Onboarding project | Hiver

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Onboarding project | Hiver

🙋🏻‍♀️ Hey there, I am Sharmishtha Sharma and I work as a Product Consultant with early stage start-ups helping them build their MVP and reaching their PMF.

For my GrowthX Onboarding project submission, I've picked up a B2B SaaS product Hiver.

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All about Hiver

What is Hiver?

Why did I pick Hiver?

Decoding user goals

Ideal Customer Profile

For what Job Hiver was hired

Identified user goal

Let's identify the activation metrics

Talk to users

Form activation hypothesis

Validate the activation hypothesis

Onboarding Teardown

Journey Block 1

Journey Block 2

Journey Block 3

Journey Block 4

User journey so far

Path ahead

Metrics to evaluate "Effectiveness of Onboarding

It's a wrap!

Game Plan

Resources

All about Hiver

What is Hiver?

Hiver is a B2B SaaS help desk product for any team that deals with managing heavy customer interaction daily over multiple channels. Teams like customer support, ITSM, HR, Account Payable, Account Receivable are the one's that can benefit the most out of Hiver as Hiver collates interractions across multiple channels (Email, Voice, WhatsApp, Text) on your Google/Outlook Workspace so that your set-up, onboarding and training is done in a couple of minutes.

Why did I pick Hiver? 💭

I stumbled upon Hiver a couple of months back while interviewing with them. During my interview process I researched the product and was amazed by how beautifully they've designed their product. I believe it's easy to build a product from scratch than building one on top of an already existing product. It takes intricate detailing to fit everything together. it's like being a ~~craftsmen~~ craftsperson but for a product.

They identified a common problem but with a very niche requirement and while picking my GrowthX project I relalised I'd love to work on a product that comes with such a twist.

Decoding user goals

Ideal Customer Profile (ICP)

Criteria	Single Business Owners/Micro Businesses	SMB Owners	Remote or Distributed Teams
Company Size	Micro Businesses (1-10 employees)	Small to Medium Businesses (10-500 employees)	Small to Medium Businesses (10-500 employees)
Stage of the company	Pre PMF	Early stage	Early stage
Location	Texas, US	San Francisco, US	New York, US
Role	Owner, Sole Proprietor	Business Owner, CEO, General Manager	Team Leads, Managers
Primary Goal	Manage customer communications efficiently with minimal resources	Streamline business operations, manage customer communications effectively	Enhance collaboration and transparency among team members
Pain Points	Limited resources, wearing multiple hats, cost constraints	Limited resources, need for cost-effective solutions, managing multiple roles	Managing communication across time zones, maintaining transparency
Preferred Tools	Google Workspace, QuickBooks, Trello	Google Workspace, Slack, QuickBooks, Trello	Google Workspace, Slack, Notion, Zoom
Key Decision Criteria	Cost-effectiveness, ease of use, minimal learning curve	Cost-effectiveness, ease of use, integration with existing tools	Ability to support remote work, enhance collaboration, easy access to information
Buying Process	Direct purchase, often self-implemented	Direct purchase or through referrals, often influenced by cost and ease of implementation	Often trials products, seeks feedback from team members
Customer Journey Stage	Awareness to Decision, typically looking for cost-effective, easy-to-use tools	Awareness to Decision, typically looking for efficient tools as the business grows	Awareness to Consideration, looking for tools to enhance remote collaboration
Product Benefits for ICP	Easy to use, integrates with Google Workspace, cost-effective	Turns Gmail into a helpdesk, cost-effective, integrates with Google Workspace	Supports asynchronous communication, easy collaboration within Gmail
Challenges Addressed	Managing all aspects of the business, limited budget	Managing multiple roles, limited resources	Communication across time zones, transparency
Decision Influencers	Cost, ease of use, minimal implementation effort	Cost, ease of use, recommendations from peers	Team feedback, product trials, ease of collaboration
Other Products Used	QuickBooks, Trello, Google Workspace	Slack, QuickBooks, Trello	Notion, Slack, Zoom, Dropbox
Adoption Curve	Early Majority	Early Majority	Early Adopters
Frequency of Use	Daily	Daily	Daily
Appetite to Pay	Low to Medium	Medium	Medium
TAM (in Numbers)	$300 million	$2.25 billion	$675 million
Distribution Potential	High (Many micro businesses use Google Workspace)	High (Many SMBs use Google Workspace)	Medium (Depends on remote work trends)
Decision Maker	Business Owner	Business Owner	Marketing or Sales Manager
Decision Blocker	Budget constraints	Cost, complexity of implementation	Integration with existing tools
Organisation Goals	Sustainable growth, profitability	Efficiency, growth, customer satisfaction	Growth, customer engagement, revenue
Preferred Outreach Channel	Email, Social Media, Referrals	Email, Referrals, Direct Sales	Email, Webinars, Content Marketing
Conversion Time	Short (1-2 weeks)	Medium (2-4 weeks)	Medium to Long (4-8 weeks)
GMV (Gross Merchandise Value)	Low (Varies greatly)	Medium to High	High
Growth of Company	Slow to Medium	Medium	High
Motivation	Efficiency, simplicity, cost savings	Efficiency, cost savings, growth	Growth, revenue, customer engagement
Organisational Influence	Low to Medium	Medium	High

For what job Hiver was hired

ICP/Goals	Functional Goals	Financial Goals	Social Goals	Personal Goals
Single Business Owners/Micro Businesses	I want to efficiently manage customer interactions across multipe channels, all in one place	I don't have the bandwidth to set-up a new tool and learn it	I want to be perceived as upfront and responsive towards my users/customers.	-
SMB Owners	I want my team members to efficiently manage customer interactions across multipe channels with a low learning curve	I want to save the resources that goes in onboarding and training on a new product	-	-
Remote or Distributed Teams	I want customer interaction queried to the right team member according to their availabilty given they are all in different time zone	-	-	-

Identified user goals

Hiver: Set-up your help desk in minutes and manage customer interactions across multiple channels

Let's identify the activation metrics

Talk to users

We start with segmenting customers who we want to talk to. For identifying activation metrics, we want to talk to our best customers who are using the product. To find such customers we will use the RFM Analysis and the customer who falls in the 4-4-4 matrix will be our best customers. We pick these customers to talk too.

Since I couldn't have spoken to Hiver customers, I looked at G2 reviews to find answers to the questions. For the questions, I have referred to the principles of "The Mom Test"

Questions/Users	Stage	John (Catalyst)	Emily (Presently)	Ted (Yale)	Monica (MnM)
User ICP	-	Single business owner	Micro business	Remote Team	SMB
What prompted you to start using Hiver?	Initial	I heard about Hiver in a Summit and my acquaintances spoke highly about it	I used Hiver in my previous organisation and got it onboard here too.	My co-worker mentioned about Hiver and then I searched about them.	I look out for easy Saas products because my team is not tech savvy.
What were you hoping to achieve when you first signed up for Hiver?	Initial	Multi-channel support in one place	Use as a help-desk solution for my customer queries.	To handle our email volme through our Google workspace directly.	My team is not very tech savvy, they are good at their core job but take long in understanding new tools so I wanted an easy to use tool for them.
Can you tell me about the challenges you were facing before using Hiver?	Initial	Switching multiple products for customer queries	We were using another product but everytime a new user joined, it took a lot of time to train and onboard them.	Collaborating on slack to respond to emails.	Adoption on the product we were using was very low leading to customer inquiries getting missed
How does Hiver fit into your daily workflow?	Initial	I use Hiver once a day to tackle all queries in one go. Queries don't have an urgency	Multiple times in a day	Throughout the day. TAT is important for us	Throughout the day
What tasks are most important for you to accomplish using Hiver?	Initial	Collate customer queries in one place	Low learning curve to new team members. We have a high attrition.	Quickly respond to all customer emails	Quickly respond to all customer interactions around channels
Can you walk me through what you did on your first day with Hiver?	Day 1	Signed-up and started my trial	Signed-up and started my trial since I already know the product	Signed-up and started my trial	Signed-up and started my trial
What was the first task you tried to accomplish using Hiver?	Day 1	I had to create a shared inbox and add me and my co-founder to it since we are a two member team.	I added the existing shared inbox to it	I went to my IT team for the shared inbox details. I didn't have the details around name and users with me.	I went to my IT team for the shared inbox set-up.
Were there any features or areas of Hiver that you explored right away?	Day 1	I sent a test email and added it to the shared inbox.	No, I had to get on team onboard first so I didn't do anything after the set-up.	No	No
Did you encounter anything surprising or unexpected on your first day?	Day 1	The set-up was very quick, we were ready to go in a couple of seconds.	No	I couldn't explore without adding my shared inbox	I couldn't explore without adding my shared inbox
What was the most valuable part of Hiver on your first day?	Day 1	Quick set-up	I know how to train my team and get them onboarded because i have explored it myself	None	None
How has your use of Hiver evolved over the first week?	Day 7	I and my co-founder are managing all customer interactions easily now	80% of my team has started to use Hiver actively	The shared inbox set-up is complete and I am testing it with a small set of of my team	I am adding emails from my personal to the shared inboxes and setting up templates and making it ready to be used for my team.
Can you describe the specific tasks you were using Hiver for by day 7?	Day 7	I have done the WhatsApp integration.	We are handling emails, waiting for all the team members to starting using it before doing an integration.	Assigning emails and fetching templates	None
What features did you find yourself using most frequently by the end of the first week?	Day 7	Distribution conversations between me and my co-founder	Team assignment	Team assignment and teamplates	None
Were there any hurdles or challenges you faced in your first week with Hiver?	Day 7	Not really	No	No	Yes, I had to reach out to the CS team multiple times for my set-up
How did you feel about the progress you made with Hiver by the end of the first week?	Day 7	Loved it	I have been a fan of Hiver always	Neutral so far	Overwhelmed
What does your typical day with Hiver look like after two weeks of use?	Day 14	Our TATs has reduced because Hiver makes it easy to respond anyone anywhere	My team is actively using Hiver for emails now. I have to initiate WhatsApp integration now	My team is actively using Hiver for emails now.	I have onboarded a few of my team members and they are able to use it easily so far.
Have your goals or the way you use Hiver changed since the first week?	Day 14	Yes, TAT wasn't what I was trying to reach but I am responding a lot faster now	Not really	We plan to extend our support to WhatsApp also now	Not really
Can you tell me about any processes you’ve optimized using Hiver by day 14?	Day 14	TAT, no drop-offs	Tracking email closure	In talks to introduce another channel	Not really
What features or aspects of Hiver have become indispensable to you after two weeks?	Day 14	Email assignemnt, templates, analytics	Analytics	Email assignemnt, templates	None so far
Have you noticed any gaps or areas where Hiver could improve by day 14?	Day 14	Nope	Not really	Easy steps for WhatsApp integration	Help me onboard my team

Form activation hypothesis

Metric	Hypothesis	Details	Bias tapped	Any AHAA moment?
Adding Hiver extension	Adding Hiver extension leads to higher probility of activation	If a user adds the extension , it signal curiosity to know the tool. Let them absorb how the product will look like if they make the purchase before they make a purchase	Curiosity Gap - Users have a desire to seek out missing information Spark effect - make the users take a small action with minimal effort.	I can view how Hiver will look like for me without actually starting my trial
Initiating free trial	Trying a product leads to higher probility of activation	If a user starts the free trial, it signals that the user wants to action on their curiosity now.	Spark effect - make the users take a small action with minimal effort. Reciprocity effect - If the user finds value in the product they will reciprocate the favour with another positive action (if not a customer, they can be a good candidate for WOM, referral to others)	I can try the product and validate if it is right for me and my team
Adding or creating shared inbox	Adding or creating a shared inbox leads to higher probabilty of retention and activation	If the user takes the first steps to do a set-up, they are likely to continue using the product.	IKEA effect - when the user takes the first step to a set-up, they value it more	The set-up took me seconds only, this was very swift
Adding the first conversation to the shared inbox	Adding the first conversation are signals for product engagement that will lead to retention	If the user adds the first conversation to the shared inbox, they are signaling their willingness to test their set-up	-	I feel comfortable with the product that I can trust it to add my customer email in it.
Adding the first team member	Adding team members to the product signals trust and builds loyalty towards the product leading to higer chances of retention	If the user adds their team members to the product, they are showing signs of trust where they are ready to take the credit or fall for it.	-	I was able to test this so quickly, I am sure my team will also get onboarded to it real quick.
Doing one product integration	Doing a product integration signals investment they are making into the product	If the user adds an integration, they are further solidyfing their trust towards to product	Investment Loop - When users invest themselves to a product, they are likely to stay with it.	My team loved the product too, I can go all in now.

Validate the activation hypothesis

Hypothesis/Validation metric	Does the metric show user commitement?	Does the user realise value from your product?	Does this metric affect conversion?
Adding Hiver extension as soon as they sign-in	Yes	No	No
Starting free trial within 48 hours of sign-in	Yes	No	No
Adding or creating the shared inbox within 3 days	Yes	Yes	No
Adding the first conversation to the shared inbox in 7 days	Yes	Yes	No
Adding the first team-member in 7 days	Yes	Yes	No
Doing one product integration in 15 days	Yes	Yes	Yes

Note: The above is an assumption, can be fine tuned with access to Hiver's actual data

Onboarding Teardown

We are going to consider a user John who is based out of Texas, US for this entire flow. His thoughts while navigating the product are higlighted in purple.

Journey Block 1

Onboarding starts with discovering the product and the acquisition channel that helped the user discover the product, in this case the acquisition channel is WOM

I heard someone mentioned Hiver the other day when we were discussing about help desk softwares, let me search what do they do.

For somebody in the US, why do we need to show the right panel? As a user, I'd be more interested to learn about the company and their social handles than their address. I looked up two competitors Gmelius and Helpscout and here is how their first search looks like.

Note - I was connected to the US VPN

Wow, it's used by over 10k teams, this looks interesting but wait, the free trial is only for 7 days 🙁. It will take me 7 days to just get my team onboard to start trying this.

The average trial period offered by B2B SaaS products is 14-30 days but as a rule of thumb, the number of free trial days should be as long as it takes the customer to reach their first AHAA moment. As for Hiver, the customer can experience an AHAA moment when they have their team onboard. An average Hiver customer has 12 members and getting 12 members onboard in 5 working days does not sound realistic.

Journey Block 2

This looks like a pretty neat website, it's exactly like my Gmail and I love Gmail 🤩 but why are there three different CTAs? 🤔

Three different CTAs on one screen ❌ Don't give the user more options, it can confuse them and make it harder to decide. (Hick's Law).

I looked at competitors and other B2B Saas products and all have one same CTA on the screen (screenshots below)

Not a must have but a good to have - It's best if the user doesn't need to scrool to get see the complete information. The first screen that the user lands on should show them un-cut information. The laptop screen view should be visible in the first layout itselt

Wow, a video interactive website. This is amazing and helpful but is this just for emails?........... oh there is the WhatsApp and chat

That's too mant resources for me to absorb

This is the 4th CTA on the website, we don't want the user to go anywhere except signing up as a customer. This is another distraction for them

Since the UI is gmail like, the users can get confused that Hiver supports ONLY email conversations. The video on the website takes a while to show the WhatsApp support and Voice support. We don't have the users to have an anchoring bias that Hiver is ONLY for emails.

One great thing that is there in the Hubspot screenshot is next to their CTA they have mentioned 'No credit card required'. Subtly nudging the user to try the product.

Journey Block 3

Let's sign-up and try this out now

Wait what? Hiver can permanently delete all my emails from Gmail? This doesn't seem right but 10k team are using this, so let me go ahead.

Why do I need to create a shared inbox, I already have one? 🤔

This screen can be updated to 'Add your shared inbox' 'Create a new shared inbox'. If the user is adding the shared inbox, Hiver should be able to auto-pick the name they have given in Google settings and all the emails that are part of that shared inbox should auto-populate. If they create a new shared it is synced back to the Google settings.

Hiver has access to my gmail, it should be able to auto-pick the email instead of me having to type out the entire email 🤔

Journey Block 4

This seems pretty neat

But wait what, why are there so many labels? 😟

Need more details to understand why these labels are there but they can be added slowly as and when the emails come-in and not on Day 1. The Progressive disclosure plays a role here, users will feel less overwhelmed if they're exposed to complex features later.

I received an email from the Hiver team but why can't they share the steps in the email directly? 🤔

Oopsssss

This is too much, I am just going to do this later...........

User journey so far

Path ahead

The above is just up-till the sales team steps-in and handholds from there. A lot can be identified after this point, this is just the top of the ice-berg. The remaining can be unraveled with an internal member of the Hiver team and probably productised till the point that a human intervention isn't needed to start the product

Metrics to evaluate "Effectiveness of Onboarding"

Activation Rate = # of users who did one product integration in first 15 days/# of users who signed-in to Hiver
Adding a rating/review rate = # of users who add a review/rating in first 30 days/# of users who added/created a shared inbox + who did one product integration + who added more than 1 team member
Trial to paid conversion rate = # of users who paid for the product/# of user who started the trial
User milestone funnel = # of users who signed up -> # of users who started the free trial -> # of users who added/created shared inbox -> # of users who added the first conversation -> # of users who added more than one team member -> # of users who did one product integration -> # of users who upgraded to a paid plan
Time taken from sign-up to
1. Start free trial
2. Add/Create a shared inbox
3. Add or receive conversation in shared inbox
4. Add more than one team member
5. Add one product integration
6. Upgrade to a paid plan
Features used by count of usage for below features
1. AI Summariser
2. Email assignment
3. Adding to shared inbox
4. Email templates
5. Product integration and which product was integration
6. # of team members added

It's a wrap!

Game Plan

If I was tasked with improving onboarding at Hiver I would:

Enrich the wiki page of Hiver so that the Google Knowledge Panel's algorithm reflects more relevant content about Hiver instead of address.

Allow the user to explore the product without having to start their free trial. The user can get a look and feel of the product before they add their shared inbox. When they enter their company name and industry, ask them which products from out list of integrations do they use. In this stage, they should be able to see all the products they use in Hiver, they should be able to see the heading but to use it they need to integrate for which they willl have to start the free trial.
Extend trial to a minimum of 14 days. From the above stage, we will nudge them to start a free trial and from the free trial we nudge them to upgrade after 14 days
Explictly state that 'No credit card' is required
Add one CTA on the website - Get Hiver free
In the first screen, make it explicit that Hiver is not only for gmail but it's a multi channel helpdesk. Leverage Picture Superiority Effect here and the first screen should show them multiple channels.
Before Google permissions, prime the user telling that google asks for 'delete' permission but nothing gets deleted without user's permission so that they are not taken a back.
Give the option to 'Add a shared inbox' and 'Create a shared inbox' so that there is no room for confusion.
Don't add the labels on Day 1
Send an email on the shared inbox and create a flow to help the user explore different features with that email.

Resources