Have you ever had to wait for a really slow elevator?

It seems to take forever, right?

In post-war America, high-rise buildings had this problem for years. People would complain because the elevators were too slow.

But instead of spending tens of thousands of dollars to make the elevators faster, these high-rise office buildings and apartments began putting mirrors inside elevators. Now, people could check out their hair and makeup while they waited.

The complaints about slow elevators?

They disappeared overnight.

It’s all due to the psychological principle known as Idleness Aversion which states people are happier when they are busy. Think of Disneyland’s Haunted Mansion. The line is usually really long, but with all the distractions, the wait isn’t too bad.

@emaynez what an absolutely amazing analogy to onboarding! I still remember waiting in line for Tower of Terror as a little kid and just being enthralled with all the cool stuff to look at and watch!

I think this brings up a great discussion around the metrics we track in onboarding and customer success. I’m a big proponent of Time To First Value (TTFV) versus the traditional TTV.

I also think TTFV requires additional buy-in from the customer during onboarding. Defining what those initial quick wins look like will benefit both you and the customer in the long-run. 

Absolutely! Don’t force integrations because YOU think that the customer thinks it’s important. You hit the nail on the head @ellibot! Ask them what they think is important and then deliver on that. Doing that will help them see you as a valued partner then you can work on integrations later 

you know what? After dealing with some bad project retros, its just so clear to me that it comes down to responsiveness.