Welcome to Episode 31 of Mastermind.fm! This week our resident masterminds Jean Galea and James Laws will tackle onboarding. We usually think about onboarding as bringing a new team member into the fold or something similar. Jean and James expand on the term and take a dive into onboarding as the gateway to getting folks engaged for the first time with your product, service, content, or whatever it is you're up to. It's a really interesting take, so don't miss out! As always, shownotes are below but don't miss the full conversation!

Updates

* James talks WordCamp Nashville

* Jean talks LoopConf in Fort Lauderdale & WordCamp Orlando

Onboarding

James was inspired by observations at WordCamp Nashville. Seeing users meet a product for the first time, use it, feel it, experience it for themselves, he realized they're much more motivated to give something new a try. That's the essence of onboarding- not just getting a new team member oriented or as pertains to a product, but a broader sense of the term that involves phases of a user's experience.

How do you make sure people get to know about your product and get that initial experience? James and Jean cover:

What is onboarding?

* Just what is onboarding? How do we think about it?

* How does onboarding look from the outside with marketing and advertising?

* What can user onboarding look like?

WordPress.org as onboarding

* The importance of visuals- screenshots and videos

* Breaking away from the boilerplate

* WordPress.org support as onboarding into larger support system/documentation

5 steps for thinking through the onboarding process

* Starting with the end goal in mind- what are we doing here?

* Learning to think like the people you're trying to reach.

* Being guided by user feedback- ask questions and challenge what you think you already know.

* Testing and refining

* Listen, listen, listen! Customers, support team, reviews, social media, listen to everything you can find!

Featured on the Show:

* WordCamp Nashville

* LoopConf