How ‘Onboarding Roulette’ Can Expose Product Blind Spots, According to Luca Rossi

In a recent LinkedIn post, 🌀 Luca Rossi highlights an unconventional method used at Graphite to continuously improve the user onboarding experience. Rossi shares insights from Graphite’s CTO, Greg Foster, who implemented a practice dubbed ‘onboarding roulette,’ where a random employee’s account is deleted daily, forcing them to re-experience the entire onboarding process.

This approach, as Rossi explains, directly combats a common pitfall in product development: the product blind spot. Teams often test onboarding once and then neglect it, even as new users encounter friction daily. Rossi points out the core problem:

“Onboarding is often a massive product blind spot. You test it once, maybe two years ago, and then never again, while new users keep hitting it every day.”

The Power of Experiencing User Friction Firsthand

🌀 Luca Rossi argues that by having team members, including the CTO, regularly re-onboard, the rough edges of the user journey become immediately apparent. This frequent exposure ensures that usability issues are identified and addressed swiftly. Rossi elaborates on the benefits:

“Instead, when the team has to onboard regularly, rough edges show up fast, and get easily polished.”

This practice, while initially met with mixed reactions, has become a valued part of Graphite’s development cycle. According to Rossi, the onboarding process has been streamlined to take only about three minutes, demonstrating the effectiveness of this continuous feedback loop.

Applying the Principle Beyond Onboarding

While the ‘onboarding roulette’ is a specific tactic, 🌀 Luca Rossi emphasizes that the underlying principle is broadly applicable. The core idea is that product teams should regularly experience the same friction points that their users encounter. Rossi suggests several ways this can be implemented:

• Signing up with a fresh account once a quarter.
• Going through the company’s own support flow when an issue arises.
• Using the mobile application under challenging network conditions, such as a slow connection.

As Rossi notes, the specific actions may vary depending on the product and industry, but the objective remains the same: to foster empathy and drive continuous improvement by simulating the user experience. He states:

“The point is to design a process so the team feels the same friction users feel, regularly.”

Rossi acknowledges that such a method might not be suitable for all contexts, humorously adding, “your mileage may vary: you probably should not delete accounts if you are building a hospital system!” However, he reiterates that the fundamental concept of regularly experiencing user friction is a powerful tool for product teams aiming to build more intuitive and user-friendly products.

The insights shared by 🌀 Luca Rossi underscore the importance of sustained empathy in product development, advocating for proactive measures to keep user experience at the forefront of a team’s priorities.