Duolingo onboarding: Product feature case study

Dear reader,

Welcome to my product feature case study #2. If you are looking to break into (or are already in) a product role, you will enjoy my product feature case studies. As someone who recently broke into the Product Management field, I find product case studies overwhelming with too many features being discussed at once. Product feature case studies help me learn the same concepts while focusing on one aspect at a time. If you can relate to this, consider joining me in this learning journey by following me.

Duolingo has been on my mind for a few days now. I read a few product breakdown studies on the app and have been playing around with it while learning Spanish (Hola!).

In this article, I will share my insights on the onboarding feature of the app from a PM lens. I am analyzing the application in a Web Browser as I always prefer learning on my laptop. I will continue to add my observations on other features in my upcoming articles.
Note: Do check the references if you want to read more about Duolingo.

Introduction

Duolingo is a free app for language learning which helps users practice vocabulary, grammar, pronunciation, and listening skills using spaced repetition.

Product feature analysis: Onboarding

This is an unusual approach but Duolingo does not prompt you to sign up until you complete a learning lesson and want to save your progress. The app parks the sign up process until it knows that the user is invested in their product.

It only asks for a few details about which language you want to learn, how you heard about Duolingo and how much time you can spend per day. Just these 3 steps and you can start learning.

What is good here:

1. Fewer steps in the onboarding workflow: This makes it simple for the user to immediately test the product.
2. Faster decision-making for users: The idea to show the statistics on how many users learn a particular language is commendable. A user who may have accessed the app without a particular language in mind can know what’s trending.

Tip: Your product design should empower the user to take quicker decisions without overwhelming them with too many options. This is particularly important when the user is new to the product.

3. Use of Progress bars: Using a progress bar to notify the user about the estimated number of steps keeps the user motivated to complete the workflow. The user can also be given an option to close and come back to the workflow later.

Tip: When a workflow involves multiple steps, use progress bars to notify the user about the estimated time of completion (Thank you Tear Them Down — Product Teardown for this lesson. I have reviewed products with this lens ever since your product teardown series.)

4. Animations over spinners: I was amazed to see an animation instead of a spinner when one of the screens was loading up. Get creative with your animations and add value to the user even when the screens are loading. The prerequisite to this is the optimization of your product to reduce as much load time as possible.

What can be improved:

1. Losing a segment of users: Duolingo might be losing a segment of its users by not mandating the sign up process. The app has no information about the users who randomly log in to the app, try a few lessons, get distracted for some reason, and forget that they even used the app in the first place. A mandatory onboarding sign up would have given them the option to reach out to the users and remind them to use the app. However, I understand Duolingo’s thought process to ensure that the user is invested to learn the language before asking them to sign up for better retention. Duolingo tries to nudge the user to sign up but does not mandate it until they want to save their progress.

Tip: It is critical to evaluate the tradeoffs between the two onboarding approaches: Mandating the sign up process for user retention vs. Enabling the user to explore the app before they are asked to create an account. The conclusion can be based on the user analytics and product landscape.

Summary

1. Quick decision-making
   Your product design should empower the user to take quicker decisions without overwhelming them with too many options. This is particularly important when the user is new to the product.
2. Steps in the onboarding workflow: the lesser, the better
   Minimize the steps in the onboarding workflow to enable the user to immediately test the product.
3. Progress bars. Progress bars. Progress bars.
   When a workflow involves multiple steps, use progress bars to notify the user about the estimated time of completion.
4. Animations over spinners
   Replace spinners with animations and add value to the user even when the screens are loading.
5. Retention strategies
   It is critical to evaluate the tradeoffs between the two onboarding approaches: Mandating the sign up process for user retention vs. Enabling the user to explore the app before they are asked to create an account. The conclusion can be based on the user analytics and product landscape.

References

Product Breakdown: 3 Learnings from the Duolingo App

Product Teardown — Duolingo: Gamification for Retention 🎮

Product Teardown — 9 Lessons from Clubhouse FTUE 🔉