glossary

the words, minus the jargon

26 terms from in-app guidance, onboarding, and product adoption, written for people who have to actually ship the thing.

activation rate: activation rate is the share of new users who complete a key action that signals they've started getting real value from a product.
aha moment: the aha moment is the point where a new user first understands the value of a product, usually by experiencing it rather than being told.

change management: change management is the process of helping people move to a new tool, process, or interface with as little disruption as possible.
churn: churn is when customers stop using or paying for a product; churn rate is the share who leave over a given period.
contextual help: contextual help is assistance that appears in the context of what a user is doing, tied to the current screen or task, rather than in a separate help center.
customer education: customer education is the practice of teaching customers how to use a product well, through docs, courses, videos, and in-app guidance.

digital adoption platform: a digital adoption platform (dap) is software that sits on top of an app and helps users learn it through in-app guidance, tours, and analytics.
dom selector / css selector: a css selector is a pattern that identifies elements in a web page's dom, used by guidance tools to find the exact control to highlight.

empty state: an empty state is what a screen shows before it has any data, often used to explain the feature and point users to their first action.

feature adoption: feature adoption is how many users discover, try, and keep using a specific feature of a product.

hotspot: a hotspot is a small pulsing marker placed on an interface element to draw attention to it, often opening a tip when clicked.

in-app guidance: in-app guidance is help delivered inside a product's interface, like walkthroughs, tooltips, and spotlights, instead of in separate docs or support channels.
intent matching: intent matching is working out what a user is trying to do from their words and routing them to the right answer or flow.

knowledge base: a knowledge base is a searchable library of help articles, faqs, and how-to guides that customers or employees use to find answers.

onboarding checklist: an onboarding checklist is a short in-app list of setup tasks that shows new users what to do next and tracks their progress.

product tour: a product tour is a scripted sequence of in-app popups that introduces a product's interface, usually shown to new users on first login.
product-led growth: product-led growth (plg) is a go-to-market strategy where the product itself drives acquisition, conversion, and expansion.

self-serve support: self-serve support lets customers solve their own problems through docs, guides, or in-app help, without contacting a support agent.
session funnel / outcome funnel: an outcome funnel tracks how many users start a guided flow, how far they get, and how many finish, showing exactly where people drop off.

ticket deflection: ticket deflection is resolving a customer's question through self-serve help before it turns into a support ticket.
time to value: time to value (ttv) is how long it takes a new user to get their first meaningful result from a product after signing up.
tooltip: a tooltip is a small popup label that appears next to an interface element to explain what it does.

user friction: user friction is anything in a product that slows a user down, confuses them, or makes a task harder than it needs to be.
user onboarding: user onboarding is the process of getting a new user from signup to their first real success with a product.

voice user interface: a voice user interface (vui) lets people interact with software by speaking and listening instead of only reading and clicking.

walkthrough: a walkthrough is a step-by-step in-app guide that leads a user through completing a specific task in the real interface.

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