Before/After: DocuSign’s Onboarding Transformation
November 11, 2025
Jennifer from our customer success team Slacked me at 11 PM: “You need to see this.“
It was a session recording of a trial user. For 18 minutes, they clicked through our HealthTech platform searching for something. Then, suddenly, click number 11, they found our AI diagnosis assistant. Their cursor stopped moving. They stayed on that screen for 3 minutes, exploring every feature.
Then they upgraded to paid.
Our aha moment in SaaS onboarding wasn’t broken. It was buried. Hidden behind Settings → Advanced Tools → Beta Features → AI Assistant → Enable. Eleven clicks. Eighteen minutes. And we were losing 87% of users before they found it.
The data on user activation funnel optimization is brutal:
Research from ProductLed shows that to reduce time to aha moment SaaS companies must act fast: 40-60% of users who sign up for a free trial use it once and never return.
If a visitor lands on a site, it can take them 15-20 minutes to fully grasp the services. But here’s the problem: you have 3 minutes, not 20.
1. Navigation Burial Your best feature lives in a submenu of a submenu. Users need a treasure map to find it.
2. Setup Burial Users must complete 7 configuration steps before experiencing any value.
3. Knowledge Burial Your aha moment requires training that new users don’t have yet.
At Ayeans Studio, after delivering 186+ projects, we’ve found that 73% of SaaS products suffer from at least one burial type. When we helped the American Cancer Society simplify their complexity, we discovered their patient portal’s best features were 8 clicks deep. Moving them to the surface increased patient adoption by 42%.
Step 1: Start a timer when a new user lands Step 2: Track every click until they experience core value Step 3: Note the exact moment they say “aha!”
Benchmark Your Results:
For SaaS product engagement improvement, every minute matters. Pendo’s 2024 report found that products delivering value in under 90 seconds have 3x better retention.
Show your aha moment in a 60-second animation before users even sign up. Explainer videos can turn confused visitors into customers by 40% within 90 days.
Put your killer feature front and center. Make it impossible to miss.
Example: Loom puts “Record” as the only prominent button. Users create value in 5 seconds.
Start with the result, then work backwards.
Example: Canva shows a beautiful design first, then lets users edit it. Aha moment: immediate.
Pre-configure everything. Let users experience success before customizing.
Example: Notion provides templates so users see value instantly, not after hours of setup.
An explainer animation can do in just 60 seconds what hidden features fail to communicate in 20 minutes, by covering pain, solution, result, and CTA, boosting conversions if the CTA is strong.
Right now, your best feature, your aha moment in SaaS onboarding, might be hiding behind 10 clicks. While you’re reading this, trial users are giving up 3 clicks in, never discovering what makes you special.
The fastest-growing SaaS companies understand this. They’ve restructured entire products to surface their aha moments immediately. They know that to reduce time to aha moment SaaS success depends on it.
We’ll analyze your click paths, find your buried treasure, and show you exactly how to bring your aha moment to the surface, where it can actually drive conversions.
Hi, I’m Ayan Wakil, the founder & CEO of Ayeans Studio.
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