When in the lifecycle should I send this?

A few days after signup, once the user has attempted setup, or immediately after they finish or abandon a guided flow. Early enough that the experience is fresh, late enough that they have one to describe.

Can I catch people who dropped off during onboarding?

Yes. Send the same survey to users who stalled and adjust the wording toward what stopped them. The neutral skip option and anonymous responses make it safer for them to admit they gave up.

By default respondents are anonymous: no name, email, or IP is stored with answers. If you need to connect answers to accounts to follow up on a stuck user, encode your own reference in the share link.

What do the results look like?

Themes with supporting quotes and counts, the ease breakdown, full transcripts of every interview, and a plain-language question box for asking things like "which step did confused users mention most?"

Templates / Onboarding survey

Product · Adaptive interview template

Onboarding survey template

Onboarding surveys tend to grade the wrong thing. "How was your setup?" gets a 4 out of 5 from people who quietly gave up on step three and never came back. The rating averages out the moment that actually mattered, and the moment is the whole point.

This template asks how easy getting started felt, then hands the conversation to the AI interviewer to find the stall. It probes where the user got confused, whether they reached their first moment of value, and what nearly made them give up. Because the follow-ups react in the moment, someone who says setup was "mostly fine" still gets asked about the one screen that slowed them down, which is usually the fix that moves activation.

When to use it

A few days after signup, once a new user has attempted the core setup
Right after a user completes, or abandons, a guided setup flow
When activation numbers are soft and you need to know which step leaks
After onboarding changes ship, to hear whether the new flow actually helped

Running it well

Time it to the attempt, not the signup. Ask a few days in, after the user has actually tried the setup, or you are surveying intentions rather than experience.
The first moment of value is the metric hiding in the transcripts. Read for whether people reached it, because everything before it is where churn is born.
Do not skip the "Very easy" group. Their follow-ups tell you which parts of onboarding to protect the next time someone proposes to redesign it.
Offer the survey in the user's language. The template supports 7 languages, and a confused new user is far more forthcoming in their own.

The questions, and why they're shaped this way

These are the anchor questions. You can edit, reorder, or add to them; the AI interviewer handles the depth between them.

Multiple choice

How easy was it to get started?

Very easyMostly fineSomewhat confusingVery difficult

The rating sets the interviewer's starting posture, not the verdict. "Mostly fine" is the honest middle where the useful friction hides, and the follow-up pulls the specific snag out of it.

Open text

Was there a moment where you weren't sure what to do next?

This names the stall directly. Setup is a sequence, and confusion always has a location; asking for the moment gets a screen and a step you can go look at, not a mood.

What the interviewer asks next

Follow-ups aren't scripted. The AI reads each answer and probes what a researcher would. Depending on what a respondent says, it might ask:

"You said connecting your data was the confusing part. What did you expect to happen there, and what happened instead?"

"You mentioned you almost gave up. What made you keep going, and what would have made you stop?"

"You reached the point where it clicked. What was the first thing you got done that felt worth it?"

Live demo

Play the onboarding survey interview

This is the real interviewer, not a recording. Answer as yourself and watch the follow-ups adapt to what you write.

Prefer a full window? Open the demo.

Common questions

When in the lifecycle should I send this?: A few days after signup, once the user has attempted setup, or immediately after they finish or abandon a guided flow. Early enough that the experience is fresh, late enough that they have one to describe.
Can I catch people who dropped off during onboarding?: Yes. Send the same survey to users who stalled and adjust the wording toward what stopped them. The neutral skip option and anonymous responses make it safer for them to admit they gave up.
Is it anonymous?: By default respondents are anonymous: no name, email, or IP is stored with answers. If you need to connect answers to accounts to follow up on a stuck user, encode your own reference in the share link.
What do the results look like?: Themes with supporting quotes and counts, the ease breakdown, full transcripts of every interview, and a plain-language question box for asking things like "which step did confused users mention most?"

Related templates

Research

User research interview template

Generative discovery that chases behavior, not opinions, at any hour.

Customers

Customer effort score survey template

Measure effort, then find the exact step that made it hard.

Product

Feature validation template

Check a feature solves a real problem before you commit the roadmap.

Product

Product feedback survey template

A recurring pulse that digs into the score instead of just plotting it.

Run the onboarding survey with your own audience

Join the waitlist