Digital walkthroughs have become more commonplace for the purposes of training new users. These offer benefits in driving adoption and reducing churn. Specifically, they bring users to activation events and Ah-hah moments as quickly and smoothly as possible on your software so they can discover the value you are delivering. In the following, we cover the different manners in which digital walkthroughs can be utilised to deliver value for users.
Training
Training is the most common usage of digital walkthroughs. These are utilised as a replacement or supplement traditional training via videos, webinars or in person. According to a study by Microsoft, the average human being now has an attention span of eight seconds. The time frame for establishing value for software is tight and must be delivered as quickly and effectively as possible.
The benefit of a digital walkthrough for training over traditional training is that it engages users at the point of need and/or usage. Users are directly learning and interacting with the software rather than having to remember information for use later. In this manner, users are better able to retain information.
Well-designed training walkthroughs also allow for modularised learning. Users need not sit through a training cutting across the entire software. Rather they can learn at their own pace as they use the software from its basic features all the way to more complex interactions.
Onboarding
An overlooked component of in-application guidance is the potential for use in onboarding. As opposed to training, onboarding refers to learning about the role a user takes on in reference to the organisation. Traditionally this is done through thick HR manuals which, let’s be frank, is never read through and rarely kept up to date. In reality, roles are never as articulated in these manuals due to changing processes and organisational structures.
What we find interesting is also how these changing processes and structures ultimately have an impact on usage of supporting software. Conway’s law states that organisations design systems that mirror their own communication structure: “Any organization that designs a system (defined broadly) will produce a design whose structure is a copy of the organization's communication structure.” Ultimately digital systems will be co-opted and utilised in a manner that supports these changing processes and structure.
An example is the popular software project management tool JIRA. Used by over 65,000 organisations globally the exact usage and rules for applying differ from organisation to organisation. So much so that it is an entire re-learning process when you change organisations. The focus not so much being on the technical aspects of how to use JIRA but the organisation aspect of how to use it within the context of a team in a wider organisation.
Digital walkthroughs can support these processes by providing knowledge of organisational context at the point of usage. These can differ depending on the role of users. This allows for a much more personalised yet automated onboarding process.
Support
Since walkthroughs can be used for training, it only makes sense that it can also be used for support purposes. This can significantly alleviate low-level inquiries coming through your support channels to ensure your customer support officers can focus on more complex problems that pop up.
Software engineers must build out a way for users to access these walkthroughs on demand. However, once on-demand walkthroughs are set up, done this can offer a much more effective way of accessing support material since it avoids the need to go off-site to written material, videos or customer support. In-application walkthroughs are also more understandable because they specifically highlight elements users need to interact with rather than through verbal/written instructions.
New Feature Rollout
Walkthroughs can also be set up to introduce existing users to newly built features. New feature role out is definitely a process that needs to be managed to minimise disruption for existing users.
Walkthroughs can be utilised in two manners to support these.
It can be used as a quasi-notification system in advance of the feature roll out to warn users of downtime as well as what the feature update will contain; or
It can be used at the time of feature rollout to show users the new feature and how it interacts with existing features in a more in-depth way than that for existing users.
Push Content For User Engagement
The quasi-notification usage of walkthroughs can also be used for pushing content to users for user engagement. At timed intervals (e.g. once every 2 weeks), it may be helpful to push out content to users.
This is more effective than emails as it avoids it being lost in the sea of emails people get on a daily basis. On the other hand, it can also run the risk of annoying users if not done in a curated manner. Users are different from sales prospects, hence content should be tailored accordingly.
We recommend tailoring content for users on the basis of different use cases, doing an in-depth explanation of features that unlock additional value and content that can value add to users apart from that related directly to your software.
Conclusion
In the above, we have covered 5 use cases for digital walkthroughs. Some may have surprised you but we hope it has helped you understand how versatile these can be when applied in the right way. If you would like to find out more tips on how to design better walkthroughs, you can check out our article on 7 Tips For Building Digital Walkthroughs To Drive Adoption & Reduce Churn.
Usertip’s no-code digital adoption platform enables teams to build walkthroughs and other tools to help drive adoption and reduce churn. For more info, please check us out at www.user-tip.com.