through onboarding without being asked what they wanted to use Trello for.
Variant
Onboarding asked users to choose a use case and adjusted the first experience to it, as one of several personalization changes.
Why it likely won
Our reading of the result, not the practitioner's claim.
- One simple question lets the product show the most relevant setup first, so users reach value sooner.
- Users who see their own use case reflected may trust that the tool fits them.
- Growth.Design flagged a drawback: 15 use-case options felt like too many, which may have held results back.
Caveats: Bundled: several personalization experiments together, not one change. Growth.Design gives no primary source, sample or duration for the 36% figure.
Who ran it
Trello ran this test for a project-management SaaS and published the results (Growth.Design case study). The numbers are theirs; the summary and commentary on this page are ours.
Read the original case study on Trello →
How to run this test on your site
- Hypothesis
- If we ask new users one question about their use case and tailor the first screen to it, then more will activate because they reach a relevant setup faster.
- Primary metric
- Activation rate (your defined aha action)
- Guardrails
- Onboarding completion rate
- Time to first key action
- Week-1 retention
- Who should test it
- SaaS products used for many different jobs, where a blank start confuses people. If your product has one clear use case, the question adds a step with little payoff.
Questions
How many options should a use-case question have?
Keep it short. Growth.Design criticized Trello's 15 options as too many; a handful of clear choices plus an 'other' option is easier to answer.
What should change after the user answers?
Something visible, such as a template, sample content or the first suggested task.
If nothing changes, the question is just extra friction.