Spotify probably has one of the worst onboarding experiences.
It’s clear their objective is collecting information about you, for the ultimate goal of profit, but they also do it so badly. It’s so transactional.
The good
- Offered to sign in with Apple, although this is mandatory.
- It was easy for the iPhone to suggest a strong password.
The problems
It took eight steps just to get to the page where I could see the pricing tiers.
- Asked for my date of birth – this seems completely irrelevant
- Asked for my gender – also does not dictate my music preferences
- Asked for my name at step six – it doesn’t feel personal at all
- The pricing tiers show benefits to upgrading, but what’s the price?
- The only way to upgrade is to leave the App and visit a browser
“Please go to Spotify’s official website to learn more.”
This important information is written in very teeny tiny small type.
There’s no link to make this easy – do I have to authenticate all over again?
Fixing it
It’s all about my expectation. I was expecting it to be simple and easy.
So, let’s make it easy.
- Put name and email on the first page – it’s all about who I am.
Then afterwards:
- Allow me to upgrade within the app.
- Ask me another time to choose my favourite artists.
Making profit
Profit all comes down to experience. If we remove 8 steps from the journey, then there’s 8 chances less that I’ll give up. That’s 800% more chances of me signing up, and which is a whole lot more opportunity for me to buy.
Time = Experience = Money