SaaS Strategists,

Your onboarding flow is one of the most important journeys of your software. 🗺️ 

It’s the first contact your users have with your platform.

Naturally, you have to make it count.

Today, I bring you one strategy that resonates with the famous “fake it ‘till you make it”.

Let’s jump in. 👇️ 

🧠 The Endowed Progress Effect

The Endowed Progress Effect is a strategy that plays on core principles of human psychology.

It’s scientifically proven that individuals exhibit greater motivation to complete a task when they perceive they have already made some progress toward its completion. 🧑‍🔬 

Even if that initial progress was artificially granted. 🤖 

🎯 Strategy goal

Provide users with a "head start" to ignite their intrinsic motivation and foster a sense of accomplishment. 🦵 

It can be as simple as this:

✅ Step 1: Create your account (already done!)
⬜ Step 2: Add your profile photo
⬜ Step 3: Invite your team
⬜ Step 4: Set your first goal

Sneaky hack, huh? 🥷 

🧩 Real-world examples

Calendly

Calendly immediately connects your calendar if you've signed up with Google.

Now they activate the endowed progress effect by showing you the onboarding checklist & automatically ticking off the first task (connect calendar). ✅ 

Bonus element: They remove the friction of decision-making by placing the “New Event Type” inside the onboarding checklist. No need to wander around. 💯 

Webflow

Honestly, you don’t have to overthink it.

Just put the most straightforward action you can think of and tick it off.

In 99% of cases, it would be “Create An Account” ✅ 

Trello

In order to use Trello, you must create your workspace in the onboarding / registration process.

Trello ticks this off as your first task. ✅ 

Jimo

You can use Jimo.ai to integrate onboarding checklists, product tours, or surveys inside your app without coding them yourself. 🏃 

🧪 Why this works?

Research from Harvard found that users who reach a clear goal in their first session are 3x more likely to return and 2x more likely to convert to paid plans. 🧪

To summarize the Endowed Progress effect:

“Partial progress increases motivation & drives users to ‘complete the journey.’”

💎 Best use cases

• No-code tools: Trigger the first workflow from a pre-built template in under 5 minutes. 🚫🛠

• CRM SaaS: Have users send their first CRM campaign within the onboarding flow, not later. 📊

• Project management tools: Guide users to create a real project and assign one real task. 🧑‍💻⚙️

🌯 Summary

The Endowed Progress Effect works best in an onboarding or checkout environments. 💰️ 

Instead of placing the user at 0%, place them at the 20% mark and showcase that they’ve already completed a certain task. 🟩⬜⬜⬜

Use this strategy when you want the user invested all the way through the end 100% - no exceptions. 🧠 

So is this a dark pattern strategy? ⬛️ 

Not exactly.

If you're genuinely helping users make progress, the tasks on the checklist are real, and they lead to real value, then it’s just a “hacky” way to guide the user towards their end goals. 🏁

Remember:

You're not deceiving, you're providing that initial kick. 🦵 

Enjoyed this issue?

Forward it to a friend!

Ognjen Gatalo

Chief SaaS Strategist ☁️ 

P.S. I’m back on X sharing daily strategies, you can follow me here.