3 Great User Onboarding Examples to Steal From (LinkedIn, Slack, Grammarly)
When it comes to how user onboarding works, sadly, many companies are confusing it with catching Pokemons. If they see a new user sign up for their product, they just start throwing as many modals and popups at him until he is activated.
Well, that's not how it works. popups and modals are great at catching user's attention. But it would be best if you don't overuse them. I'll talk about poor user onboarding in more detail in The user off-boarding starter pack - How to give a first bad impression for your first signups post. Let's focus on understanding the best way to onboard new users is.
What is user onboarding anyway?
In a nutshell, User onboarding is navigating a user from point A to point B:
- Point A: Hmm, I'm not sure, but this product might provide
the value I was searching for. Let's give it a shot.
- Point B: Alright! I get it now. Yes! This is exactly what I've been looking for.
In other words, it's the process of convincing a first-time user who doesn't fully understand your product that it can solve his problem.
How to do it right?
Identify and define the "Aha! moment" of your product.
If you want to have a successful user onboarding, you need to identify first at what point in your product first-time users realize that your product solves their problem. We often refer to these moments as the "Aha! moment". It can be seeing tweets of subjects that users are interested in, finding the product that they need to order, making their first dashboard ... you get the point.
Identify the required steps users need to complete to get them
to the "Aha! moment"
After identifying the "Aha! moment" in your product, Now you need to figure out what steps your first-time users need to complete to get there. For example, Twitter is following the Twitter profiles that share the same interests as you. LinkedIn is completing your profile by adding a bio, a photo profile, and a job description so your connections can easily find you.
Pick up the right gear for your mission.
Now it is up to you to pick up the right gear to guide your users. Some of the popular tools are product tours, onboarding progress bars, checklists, and onboarding emails. It really depends on the product and on your audience. For example, here at Kompassify, we use our no-code user onboarding progress bar. We start with a personalized welcome message then guide step by step our new users toward the "Aha moment" of our product, which is building your first product tour.
Kompassify's No-Code user onboarding progress bar3 of the best user onboarding examples in 2026
Linkedin user onboarding
Let's take a look at how the folks at Linkedin are onboarding their users. First, they start with a personalized welcome message.
Then there is an onboarding progress bar to guide their users toward completing their profile. to make sure that the users get the most of Linkedin
And finally tooltips to highlight the important parts of the dashboard.
Slack user onboarding
How slack is doing the user onboarding? A tooltip to the main team channel
Then there are predefined chat messages to make it easier for users to get started.
And finally a friendly message from the slack bot in case the user needs help
Grammarly user onboarding
Grammarly has one of the most intuitive user interfaces that I have experienced, and they have nailed in their user onboarding.
Let's check how Grammarly is doing the user onboarding
First they start with a welcome message and try to identify persona of their new user
Then they follow up with a quick 4 step tour to explain their key features.
And a predefined document with tooltips to ease the learning curve.
What do these examples have in common?
Despite three very different products, LinkedIn, Slack, and Grammarly follow the same user onboarding pattern. Here's what you can steal for your own SaaS:
- A personalized welcome message. No cold dashboard drop. The first screen addresses the user by name or role and sets expectations for what happens next.
- A single, clear first action. LinkedIn pushes profile completion. Slack nudges the first message in a channel. Grammarly drops you into a pre-filled document. One job, not twenty.
- Progressive disclosure over big product tours. Tooltips and progress bars replace 10-step walkthroughs. Users discover features as they need them.
- A visible sense of progress. Whether it's LinkedIn's profile strength bar or Slack's onboarding checklist, users always know how close they are to "done".
- A friendly fallback. Slack's bot, Grammarly's inline tips — all three give the user an easy out when they're stuck, without forcing them to open a help center.
How to apply these patterns to your product
You don't need a team of designers and front-end engineers to replicate these flows. A no-code onboarding tool lets your product team ship them in hours instead of sprints. At Kompassify we help SaaS companies build:
- No-code product tours to guide users toward the Aha! moment.
- Onboarding checklists that drive activation like Slack and LinkedIn.
- Progress bars that show users how close they are to success.
- Persona-based onboarding to personalize the experience like Grammarly.
If you want a deeper playbook, read our 2026 Product Walkthroughs guide or the complete user onboarding guide.
Frequently asked questions
What is user onboarding?
User onboarding is the guided journey that takes a first-time user from signup to experiencing the core value of the product — what the industry calls the "Aha! moment". It typically combines welcome messages, product tours, onboarding checklists, and tooltips to reduce time-to-value.
What makes a good user onboarding flow?
A good onboarding flow is personalized, short, focused on the Aha moment, and uses progressive disclosure to avoid overwhelming new users. It should combine a welcome message, one or two high-value actions, and light in-app guidance — not pile every modal on the first session.
What tools can I use to build a user onboarding flow without code?
No-code Digital Adoption Platforms like Kompassify let product teams build onboarding checklists, product tours, tooltips, and progress bars without engineering support. If you're evaluating options, see our comparison of the top onboarding tools in 2026.
