What I Learned Watching 50 Onboarding Replays on Microsoft Clarity

Hey Indie Hackers 👋

I’m Julien, founder of Linkeme, a SaaS that helps founders and small teams automate their social media posts with AI.

The promise is simple: set it up once, and content gets done every week — without stress.

But I’ve learned something humbling the past few weeks.

I Thought My Onboarding Was Simple

• 3 columns

• 3 big buttons

• Clear copy

• A linear setup: pick your tone, connect your socials, start publishing

And yet…

I Watched 50 Session Replays in Microsoft Clarity

Here’s what I saw:

• Users clicking frantically on UI elements that aren’t clickable

• Missing the giant “Modify” button

• Trying to scroll instead of select

• Getting stuck at step 1 and leaving

• Pausing, coming back… and starting over

These are users who wanted to use the product.

They had already:

• Visited the site

• Created an account

• Confirmed their email

• Reached the final step…

And still… friction.

It’s Hard to Watch

You sit there, whispering at the screen:

“Just click that one button…”

But they don’t.

Because you see the system — they see confusion.

What I Learned

• Simplicity ≠ clarity

  What feels minimal to you might still be confusing to someone discovering it for the first time.

• Remove your ego

  That onboarding you spent hours refining? It might be the problem.

• Behavior ≠ intention

  People want to succeed, but the tiniest UX trap can kill momentum.

• You only have one shot

  Especially in a “set-and-forget” product like Linkeme. If onboarding fails, they don’t come back.

What I’m Doing Now

• Adding tooltips and soft guidance

• Testing default pre-filled paths

• Considering a short, embedded demo video

• And maybe… just asking for less in the first session

If you’ve experienced this onboarding heartbreak, I’d love to know:

👉 What helped you simplify onboarding without oversimplifying the product?

👉 Have you used Clarity or Hotjar to guide your UX decisions?

Drop your lessons below — I’ll steal them with gratitude 🙏

Julien

https://linkeme.ai/why