Written by Ramli John & Clare Knight

Most teams focus solely on surface-level onboarding friction - things like confusing interfaces or technical setup.

But in B2B software, the biggest barriers often lurk beneath the surface: organizational friction and psychological resistance.

I learned this lesson while working at Appcues, a product adoption platform.

We made it incredibly easy for users to create beautiful product tours and onboarding flows without code.

But we discovered something fascinating: The biggest barrier wasn't using our product. It was getting internal approval to install our code snippet in their production environment.

Even when a product manager or customer success leader loved our solution, they often got stuck in lengthy security reviews and IT approval processes.

Some waited months just to get the green light for installation.

This revealed an important truth about B2B software adoption: technical friction is just the tip of the iceberg.

What I call the Hierarchy of B2B User Friction has three distinct levels:

• Functional Friction: The technical barriers, like installing code or configuring settings

• Social Friction: The organizational challenge, like getting IT approval or driving team-wide adoption

• Emotional Friction: The psychological barrier, like fear of making wrong decisions or anxiety about changing established workflows

Today's project will help you identify and address all three friction levels in your onboarding journey through the Friction Mapping Exercise.

Let's explore how to identify and address all three friction layers in your onboarding experience.

Friction free scrolling ahead. ↓

🧪 The Project: Friction Mapping Exercise

This practical exercise helps you identify and address friction at every level of your onboarding experience.

I typically run this exercise using a digital whiteboard like Miro or FigJam with remote teams or physical sticky notes for in-person workshops.

You'll need different-colored sticky notes for each friction type (I use pink for functional, yellow for social, and green for emotional).

Step 1: Assemble your friction-finding team

We all have blindspots. While you can do this exercise solo, you'll get much richer insights with a cross-functional team.

Include representatives from:

• Product (who builds the solutions)

• Customer Success (who guides users daily)

• Sales (who sets initial expectations)

• Marketing (who shapes the user journey)

Step 2: Map your success milestones

Create a timeline of 6-7 key wins in your onboarding journey.

Use the format "[ACTION] first [THING]" for each win.

Example for a project management tool:

• Create first project board

• Create first task

• Complete first task

• Add first team member

• Assign first task

• Review first project update

Step 3: Identify friction at each milestone

For each milestone in your onboarding journey, gather your team and identify three types of friction points:

🔧 Functional Friction (Technical Barriers): These are product or technical hurdles like complex setup requirements, confusing interfaces, integration challenges, or missing documentation.

👥 Social Friction (Organizational Barriers): Thes are team and company-wide adoption challenges like getting stakeholder buy-in, cross-team coordination, and process changes.

🎭 Emotional Friction (Psychological Barriers): These are human concerns that hold users back like fear of making mistakes, resistance to change and anxiety about new responsibilities.

Work through each success milestone systematically, identifying all three friction types before moving to the next one.

Step 4: Design targeted solutions

Different products and user segments need different solutions.

A developer tool might lean heavily on documentation and self-serve resources, while an enterprise CRM might need more human touchpoints.

Look at each friction point and consider solutions across what I call the three pillars of successful B2B onboarding

1. In-product guides (like tooltips, checklists)

2. Educational content (documentation, videos)

3. Human touchpoints (calls, workshops)

Trust your team's expertise here. They know your users best and will have insights into which approaches will resonate most effectively.

Step 5: Prioritize your solutions

Use an Impact/Effort Matrix to decide what to tackle first. Place each solution in one of four quadrants:

• High Impact, Low Effort: Do these first

• High Impact, High Effort: Plan these carefully

• Low Impact, Low Effort: Nice-to-haves

• Low Impact, High Effort: Avoid these

Start with one or two "quick wins" - high-impact, low-effort solutions that can show immediate value. This builds momentum for tackling bigger challenges.

🤓 The Analysis

Most onboarding teams focus solely on functional friction - the technical barriers users face.

But by mapping all three levels of friction, you can create a comprehensive strategy that truly enables user success.

Every piece of friction you remove is one less reason for users to give up on their journey to success.

What to expect if you implement this project:

• Deeper understanding of user challenges

• More targeted onboarding interventions

• Improved activation rates

• Stronger cross-functional alignment