The first 90 Days re-imagined

Hi, Markus here. Welcome to a new episode of the Customer-Value-Led-Growth Newsletter.

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For more than a decade “traditional” customer onboarding has revolved about the same question:

“Did the customer learn how to use the product?”

If that’s what still guides your way in 2026, you are far behind.

Customers don’t buy software to learn its features.

They buy it to achieve a business outcome.

If that outcome isn’t visible within the first 90 days

The first 90 days (or less!) are no longer a preparation phase.

They are your Revenue Protection Window.

In today’s post, I’ll show you how to redesign your customer onboarding around Time-to-Value instead of feature completion.

Most SaaS companies still follow a linear structure:

where success is measured by

The problem?

None of these measure whether the customer’s performance has improved.

You can complete every onboarding task and still fail if:

Measuring activities creates a false sense of success.

This is the hidden risk in traditional onboarding.

By the time you realize that the value is not there, your customer is already on the way out. And sometimes you only notice when customers already canceled.

Leading Customer Success organizations are following a different approach:

Deliver measurable outcomes as quickly as possible (quick wins).

They are:

after going through a mindset shift.

They are not spending the first 90 days to get customers ready.

They are delivering proof to buyers that their purchase decision was correct.

Your onboarding should always start with the right question:

“What will be measurably better in 90 days if the onboarding is successful?”

This becomes the Value Hypothesis.

Examples:

The Value Hypothesis must include:

Document the Value Hypothesis in a one-page Value Realization Plan and confirm it with the stakeholders.

Without the clear definition of a deliverable, customer onboarding is reduced to a glorified checklist.

Important: Onboarding does not exist in a vacuum. It’s the first phase of helping customers to achieve a bigger goal. It’s a subset of the customer success plan covering the whole customer journey.

In many situations, the subject of customer onboarding is straightforward. Because there’s a natural order for the steps that need to be taken. For example, before you can build and execute any strategy, you need to have visibility into what’s going on.

Once the outcome is defined, the next question is:

“What is the shortest path to achieving that outcome?”

This is the Critical Value Path.

Your product has probably dozens of features but only a few are required to give customers their quick wins.

Example: If the goal is faster reporting then your customers’ don’t need

What they need is:

This is where many onboarding programs fail. They bombard customers with features and information they don’t need (right now) instead of the leanest way to hit their goal.

Before taking any action, ask yourself:

“Does this step directly accelerate the time-to-value?”

If the answers is no, it can be postponed.

A system can be fully implemented and still unused when it does not create value.

To drive real adoption, customer onboarding needs to focus on

Instead of generic training, provide inputs to answer the questions

Each role should have a clear first action tied to the value outcome.

Define

Example:

That workflow is more important than any feature tutorial.

If you are measuring the number of logins or how much time customers spend using the product you are getting nowhere. What you need to measure is what customers are doing with your product.

These are leading value indicators, not vanity metrics.

One of the biggest mistakes in customer onboarding is to focus all your efforts on the core users.

If the buyer does not see progress, the project is losing importance.

About half into the 90 days, schedule a Value Progress Review (like a QBR) that shows

and builds confidence that things are going into the right direction.

When executives see an early proof of value

At the end of 90 days, there must be clear evidence that your product has helped customers improve something.

Examples:

Even small improvements matter because value realization is psychological as much as operational.

A visible win creates:

If there has been no measurable improvement within the first 90 days the account becomes a default churn risk.

Most onboarding programs end with a handoff after all checks are made.

This is a missed opportunity. Close the onboarding with Value Confirmation Conversation about

for the transition to ongoing value. This conversation should lead to

If you already have a full Customer Success Plan in place, the conversation ends either with a confirmation or the conclusion that changes are required.

Changes due to

Important: Customer Succes Plans are not carved in stone. They are snapshots built upon the information that is available at a certain point in time. After 90 days they can already be outdated and you must not be reluctant to make adaptions.

If you are adopting the Time-to-Value model you need to change your onboarding KPIs accordingly.

From traditional metrics like

to Value Metrics

that correlate much more with GRR and NRR.

AI is accelerating successful onboarding, if you are using it strategically.

Highly effective uses are:

But AI should not replace:

Because onboarding isn’t simply a process, it’s change management.

1. Changing goals without changing process
You are not creating different results with good intentions alone.

2. One-size-fits-all
Different customer segments require different value paths.

3. Overloading the first 90 days
Everything that does not contribute to giving customers quick wins is neglectable.

4. Skipping executive alignment
If you don’t have the attention from decisionmakers the project is not a priority.

5. Measuring activity instead of outcomes
Customers are not renewing because you’ve tried hard, they do if they win.

In today’s environment, you are facing multiple challenges:

If value isn’t proven early, your product becomes:

But when customers experience early value:

If you want to reimagine your onboarding, start with these four questions:

If you can answer these clearly, you’re on the path to value-driven customer onboarding.