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Iterating on onboarding to improve user activation in healthcare SaaS

Image1 - mockup maybe

Product: Omnipractice( Web-based Practice management & EHR)

Users: Solo therapists and multi-provider mental health clinics in the US

Role: Lead Product Designer (end-to-end ownership)

Omnipractice & the Activation Gap

Omnipractice is a web app to help mental health clinics in the US run their practice.

It brings together booking appointments, seeing clients, managing client records, and getting paid in one place.

We had healthy signup numbers, but the Activation Gap was huge . Most users were dropping off before they booked their first session [76% dropoff] - We had a leak in our bucket.

This case study tells the story of how we addressed a significant activation gap by rethinking onboarding for new clinics. The Business Goal: Increase the "Activation Rate" → defined as the percentage of new users who book their first appointment within 7 days of signup.

Activation rate at the time→ 24%

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image 2 - image of dashboard tooltips

Investigating the leak in Activation

As we increased investment in paid acquisition, early drop-off began to directly dilute the return on our marketing spend—making it critical to identify and close the leak quickly.

Funnel data from analytics tools showed that acquisition was working: sign-ups were healthy. However, drop-off spiked immediately between sign-up and first booking, indicating a breakdown at the point of activation.

Heatmaps and session replays revealed the underlying issue. Many users attempted to book a session immediately after signing up, but were blocked by required administrative setup—such as entering license details and configuring availability—before a booking could be completed. This created a dependency deadlock at the moment of highest intent.

Images of heatmaps, graphs

Support tickets reinforced the same pattern. The queue filled with basic questions like “How do I book a session?”, along with repeated requests for manual onboarding calls to help users get unstuck.

Iteration 1: The Setup Wizard — A Reasonable First Fix

While early drop-off demanded quick action, the product still had to enforce compliance requirements around licensing, availability, and billing

Given those constraints, we introduced a linear setup wizard covering practice details, professional credentials, availability, and billing. This ensured users were fully configured and ready to book their first session the moment they landed on the dashboard.

the wizard followed a linear flow: sign-up → practice name and address → locations → services → availability → team members.

image 3 - wizard gif or images

Outcome (Iteration 1)

Activation rate increased to 38% (up from ~24%)

Wizard completion rate reached 42%

Despite a ~14% lift, early churn remained critical. With 62% of users still dropping off, the cost in CAC and lost momentum was unsustainable.

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3. Softening the Constraints (Availability) We removed the "Deadlock."

Internal vs. External: Even if a provider hadn't set their availability, we allowed the Admin to book sessions manually (assuming they knew the schedule). We only blocked Client-Side (Online) booking.

Billing: We deferred Stripe connection until the user explicitly enabled "Online Billing."

4. The "Completion" Nudge To ensure users eventually filled in the missing gaps, I added Status Dots (Red Indicators) on the side nav and settings tabs. This allowed users to "skip for now" but kept the requirement visible for later cleanup.

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