I'm writing a book about Continuous Onboarding

And how to influence user behavior and mental models to increase adoption, retention, and virality

Welcome! I’m Rob, and I’ve served as an independent behavioral product strategy / gamification consultant, researcher, and product manager. You may know me from applied behavioral science, human-computer interaction, tools for thought, or future of coding communities. I’m excited to announce a new project of mine: I’m writing a book on Continuous Onboarding. Continuous onboarding is a tool to increase adoption, retention, and virality by providing a reliable path from new user to confident power user.

When most people think of onboarding, they think of upfront onboarding, which involves holding the user’s hand for 10 minutes before letting go forever. Continuous onboarding never stops guiding the user towards behavior that will elevate their usage and help them accomplish their goals. No matter where the user is in their journey, you can count on them learning what they need to be successful. Skill improvement will be a simple byproduct of usage as users discover new features precisely when they need to. With continuous onboarding, users resonate more with your app and what differentiates you from your competition. Escape the sisyphean cycle of user acquisition and churn by successfully fostering continued buy-in that is resilient to changing user goals and skill levels.

I’m writing this book because continuous onboarding is one of my most important contributions to software/behavioral design, but my current writing is on a hypertext website and needs to be consolidated. I’m writing a book because I want software teams to have a resource they can read beginning to end and leave with actionable insights. I’ve helped over a dozen startups increase growth metrics through product design, and now it’s time for me to write a playbook that sums up what I’ve learned so far, filled with examples from apps I’ve used and worked on and video games I’ve played. 

I’m spending my time revising, expanding, and adding some extra flair to the research I’ve done already, with the goal of having a first draft available in two months. With this newsletter, I’m inviting you into my journey so you can follow and sponsor my process. In the free version of this newsletter, I’ll share weekly project updates, talk about what I wrote that week, provide relevant musings / section drafts, and detail the experience of writing. Paid sponsors will get access to Loom recordings of writing sessions, office hours, an early draft of the book, and a free copy once it’s published. I’ll even throw in special mentions in the acknowledgements.