🎬 TL;DR: WATCH THE VIDEO (click above) for all the examples and insights. Only takes 4 minutes at 2x speed. ⏩
ClickUp is aiming high—calling itself the ‘Everything App for Work.’ It’s bold, but does it deliver? In today’s teardown, we’re going deep on taglines, onboarding, and user segments. We’ll explore how taglines evolve along with brands (watch the video to see Paypal and Netflix in all their retro glory 😲🍿).
Ready to cross all that off your to-do list? 📋 Let’s jump in.
Onboarding: When to hold your user’s hand 🧑🤝🧑
Onboarding is always a hot topic for product teams. How much do you let users play around with the product vs. guide them?
ClickUp’s strategy appears to be the latter. They drop you into a project task list. Yes, they have FAQs and a soft-touch ‘onboarding checklist’. But it’s easily dismissible. The implicit default is to figure it out yourself.
There are three concerns with this strategy.
First, it doesn’t show off the full power of the product. Is this just a shared task list? Why not just use my regular to-do list, or another productivity app for this?
Second, it doesn’t push you to input data, which is the lifeblood of B2B retention. Without some sunk costs, the user will lurk around and just peace out if they don’t see what they like immediately.
Third, it’s a complex product. For complex products, it’s difficult to show people immediate value. If ‘time to value’ is your metric, the fastest path is likely helping the user. Airtable agrees. Lauren Isford, Airtable PM, shared on Lenny’s Podcast how her team increased activations by 20% by adding an onboarding wizard that dynamically built an Airtable by asking progressive questions. 😉
Building for average users vs. power users 🔌
ClickUp is feature-packed. Power users love this. For everyone else, it’s a lot. And that’s the trouble with power users: they won’t scale your product. The broader audience will—and they need simplicity.
This brings us to Irrational Labs’ 3B Framework: identify the key behavior, reduce barriers, and increase benefits. To win over both power users and the broader audience, ClickUp needs to work on those last two:
⛔️ Reduce barriers: For PLG companies, the main focus is generally how to do you get the instigator to invite their co-workers? To make the wheel spin, though, you also need those co-workers to adopt. And adoption is sometimes gated by the most unsexy things—like logging in. How can ClickUp remove the login barrier by reducing perceived friction? ‘Hi Jane, your username is JaneMarketing. Your account is created - see it?*
🎉 Increase benefits: While project tracking is likely ClickUp’s main benefit, does every user care about that? Likely not. Most people don’t love updating a status. 🙂 The key to a building a flywheel is to identify the benefits average users care about and personalize when appropriate.
Think big: beyond task lists 📝
Logging tasks feels good, but it doesn’t mean they get done. ClickUp’s main JTBD is to help teams get stuff done. What if ClickUp took a POV and became the expert in how to do this most effectively?
Right now, it’s basically scaffolding for the team to fill in. How could ClickUp share their learnings on team and project management and use this as a core differentiator? How does the product help users realistically get their tasks done and focus on the important vs. urgent things? To really stand out, ClickUp should solve the underlying issue. Don’t just give users a task list—teach them to manage their time effectively. ⌚️
The literal way forward for ClickUp 🛣️
I’m rooting for ClickUp. It could get small wins with big effects by simplifying its onboarding, clarifying its messaging, and reducing barriers for new users. The ‘everything app for work’ works in a few years, when ClickUp is a household name. But for now, I’d get more literal to reel in those newbies.
🎬 This post is just a sneak peek. WATCH THE VIDEO (below) for all the insights, examples, and yep, jokes. Tip: It’s just 4 minutes at 2x speed. ⏩
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📧 Questions about product adoption? Shoot me an email: kristen@irrationallabs.com.
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ClickUp: The everything app for work?