# Use-case picker in Trello onboarding: +36% activation

- Outcome: Won
- Page type: Onboarding (SaaS)
- Elements: Personalization, Onboarding question
- Test run by: [Trello](https://liftarchive.com/practitioners/trello/)
- Commentary by: LiftArchive (our analysis, not theirs)
- Original source: https://growth.design/case-studies/trello-user-onboarding
- Page: https://liftarchive.com/test/gd-trello-persona-based-onboarding/

Trello 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.

## Result

**+36% activation**

- 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.

## 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)

- 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.

## How to run this test

- 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)
- Guardrail: Onboarding completion rate
- Guardrail: Time to first key action
- Guardrail: 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.

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Credit: Trello ran this test and owns the result. Summary and commentary by LiftArchive (https://liftarchive.com/test/gd-trello-persona-based-onboarding/).
Usage: Free to use, quote and build on, with credit and a link: name the practitioner or organization that ran the test and link to its LiftArchive page. The results belong to the practitioners who ran and shared them; the summaries and commentary are LiftArchive's.