Short answer
Customer onboarding guides new customers through the knowledge, setup, and early outcomes required for effective use. Assess the work through plans, completed handoffs, documented decisions, and responses to onboarding risks, not through customer sentiment alone.
About Customer onboarding
Plans and coordinates the path from kickoff to initial independent use by clarifying outcomes, sequencing setup and learning, tracking dependencies, and closing the onboarding phase against agreed criteria.
Use this competency for
- Functions that own a defined customer journey from kickoff through initial use.
- Roles accountable for coordinating setup, learning, handoffs, and early outcome checkpoints.
Do not use this competency for
- Roles that only complete one technical implementation task without owning the broader onboarding path.
Important distinctions
Customer education
Customer onboarding coordinates a time-bound journey and its dependencies. Customer education designs reusable learning experiences that may support any lifecycle stage.
Success planning
Onboarding manages the initial path to effective use. Success planning defines ongoing outcomes, responsibilities, and checkpoints after that initial path.
Expectations by level
IC1
IC1
Runs assigned onboarding steps from an established plan, records progress, and raises blocked dependencies with enough context for another person to act.
Observable behaviors
- Confirms owners, dates, and prerequisites for assigned onboarding tasks.
- Records completed steps and open questions in the agreed workspace.
- Escalates a missed dependency with its effect on the next planned step.
Examples
- After a setup call, records the remaining access decision and names its owner.
- Flags that training should move because required configuration is incomplete.
IC2
IC2
Owns a standard onboarding journey independently, adapts its sequence to documented customer needs, and closes it against agreed completion criteria.
Observable behaviors
- Translates kickoff information into a sequenced onboarding plan.
- Coordinates internal and customer dependencies before they block progress.
- Documents whether completion criteria were met and hands off remaining work.
Examples
- Moves an enablement session after confirming which setup dependency must happen first.
- Closes onboarding with a record of completed criteria, open items, and the next owner.
IC3
IC3
Improves onboarding across varied or complex accounts by defining reusable decision points, aligning cross-team handoffs, and reviewing evidence of where the journey breaks down.
Observable behaviors
- Defines decision rules for adapting onboarding paths to recurring customer contexts.
- Aligns handoff criteria and ownership across teams involved in onboarding.
- Uses journey evidence to revise a step, template, or completion criterion.
Examples
- Creates a decision guide for choosing between two onboarding paths based on setup dependencies.
- Revises the handoff checklist after repeated gaps appear at the same transition.