How to Improve a SaaS Product Adoption Rate
Publicado: setembro 5, 2025
To improve a Taxa de adoção de produto SaaS, you need to help users get value from your product as quickly as possible. User integration of your product within their workflow may relate to observed trends in Retenção de clientes and revenue. This guide outlines steps that may affect product engagement and adoption rates.
Design a Great Onboarding Process
A user’s first experience with your software often decides if they’ll stick with it. An effective onboarding flow guides new users to their “aha moment,” which is when they understand the core value of your product. A good strategy is to use progressive disclosure, where you introduce features one by one to avoid overwhelming them. Slack, for example, delivers its core features incrementally, which allows users to explore features at their own rate and may impact information processing.
To design an effective onboarding flow, first, find out what a user’s “Job to Be Done” is.
What problem are they trying to solve with your product? Then, map out the fastest path for them to get it done.
For a project management tool, the core jobs might be creating a project, inviting a team member, and assigning a task.Your onboarding should guide them to these actions immediately.
Instead of static product tours, use interactive walkthroughs that make users “learn by doing.” According to one report, interactive walkthroughs can increase taxas de ativação by up to 25%. Canva serves as an example of this. The editable design templates provided during onboarding may have an impact on the time it takes to produce initial user outputs. A shorter time-to-value (TTV) may correlate with initial engagement and potential for future use.
The median product activation rate is around 17%, while top-performing SaaS companies can reach 65%. If your activation rate is low, your onboarding process is a good place to start.
Free SaaS Product Adoption Checklist
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15+ actionable steps
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Onboarding and UX optimization tips
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Key metrics to track
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User education strategies
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Tips for a frictionless user experience
Track the Right Metrics
Understanding user behavior requires focusing on key product adoption metrics that reveal engagement, feature adoption, and friction points. This facilitates data-driven assessment of performance.
You can ask a few key questions to assess your product’s health:
- Product Adoption Rate: What is the percentage of users who actively engage with your product after signing up? The formula is (Number of active users / Total number of users) x 100.
- Product Stickiness: What is the ratio of your daily active users (DAU) to your monthly active users (MAU)? A reduced ratio could be associated with users’ perception of limited value, impacting their return rate.
- Taxa de Adoção de Recursos: Are users using your key features? This helps you identify which parts of your product are underutilized. You can check out our feature adoption rate calculator for more information.
- Conversion Funnel Drop-offs: Where are users quitting a specific workflow? By analyzing funnels, you can pinpoint the exact points of friction.
To check your adoption rate, you can use our online SaaS product adoption rate calculator. You can also explore our full list of SaaS metrics calculators to monitor your progress.
Free SaaS Product Adoption Checklist
Get a free checklist to drive user engagement and grow your business.
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15+ actionable steps
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Onboarding and UX optimization tips
-
Key metrics to track
-
User education strategies
-
Tips for a frictionless user experience
Prioritize Customer Education
Even a simple software product requires guidance. Customer education aims to clarify product usage and address user challenges, potentially impacting product adoption rates. ‘Just-in-time’ learning involves providing resources concurrent with a user’s immediate requirements.
The following are some methods to support user education.
- In-App Knowledge Base: Embed a searchable help center directly within your app. A chatbot may provide users with access to appropriate articles, which could affect their reliance on external resources for answers.
- Contextual Tooltips: Use tooltips and pop-ups that appear only when a user interacts with a complex feature.Studies have found that these contextual help messages can increase feature adoption by 20-30%.
- Short Video Snippets: Use 30-90 second videos to show how a feature works. These are often more effective than long, text-heavy documents.
Clochshark, for example, embeds quick how-to videos directly in its app.
- User Community: Create a comunidade on platforms like Slack. Users may assist one another in problem-solving and exploring alternative applications via peer interaction.
Figma’s community forums, for example, provide a space for designers to share tips and templates, potentially affecting the learning curve for new users.
Free SaaS Product Adoption Checklist
Get a free checklist to drive user engagement and grow your business.
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15+ actionable steps
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Onboarding and UX optimization tips
-
Key metrics to track
-
User education strategies
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Tips for a frictionless user experience
Use Personalization
potentially influencing their perception of value. Since not all users have the same workflow or goals, a tailored experience can improve engagement.
You can start by asking a quick question during sign-up like, “What is your main goal?” or “What is your role?” Use the answers to create different onboarding paths. HubSpot, for example, changes its onboarding based on the user’s role (e.g., marketer, salesperson), guiding them to the features that matter most to their specific job. This provides one illustration of a B2B SaaS estratégia.
You can also allow users to customize their dashboards with widgets and pinned features. This enables a focus on aspects that are more closely related to their workflow. Another strategy is to recommend features based on user behavior.
If a user often uses a chart feature, you could recommend a dashboard reporting tool.
Free SaaS Product Adoption Checklist
Get a free checklist to drive user engagement and grow your business.
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15+ actionable steps
-
Onboarding and UX optimization tips
-
Key metrics to track
-
User education strategies
-
Tips for a frictionless user experience
Improve Product Discoverability
While your product may contain advanced features, their utilization could be affected by their discoverability among users. Navigation design impacts users’ ability to locate information and potentially encounter new features.
You should aim for all core features to be accessible within three clicks from the main dashboard. For products with a lot of features, a strong search function is essential.
Slack’s search function, for example, enables users to find messages and files, which may have an impact on workflow efficiency.
User feedback suggests potential areas for adjustment in navigation. You can use tools like session recordings and heatmaps to see where users get stuck. A/B testing can also be used to compare different menu layouts. Data indicates that app navigability correlates with user retention, which may influence the adoption rate of SaaS products, especially their discoverability.
Free SaaS Product Adoption Checklist
Get a free checklist to drive user engagement and grow your business.
-
15+ actionable steps
-
Onboarding and UX optimization tips
-
Key metrics to track
-
User education strategies
-
Tips for a frictionless user experience
Use In-App Messaging
The timing and context of messages can influence a user’s journey and their perception of value. In-app messaging facilitates the provision of real-time user guidance, which may impact the frequency with which users request support.
Here are a few ways to use in-app messaging:
- Behavior-Triggered Prompts: Identify a user behavior that signals a need for help, like repeatedly clicking on a locked feature. Then, deliver a contextual message, such as a tooltip or a short video.
- Milestone-Based Progress Tracking: Use checklists or progress bars that guide users toward a goal. Providing a small animation or a ‘task completed’ message upon progress may influence user continuation. Duolingo’s streak tracking can be seen as an example of this.
- Micro-Surveys: Collect feedback after a user interacts with a feature to get direct insights. You can use a simple thumbs-up or thumbs-down prompt to quickly see what’s working and what’s not.
Free SaaS Product Adoption Checklist
Get a free checklist to drive user engagement and grow your business.
-
15+ actionable steps
-
Onboarding and UX optimization tips
-
Key metrics to track
-
User education strategies
-
Tips for a frictionless user experience
Create Feedback Loops
The presence of feedback loops relates to product evolution and its potential usefulness to users. This involves collecting, analyzing, and acting on their feedback.
Here’s how to create effective feedback loops:
- Listen: Use in-app surveys to collect user input without interrupting their workflow.
- Analyze: Cross-reference feedback with user behavior data. If many users complain about a feature, use session recordings to see where they get stuck.
- Act: Prioritize changes based on user feedback, focusing on the most common problems first.
- Close the Loop: Tell your users about the changes you’ve made. A public changelog or direct email updates can indicate attention to and response regarding suggestions.
A public product roadmap may influence trust and anticipation. Allowing users to vote on feature requests can affect their perception of involvement in the product’s future.
Conclusão
To increase the adoption of a SaaS product, focus on the user’s experience from the very first login. A software company’s engagement metrics may be affected by the design of its onboarding process, the use of data in decision-making, and the provision of ongoing support. A high SaaS product adoption rate is a result of a product that helps users succeed and solve their problems, which leads to long-term loyalty and revenue growth.
FAQ
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A good SaaS product adoption rate is often considered to be above 70%, with top-performing companies reaching 90% or higher. However, the ideal rate can vary by industry and product complexity.
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SaaS product adoption refers to the ongoing process of users consistently integrating a product into their workflow, while activation is a single, initial event where a user completes a key action. Adoption is a continuous measure, while activation is a one-time milestone.
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The “aha moment” is the point at which a user first understands the core value of a product. It’s the moment they see how the product solves their problem, which is a critical step toward long-term adoption.
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A public product roadmap can improve adoption by building trust and anticipation. When users can see what features are coming, they feel more invested in the product’s future and are more likely to stay engaged.
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User feedback is important because it provides direct insights into user pain points and needs. By collecting and acting on this feedback, you can continuously improve the product and remove friction, which directly increases adoption.
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