“What were you trying to do right before you signed up?”
From getuserfeedback.com · Editorial
Why it works
People sign up in the middle of doing something else — fixing a broken spreadsheet, prepping for a meeting, chasing a number their boss asked for. By the time they describe themselves with your vocabulary ('I wanted analytics'), the original task is gone. Asking what they were trying to do *right before* anchors the answer to a real activity with a real deadline, which tells you the exact context onboarding has to deliver into. The difference between 'I wanted reporting' and 'I had a board deck due Friday and our numbers didn't reconcile' is the difference between a generic tour and a first session that finishes their job.
When to ask
Immediately after signup, before any onboarding has reframed their goal in your product's language. The first session is the only place this answer is still the raw task, not a feature wishlist.
Good follow-ups
- What were you working on at that exact moment?
- How were you handling it before you came looking?
- What made you stop and go find something instead of pushing through?
Watch out for
Accepting the tool-shaped answer ('I needed a CRM'). That's the category they searched, not the task they were doing. If you get a category, follow with 'and what were you actually working on when you decided to look?' until a concrete activity surfaces.
Where to ask
- In-product surveygreat
A one-question prompt on the first screen after signup — the task is still the reason they're here, so the answer is concrete and unrehearsed.
- User interviewworkable
Works live as an opener, but a scheduled call lands days later, by which point the original task has been smoothed into a tidier 'we needed a tool for X'.
Pairs well with
Stage: Onboarding · May 2026