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Comment by rhubarbquid | Hacker News Reader

-He lost me at the phrase "onboard new users"- ;-)

edit: I rescind my comment, I'm not adding anything useful to the discussion here. I still hate the term, but I guess there's not anything better.

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..Why?

That sort of marketing-speak made up word just makes my skin crawl. I don't see how it's any more expressive than "signing up new users". At least he calls them "users" and not "consumers"...

It didn't really stop me from reading the article, I kept going after I finished cringing.

"Signing up" implies creating a few database records and logging someone in. When I say "onboarding", I mean a deliberate attempt to transition somebody into the workflows and uses of the product.

Thanks for the clarification, interesting article, and sorry for being a jerk about your terminology. Airing my opinion on the term isn't a useful contribution to the discussion.

Signing up new users != onboarding. Getting them to signup is only half the battle. Onboarding, or getting them to actually setup their account, start using the product and usually taking actions that offer the most value is a pretty important part of reducing churn.

I believe 'on boarding' refers to post signup new user education. That appears to be how he used it here. I have never heard it used as just signing up.

What do you call post signup new user education?

Induction might be an option, but on-boarding covers it well enough IMO.

I think that, in an article directly related to marketing, marketing-speak is appropriate.

Fair enough.

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