4 Differences Between Kickoff and Onboarding, and How to Get Better at Both

Are You Confusing Kickoff and Onboarding?

Big question: Kickoff or onboarding?

You know, it's interesting how often the terms "kickoff" and "onboarding" get used interchangeably in customer success, almost like they're two sides of the same coin. But while they're definitely related and both crucial for setting customers up for success, they serve distinct purposes.

Summarily, kickoff is the first formal interaction after a deal closes, bringing together key stakeholders from both your team and the customer's while onboarding is a hands-on or product-led process of actually guiding the customer through the initial stages of using your SaaS product.

Think of kickoff as the exciting curtain-raiser to your customer's journey. Clare Knight of The Onboarding Lab in one of her newsletter recommends the 30-30-30 call structure during kickoff. The first 30 can answer the question, "What specific outcomes define success?" The middle 30 connects customers' goals to specific features/processes, and the final 30? Concrete next actions with ownership assigned.

Human-led or hands-on/white glove onboarding can be intensive, especially for a small team. This is why marrying efforts between hands-on and product-led (in-app) onboarding is the best approach for SaaS. It is a hybrid approach that tells your customer, "let's get you set up, show you around, and make sure you're seeing the benefits we promised."

I have previously written about user onboarding, but for this article, you can use any of the following to improve onboarding during user journey:

1. Educational content such as FAQs, manuals, use cases, knowledge base articles etc.

2. Visual cues or onboarding patterns (UI elements) like checklists, banners, empty states, modals, hotspots, tool tips, and welcome pages

3. Onboarding emails

4. Progress bars

5. Meetings and walkthrough sessions

6. Persona-obsessed sign up pages

7. Interactive demos

8. Success emails

9. Product tour

Now that we've covered definitions, let's explore other key differences between kickoff and onboarding.

What Others Say

"Kickoff is a diagnosis. Onboarding is the treatment" - Maryjane Ihejirika, Customer Success Specialist

Kickoff is the agreement to start a relationship based off a service or product while onboarding is the execution of the service/product to the user leading to a successful end product.

An example would be a patient and a hospital. A kickoff is a diagnosis of an illness by a doctor (using extensive knowledge and experience). The onboarding begins at prescriptions, treatment and further diagnosis as during onboarding there’s tendency to discover the user’s compatibility with a service/product.

"Kickoff is a handshake that leads to onboarding" - Gift Enefola, Onboarding Specialist

In Soccer, kickoff means to begin but in our world, it is a notification to shake hands and move on to onboarding. Shocking right? Well, onboarding involves integrating new products into a system or routine to ensure smooth sailing especially B2B and SaaS.

Onboarding is a bit more tricky than the usual introduction, it involves ensuring the costumer gets a glimpse of what they’ll be seeing in the future of using the product.

"Kickoff is an inception meeting. Onboarding is the aftermath" - Anthony Awotundun, StartUps Consultant

Kickoff refers to the inception meeting before the development of a project. In this meeting, the required aim and purpose of a project is detailed, setting a road map for what is needed to implement and complete the project. It's important that customers' needs become the centre of the meeting.

Furthermore, we can consider onboarding as the aftermath of a successful kickoff. Onboarding entails what is required of a customer to be able to access the purpose of a project this can be either in the form of prerequisite or required knowledge for a customer to be able to enjoy the essence of a project.

Let's hurry over key steps to level up kickoff and onboarding.

Tips for a Stellar Kickoff

- Be Prepared and Set a Clear Agenda

- Use the 30-30-30 Call Structure

- Avoid Information Overload

- Establish Communication Protocols

- Clearly Define Roles and Responsibilities

Tips for a Stellar Onboarding

- Personalize the Experience

- Provide Comprehensive Training

- Use Appealing and Stress-Free In-app Onboarding Patterns

- Regular Check-ins

- Celebrate Early Wins

- Keep Sequences Short

- Offer Proactive Support

In Conclusion…

Kickoff is where you welcome users and establish clear objectives - like a teacher sharing a curriculum. Onboarding on the other hand provides the necessary training, resources, and support to ensure they can effectively adopt and realize value from your offering.

Now imagine the teacher teaching the class through different methods such as lectures, visual cues, and assessments.

Whether you're setting the pace or guiding the journey, you can now win with customers by adopting the nuggets in this article.

Did you learn anything new? Kindly share in the comments.