How to Create In-App Tutorials to Drive Product Adoption14 min read

What are in-app tutorials and how they can help you improve user onboarding and product adoption?

In this article, we’re going to talk about:

• How in-app tutorials help improve your user onboarding process.
• Best practices when creating in-app tutorials.
• Tools to use to create tutorials code-free.

We’ll also cover some great examples to inspire you.

Different types of in-app tutorials

Different types of in-app tutorials are suited for guiding users through your product in a slightly different way. Let’s compare them:

How can you use in-app tutorials in your product?

The main purpose of in-app tutorials is to drive feature and product adoption. This is what any product team would want.

If you are part of the customer success, product management, or customer support team you want your onboarding experience to guide users to get value from your product and stick around.

That’s where in-app tutorials come in.

Let’s look at different use cases and applications of in-app training:

Provide self-paced learning

It’s hard for us humans to absorb a lot of information in one go.

This is why long, boring product tours don’t work. You can’t expect a new user to sit through a never-ending series of tooltips that walk them through your product’s entire user interface explain each element in one go, and also remember everything.

An in-app tutorial, on the other hand, provides granular bits of information and guides users on how to engage with the product, at their own pace.

Get new users to experience value faster

Getting users to the Aha! Moment is crucial. But what’s more important is to get them to experience that expected value as well.

You see, the Aha! Moment is mostly about users realizing there might be value in using your product.

The potential of value is what makes them sign up. They then need to get to the activation point too.

In-app tutorials help get the users there and experience value faster, as they offer the needed in-app training that shortens the learning curve and keeps new users engaged.

Drive user engagement

Engagement is everything when it comes to convincing a new user to stay. If they simply pop up and stare at the first screen they see, then they won’t last very long. You need them to click, to scroll, to type — to interact in some way.

A good in-app tutorial encourages those interactions. It prompts and guides users to do something and means they’re more likely to do it if what you are guiding them to do makes sense considering where they are in their journey.

Clicking on a checklist item, for instance, triggers specific experiences that lead to activation. A checklist works both for new users and for more advanced users who could benefit from discovering other features they are not using. You just need to add specific tasks based on where the user is in the journey.

Increase customer retention

Tutorials are meant to offer in-app guidance where and when the user needs it across the entire user onboarding process. When done right, these interactive walkthroughs help remove frustration caused by steeper learning curves and make it easier for the user to actually use the product.

The more they engage, the more the product becomes part of their life and the more value they get.

Using tutorials to onboard users at every stage of the user journey will ultimately increase retention rates since users don’t churn when they experience repeated value from a product.

Note how the sample walkthrough below highlights a feature, guides what it is, explains how it’s used, and leaves that tooltip until the user interacts with it. The goal is to shorten the user’s learning path and reduce their time to value.

Best in-app tutorial examples

I’ve already covered the basics and some examples while going over in-app tutorial application’s best practices but here is a collection of some of the best tutorials that follow them too.

Kontentino’s interactive walkthrough improved user activation by 47%

When Kontentino—a social media management tool—wanted to guide new users to their “aha!” moment faster, they used Userpilot to build an interactive walkthrough that teaches users how to create and schedule social media content right inside the app.

Instead of relying on a static product tour, Kontentino broke the process into smaller, interactive steps. Users were guided to perform key actions like uploading media, scheduling posts, and collaborating with teammates—all in real time. This hands-on approach helped users learn by doing, which led to better retention and faster time-to-value.

And the results speak for themselves.

By implementing these in-app tutorials, Kontentino achieved:

• Users who created at least one heatmap analysis grew from 47 to 69% (47% relative increase).
• Users who engaged with the Areas of Interest feature went up from 12 to 22% (83% relative increase).

This makes Kontentino a great example of using contextual in-app tutorials to drive product adoption. It didn’t just show users what to do—it helped them do it, right when it mattered most.

Dave Rigotti, Co-founder of Inflection.io, also highlights in his article,

“Have contextual help resources at each stage. Think of searchable knowledge bases, FAQs, and in-app tooltips. Make it easy for users and customers to access relevant information or a support resource when they need help.”

Kommunicate in-app tutorial guiding users step-by-step

Kommunicate is a customer support automation platform that enables users to build their own AI chatbots without any coding.

When onboarding its users, Kommunicate deploys interactive walkthroughs that guide users on how to customize their chat widget. Step-by-step instructions are given in simple copy and only trigger once the user has engaged with the previous step in the series and follows the instructions.

For example, when a tooltip pops prompting the user to insert text, the next tooltip will only show once the user takes the recommended action.

This is a great example of an effective tutorial because it lets users engage and learn at their own pace, without overwhelming them. The tutorial is short, easy to understand, and focused on a single goal—widget customization—which keeps the experience clear and purposeful. By guiding users through one specific task, it increases the chances they’ll complete it successfully and retain what they’ve learned.

Groupize gamified their new user onboarding tutorials

Groupize is a software platform that assists companies with managing group and corporate business travel and events, both from the spend management and attendee management perspective.

With the help of Userpilot, they could gamify their onboarding by creating a Groupize Interactive Assistant – G.G.

Groupize is a software platform that assists companies with managing group and corporate business travel and events, both from the spend management and attendee management perspective.

With the help of Userpilot, they could gamify their onboarding by creating a Groupize Interactive Assistant – G.G.

Groupize Interactive Assistant built with Userpilot

They use this assistant to provide contextual onboarding guidance for the new users once they sign up.

GG assistant provides contextual help for new users

To make G.G. more subtle and less pushy, they utilized Userpilot’s Resource Center to let users summon G.G.’s help, as well as provide more detailed instructions and help articles. Users can trigger guided tours of each page of the app from the Resource Center:

This is a good example because it uses gamified in-app tutorials to motivate and encourage users. The guidance is subtle and non-intrusive, helping users without disrupting their workflow. Plus, by allowing users to replay the tutorials anytime, it supports continuous learning and gives users the flexibility to revisit steps whenever they need a refresher.

Duolingo’s interactive onboarding tutorial (mobile)

When talking about in-app tutorials in mobile apps, it’s hard not to talk about Duolingo’s app experience.

Instead of explaining the interface upfront, Duolingo drops users directly into a short, interactive lesson within seconds of opening the app for the first time.

The tutorial walks users through the product’s core functionality using visual cues, gamified interactions (like points and progress bars), and immediate feedback—all without a single formal explanation of the UI. Users learn by doing, not by reading, which aligns perfectly with mobile user behavior: quick, hands-on, and goal-oriented.

Why it works:

• Contextual and interactive: Users complete real tasks from the start getting familiar with valuable features.
• Gamified experience: Progress tracking, sounds, and rewards keep engagement high.
• Micro-learning: The tutorial is bite-sized, which fits naturally into a mobile session.
• Zero friction: No sign-up is required before trying the tutorial: removing barriers to value for first-time users.

This approach helps Duolingo increase activation by making the first-time experience fun, intuitive, and valuable within the first minute. It’s a masterclass in how to design mobile tutorials that teach without lecturing.

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Best practices when creating an in-app tutorial

So hopefully now you understand why in-app tutorials are so crucial when it comes to helping users understand and adopt the key features of your product.

But what makes a good in-app tutorial? How do you make it as effective as possible?

Keep your tutorials short and simple to not overwhelm users

All your in-app tutorials should be on point, focusing on driving users to engage and adopt the core features of your product, one at a time.

Your users don’t need to know about those secondary features (at least not yet) so you can make your in-app tutorial more focused. Start with the goal of each tutorial and make sure to guide users on how to reach it.

These goals will be based on where the users are in their journey and where they need to get next. This can be reaching the activation point, adopting a new feature, or learning how to use some advanced features of your product.

Test different UI patterns

A modal, a tooltip, a video, anything can be part of your tutorials that drive customer success. Since users are different they will prefer different types of in-app communication.

You should always test what works best in achieving the goal.

For example, is adding a modal with a clear CTA enough, or should you also use a checklist?

To get your answer, you can use A/B testing and compare your goal completion rate for users who see and engage with a checklist and the ones who don’t.

Personalize your in-app tutorials to each use case

Most SaaS products will have a few different use cases or user personas. It’s safe to say that these use cases will often have different needs from your product. So giving everyone the same in-app tutorial is never going to work.

Instead, you should create a separate and personalized in-app tutorial for each use case. Then you just need to trigger the right one for each user that signs up for your product.

Of course, to do this you need to make sure you know which use case your users belong to. The best way to do that is to ask them using a micro survey either during the signup process or on your welcome screen.

Then use the information collected during user acquisition to create different user segments and trigger different tutorials for each.

Make tutorials interactive by letting users choose their path

You can create a different interactive walkthrough for each user segment but you can also use a more engaging approach and let users choose their path as they go.

Both walk new users around the product, highlighting various features, and act as useful in-app tutorials. But there’s a key difference. One lets users feel they are in charge of their experience.

Basically, the interactive nature means that users pay more attention, retain more of what they’ve learned, explore and start seeing value more quickly.

On top of that, letting users choose their path helps in getting them to experience value faster, by skipping irrelevant steps.

Take a look at how ConvertKit does it.

They ask users a simple question: “Where are you joining us from?”. Since the onboarding experience will be different for a user who is just starting compared to a user who already has a contact list and is moving from another tool, ConvertKit lets users choose the best path for them.

When a user selects one option, they will be presented with different options, that are relevant to their use case.

Trigger in-app guidance contextually

One of the issues with front-loading information to new users is that they’re likely to forget it all within ten minutes of using your product.

That effectively means your onboarding was a waste of time, plus your users will still be in the dark when it comes to using your product.

The solution is to make your in-app tutorials more contextual.

What does that mean in practice? Well, it means that you should only tell a user about a particular feature of your product when they need to know about it.

Let’s say you are launching a new feature and want to help users adopt it using an interactive walkthrough. Would it make sense to trigger this for users who haven’t engaged with key features yet to reach the activation stage?

Of course not.

Instead, use segmentation to make sure your message is shown only to relevant users.

Make tutorials accessible on-demand

Using product usage data you can understand when and where your users need help. But triggering app tutorials when you think the user needs them is one way to go.

I’m not saying that doesn’t work. In most cases, it will be the best option.

But to make sure users engage with it, adding your interactive walkthroughs to an in-app resource center lets them access it as many times as they need and when they need it.

Track performance and improve

Building interactive walkthroughs, app tutorials, and guides is about promoting user engagement and adoption across the entire user journey through user education.

And how would you know if they are effective if you don’t track performance?

One way to understand the effectiveness is to monitor their engagement with the tutorials and set up path analysis to see if they follow the guided path.

For example, you can track how users progress towards the activation point. Do they follow your onboarding guidance? Do they take any alternative path? Is there any more common and effective path?

With such insights, you can work on refining your tutorials.

Create effective guides and tutorials with Userpilot

Userpilot makes it easy to build in-app guides and tutorials that actually help users succeed—no coding required.

Whether you want to onboard new users, drive feature adoption, or offer contextual help, you can create interactive experiences that guide users step-by-step through your product.

With features like tooltips, checklists, modals, resource centers, and interactive walkthroughs, you can design tutorials tailored to different user segments, trigger them based on behavior, and measure their impact in real-time.

The result? A smoother learning curve, faster time to value, and higher product adoption. Book a demo today to create in-app tutorials for your product.

Create In-App Tutorials with Userpilot to Increase Product Adoption

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