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About MYOB
MYOB Business is the fast and easy way to manage your cashflow and ATO compliance requirements. Includes time-saving features that automates everyday tasks, giving you great insights and making compliance easy.
🎯 The challenge
MYOB knew that better onboarding meant better retention. But their onboarding experience wasn’t setting users up for success fast enough. New users would land in the product—but too many were stalling before reaching their "aha" moments.
“We knew that our setup rate was hovering around 14% and we knew we needed to boost that,” said Kiran Raszka, Senior Product Designer at MYOB.
They weren’t just chasing a better setup rate for vanity metrics. Kiran and his team had clear data showing a link between early setup and long-term retention:
"There was a correlation between the users that got set up and then the users that activated, with activation meaning after 90 days, they continued their subscription."
With the stakes clear, the team knew they needed a different approach to onboarding.
🏆 The solution
Kiran assembled a small cross-functional team with a simple goal: Not just drive activity, but create real, lasting user success.
"We wanted to provide a more tailored approach to onboarding," Kiran said. “We jumped into Appcues because it was a very quick, no-build, easy way to optimize that."
In just a few months, MYOB completely rebuilt their onboarding experience—using Appcues checklists, surveys, and guided Flows to create a smarter, more personalized path to activation.
👀 How they did it
1. Shift away from inline onboarding
Previously, MYOB surfaced their different product lines using static embedded tiles linked to guided tours, at the top of the homepage.
But engagement was low.
“We found users weren’t really engaging with the tiles," Kiran said.
Instead of hoping users would find their own way, the team moved to a proactive, guided approach—meeting users with personalized journeys from their very first click.
2. Personalizing each user's path
To customize onboarding early, MYOB introduced a short survey asking two critical questions:
- Have you used accounting software before?
- What will you use MYOB for?
These answers allowed the team to quickly assess a user's familiarity and goals—so every next step could feel relevant, not random.
"If you’ve used another platform, your needs are different. We tailored the rest of the Flow based on that answer," Kiran shared.
3. Checklists tailored by product line
The survey responses powered personalized onboarding journeys through custom-built checklists for each product line.
“We didn’t want to drop everyone into the same Flow,” said Kiran. “What you need in accounting software isn’t the same as what you need in payroll.”
Instead of pushing every user into a single checklist, MYOB built tailored paths tied to the specific jobs users needed to accomplish—like connecting a bank feed, sending an invoice, or setting up payroll.
The approach was heavily influenced by the Atomic Habits framework: Small actions, repeated successfully, lead to bigger wins.
MYOB designed each checklist step to feel achievable on its own—and meaningful in driving toward real progress.
“We thought about it like building atomic habits," Kiran explained. “Each little action helps create a loop where users feel progress."
Below are two examples of the custom checklists MYOB built for different product lines—each one mapped directly to the user’s experience level and business needs.
4. Tooltips that drive completion
Each Checklist step triggered targeted Appcues Flows with Tooltips that visually walked users through the exact actions they needed to take—right down to highlighting the right fields.
“You shouldn’t have to guess where to go next. The product should show you," said Kiran.
Especially on full, complex pages, the tooltips helped cut through the noise—keeping users confident and moving forward without hesitation.
And it worked:
Some checklists now see over 40% completion rates, representing thousands of users successfully reaching critical milestones early in their journey.
✅ Results
The onboarding overhaul paid off—big time.
Since implementing Appcues checklists, MYOB’s global setup rate improved by 21% across all core product lines, including sales, expenses, and payroll.
This wasn’t just a small bump. In one product line where the setup rate had been a low 14%, MYOB saw major gains—validating the investment in a thoughtful, user-first experience.
By helping more users complete setup successfully, MYOB strengthened the foundation for better activation, improved customer retention, and longer customer lifetime value—core drivers of business growth.
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Our hot take
This is what great onboarding looks like: Tailored, strategic, and relentlessly user-focused.
The smartest teams connect small early actions to long-term value—just like MYOB did.
If you’re building onboarding, start by mapping the first steps that matter most to your users—not the ones that feel most important to your roadmap. Incredible work, Kiran!