When people think of SaaS growth, their minds often jump to flashy sales tactics, clever product features, or bold marketing campaigns. But what happens after the customer signs the dotted line? That critical moment after the sale, onboarding, can determine everything from retention to advocacy.
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In a recent panel discussion a group of experienced customer success leaders peeled back the layers of what really makes onboarding work. The conversation revealed one clear message: onboarding is not just a support function but a strategic growth driver.

‍Meet the Experts:

1. Sakshi Pratap – Founder & CEO, Hexus AI: A product storytelling and customer enablement visionary, Sakshi is the founder of Hexus AI, a platform focused on helping SaaS companies craft impactful onboarding journeys.

2. Neelu Shaikh – Former VP of Customer Success at  Google, ZoomInfo: With over a decade building and scaling global CS teams, Nilu brings deep expertise in strategic onboarding, adoption metrics, and cross-functional alignment. She shares how she built tailored onboarding experiences and drove retention through customer enablement at scale.

3. John Gleeson – Founder of Success Venture Partners | Former Head of CS at Motive: John led customer success at Motive through its explosive growth from $1M to $300M in ARR. Now, as founder of Success VP—a fund backed by CS leaders—he helps startups scale CS and onboarding as core growth drivers. His practical frameworks for onboarding as a growth strategy are not to be missed.

4. Mykel Solomon – Global Support Director at XAPT: Based in Miami, Michael leads global support and onboarding for an ERP platform serving heavy equipment dealerships. He specializes in building seamless customer journeys from project kickoff through post-sale support. Michael provides key insights on aligning teams and structuring onboarding for maximum impact.

Here's everything the speakers discussed:
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The First 30 Days: Make or Break

"90% of customers decide whether they’ll stick with a product within the first 30 days," Sakshi explained. This sets the tone for the entire customer relationship. Yet, despite its importance, onboarding is often viewed as an afterthought or "nice to have."
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According to Mykel, many onboarding issues stem from internal misalignment. "There's often no clear distinction between what sales, customer success, and support are responsible for," he shared. "That handoff from sales to CS is where things start to go wrong." Onboarding needs to be tightly integrated from the first conversation with a customer. That means understanding the customer’s goals, setting expectations early, and creating a seamless path to value.
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Breaking Onboarding Into Two Parts

Neelu, who has led customer success teams at companies like Google, and ZoomInfo, offered a helpful framework:

• Product Integration (Implementation): Getting the technology in place and ensuring the product is properly configured.
• Customer Enablement: Helping users understand the product, adopt it, and realize its value.
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"These are often lumped together under the term 'onboarding,' but they require very different skill sets and metrics," Neelu explained. "If you separate them and assign ownership accordingly, you can hold teams accountable for the right outcomes."
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She also emphasized that onboarding should not be one-size-fits-all. Customers today expect personalized experiences; whether they are SMBs or enterprise clients.
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At ZoomInfo, her team identified six key adoption metrics that strongly correlated with customer retention. One of the most effective? Simply ensuring the Chrome extension was installed. This alone led to a 30% increase in adoption. "It's small things like that, driven by data, that really move the needle," she said.
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Onboarding as an Offensive Strategy

John reframed the role of onboarding altogether: "It’s not just about reducing churn. It’s about accelerating growth." At his previous company, customers who completed onboarding effectively had significantly fewer support tickets and escalations. "A customer who's found value in your product is easier to work with, more likely to expand, and becomes an advocate," John shared.
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He recommends that startups invest early in excellent onboarding. "Once you have your basic CS motion, the first specialization should be onboarding. It's the highest leverage area you can focus on early."
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Bridging Sales and Success

One recurring theme was the need to start onboarding during the sales process. "Customers don’t buy products for features, they buy outcomes," John explained. "We need to capture that promised outcome and align onboarding to deliver it."
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More companies are now deploying CS and onboarding resources before the deal even closes. This "forward-deployed" model helps ensure alignment from day one and creates a consistent narrative throughout the customer journey.
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Lessons From B2C: Why Duolingo and Notion Are Winning

Enterprise software often suffers from clunky onboarding. But B2B buyers are also consumers and they’re used to sleek, intuitive experiences in apps like Duolingo, Notion, and Instacart. "Duolingo is a masterclass in onboarding," Neelu noted. "It personalizes goals, shows clear progress, and gives constant feedback. We should bring that level of engagement to B2B."
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Notion, another product-led growth (PLG) success story, has also nailed its onboarding with guided templates and contextual tips that drive early wins. These experiences matter because expectations have changed. As John pointed out, "People don't mentally separate their expectations between B2B and B2C anymore. They want magic in both."
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Metrics Matter, But So Does Meaning

While metrics like time-to-value and feature adoption are important, Mykel cautioned against losing sight of the customer. "We sometimes obsess over KPIs and forget the actual human on the other side. Onboarding isn’t just a funnel, it is about building trust and delivering real value."

He urged teams to constantly ask: "Is what we’re doing really helping the customer succeed? Or are we just hitting a number?"
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The Takeaways: What Great Onboarding Looks Like

1. Start early – Begin onboarding during the sales process by capturing goals and aligning expectations.
2. Break it down – Separate implementation and enablement, with clear ownership and KPIs.
3. Personalize – Tailor the experience to different segments and roles.
4. Make it delightful – Borrow best practices from B2C to create engaging, intuitive experiences.
5. Measure what matters – Go beyond vanity metrics to track progress toward real customer outcomes.
6. Collaborate cross-functionally – Sales, CS, support, and product all play a role.
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Final Thought

Onboarding isn’t a checkbox. It’s not a handoff. It’s the beginning of the most important phase in your customer relationship. When you treat onboarding as a strategic priority, it becomes the foundation of customer success, product adoption, and long-term revenue growth.
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In the words of the panel: "Onboarding is the new battleground for SaaS growth. And the companies who win there, win everywhere else too."

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