Guide
How to make onboarding videos people finish
The first five minutes, designed so nobody gets lost — and completion rates that prove it.
Most onboarding videos are abandoned because they answer questions nobody asked yet. A new user doesn't want a tour of every menu; they want to get one thing done and feel capable. Design for that and completion takes care of itself.
The goal of onboarding isn't to teach the whole product. It's to get someone to their first moment of value as quickly as possible, then get out of the way.
Answer three questions, fast
Great onboarding answers three things in the first minute: where am I, what can I do here, and what should I do first. Miss any one and the viewer feels lost — and a lost viewer closes the tab.
Put the 'what should I do first' front and centre. A single, obvious next action beats a comprehensive overview every time.
Show one job, not the whole product
Pick the one job that delivers value fastest and walk through only that. A short explainer that completes a single task beats a ten-minute feature list, because the viewer leaves having actually done something.
Save the breadth for later. Once someone has succeeded once, they'll seek out the rest on their own — and they'll be motivated to.
Make it re-watchable and skimmable
People revisit onboarding when they're stuck, so structure it in clear chapters they can jump to. On-screen labels and burned-in captions make it usable with the sound off, which is how a lot of onboarding is actually watched.
Keep each chapter self-contained. Someone landing halfway through should still be able to follow it.
Step by step
- 1
Define the first win
Decide the single task that gets a new user to value fastest. That task is your whole video.
- 2
Script the happy path
Walk through that one task start to finish, with no detours into settings or edge cases.
- 3
Add orientation up front
In the first 15 seconds, show where the user is and what they can do here.
- 4
Chapter it
Break the video into labelled chapters so people can jump back to the part they need.
- 5
Caption everything
Burn in captions and on-screen labels so it works with the sound off.
Frequently asked
- How long should an onboarding video be?
- Aim for under two minutes for the first-win video. Longer material belongs in a chaptered library, not the first thing a user sees.
- One long video or several short ones?
- Several short ones, each tied to a single job. They're easier to finish, easier to update, and easier to surface at the right moment.