The problem
An AI CRM for solo business owners. People signed up and then disappeared. Most dropped off during onboarding, and the ones who made it through landed on an empty dashboard and never came back.
What I did
I reviewed about 30 session recordings and interviewed about 18 users. Two groups stood out. One got lost in a setup flow with several competing buttons and a required assistant-creation step, so they never reached the dashboard. The other reached the dashboard, found it empty, and skipped the long getting-started text.
I compared two onboarding approaches with the founders and engineers, and we chose a single screen showing four steps and what comes next: sign up, create your assistant, connect Gmail or CC the assistant, and send your first email. That way the dashboard already has something in it when people arrive.
What we tracked
Sign-ups, people who actually used the assistant (CC'd it, sent an email, or turned on Gmail sync), and people who came back to act on the next suggested item.
Results
Onboarding completion went from 17% to 50%. Month-one retention reached 57 to 60%, against a typical 20 to 30% for B2B CRMs.
If people sign up and then go quiet, the fix is often in the first few minutes, not in new features.
0 likes · 2 views · Oct 16, 2026
Rebuilt onboarding for an AI CRM for solo business owners. Completion went from 17% to 50%, and month-one retention reached 57 to 60%.
