About

Services

Onboarding Sprint

Content Hub

User-Centric PLG in AI Era

NEW

Free Growth Playbook

Onboarding & Activation Design Sprint

Book a 20-min intro call

Let’s discuss your

onboarding challenge.

Let’s transform your user onboarding into a seamless, behaviorally-informed experience that boosts Activation rates and delights users.

Kate Syuma

Founder at Growthmates, Growth Advisor,

ex-Miro Head of Growth Design

Trusted by companies, partners and clients from best B2B and B2C like:

A 2-week sprint to fix user drop-off and accelerate the onboarding experience — using behavioral UX and proven Product-led Growth practices. Not just an abstract strategy. Tangible product solution that drives emotionally intelligent design.

Led by Kate Syuma

Growth Advisor · Founder at Growthmates · Former Head of Growth Design Miro (6+ years)

I founded Growthmates to help teams create meaningful, behavior-first product experiences that convert naturally.

I’ve led onboarding and growth work from startup stage (50 people) to unicorn (2,000+), across:

Activation (2× metrics)

Retention, Monetization, Freemium models, Community-led Growth

PLG experiments and design across 15 teams

Growth Advisor · Founder at Growthmates · Former Head of Growth Design Miro (6+ years)

I founded Growthmates to help teams create meaningful, behavior-first product experiences that convert naturally.

I’ve led onboarding and growth work from startup stage (50 people) to unicorn (2,000+), across:

Activation (2× metrics)

Retention, Monetization, Freemium models, Community-led Growth

PLG experiments and design across 15 teams

The problem

You’ve got users signing up —
but not sticking around.

You’re running growth experiments, but onboarding still feels flat.
You know something’s off, but can’t quite pinpoint the friction.

40–60% of users leave after poor onboarding UX, so they never come back.

40–60% of users leave after poor onboarding UX, so they never come back.

Most users never activate key features, so they don’t convert to paid.

Most users never activate key features, so they don’t convert to paid.

Growth teams never have time to audit their onboarding, so they get stuck.

Growth teams never have time to audit their onboarding, so they get stuck.

What is usually missing

A clear product-led onboarding strategy

A design direction  rooted in behavioral  science

High-quality solutions and clear feedback on what to improve — and why

The solution

The Onboarding & Activation
Design Sprint is a 2-week
high-impact engagement.

It’s not a strategy deck. It’s not just feedback. It’s a proven process  to design behavior change and unlock Activation.

Activated users have 2-5x higher long-term Retention and turn into power users

70% of Activated users convert to Paid customers and recommend it to others (WOM)

Emotional design is preferred by 87% of people¹

¹ Research by Google

Uncover drop-offs by analysing qualitative & quantitative data

Pinpoint behavioral blockers in your onboarding experience

Get detailed, expert-level feedback on your flows
and designs and walk away with an updated design solution and roadmap your team can ship.

Get detailed, expert-level feedback on your flows and designs and walk away with an updated design solution and roadmap your team can ship.

Why User Experience
is still your differentiator

Most onboarding audits stop at abstract advice.

We go further — with behaviorally-informed design direction.

What you'll get

Detailed UX feedback  on your current onboarding flows

Design guidance to uplift your quality bar and annotated walkthroughs  of suggested improvements

Best-practice references from  top PLG products

While we don’t deliver ready-to-dev Figma files as part of the sprint.

Instead we provide the design direction, feedback, and visual references your team needs to confidently build high-quality UX.

If you’re looking for full design execution, we’re happy to explore that separately as an add-on.

Onboarding & Activation
Design Sprint

What We’ll Do
Together

Holistic UX Audit of your full onboarding flow (Website → Sign-up → Aha-moment)

Define your Activation path and metric

2 x live workshops (90 min) with async feedback in between

Using Growthmates templates + frameworks to co-create solutions

Provide annotated design direction for team execution

Create a prioritized Activation Roadmap to ship next

Timeline &
Process

Prep – You submit a brief & data inputs

Slack – We stay async and connected

Week 1 (Discovery) – Audit, behavioral mapping, live workshop #1

Week 2 (Solutioning) – Design feedback loop, live workshop #2, roadmap handoff

Recommended: A PM + Designer involved across both weeks for max impact.

A full program overview will be shared after our intro call and once we confirm the collaboration.

What You’ll Walk
Away With

A fully mapped onboarding journey with friction points diagnosed

Clear UX and behavioral design recommendations

Loom feedback on real product flows and copy

Access to 30+ onboarding benchmarks & 15+ templates

An activation roadmap you can execute immediately

Improved team alignment across Product, Growth, and Design

Internal upskilling in behavioral UX and PLG frameworks

Book a 20-min intro call

Business Impact

Potential 1.5–2× lift in activation metrics reported after implementation

Improved product UX = faster delivery + less rework

Smarter experiments  and higher-confidence launches

2-week engagement with full audit, design direction, live workshops, async access, and strategy handoff

Investment starts at:
€9,000

Early Stage (<€2M ARR): €9,000

Growth Stage (€2M–€20M ARR): €12,000

Mature Stage (>€20M ARR): Custom pricing (on request)

Book a 20-min intro call

Fully booked — next availability from 1st November 2026.

Join a waitlist to reserve you spot now.

Business Impact

Some teams continue working with Growthmates post-sprint to turn the roadmap into validated, shipped features. Monthly retainer support starts at €7,500/mo.

2-week engagement with full audit, design direction, live workshops, async access, and strategy handoff

Investment starts at:
€9,000

Early Stage (<€2M ARR): €9,000

Growth Stage (€2M–€20M ARR): €12,000

Mature Stage (>€20M ARR): Custom pricing (on request)

Book a 20-min intro call

Fully booked — next availability from 1st November 2026.

Join a waitlist to reserve you spot now.

Business Impact

Some teams continue working with Growthmates post-sprint to turn the roadmap into validated, shipped features. Monthly retainer support starts at €7,500/mo.

Wall of love from clients

We invited Kate to speak to our Design and Growth teams at monday.com, and she delivered an exceptional talk on 'Growth as a User-Centric System.'

She provided deep insights into the role design plays in driving business success by delivering and communicating real user value. It was a pleasure collaborating with an expert of her caliber.

The feedback from our attendees was overwhelmingly positive—the team gained immense value from her insights. Thank you, Kate, for a fantastic session!

Vova Nurenberg

Director of Product Design, @Monday.com

I invited Kate to have a fireside-style chat with our growth team at Grammarly.

We had sessions focusing on user activation and team growth practices. Kate's content was inspiring, actionable, and easy to follow. Our team was enthusiastic about the sessions and left feeling empowered to try new tactics to drive growth at Grammarly.

Shane Fontane

Sr. Manager, Growth Design @Grammarly

Kate worked with our team for a few months on user activation, and her structured approach helped us quickly clarify key opportunities and next steps.

She brought a ton of energy, practical examples, and clear trade-off thinking — exactly what we needed to move forward.

What stood out was her ability to switch seamlessly between strategic guidance and hands-on feedback.

If you need someone who brings clarity, energy, and actionable frameworks to growth challenges, Kate is an excellent partner.

Robert Cserti

Product Leader @Manychat

Kate partnered with our team at Mobbin to elevate user onboarding and activation strategies, bringing a fresh macro perspective that was invaluable after years of deep focus on our own product.

Her approach was both strategic and hands-on, delivering clear frameworks that helped us uncover critical growth opportunities. What set her apart was her ability to not only show us the “what” but also explain the “why,” layering practical solutions with deeper insights that reframed our thinking.

Sessions were engaging, grounded in real-world examples, and left us with tools we continue to apply. If you’re seeking a growth expert who combines clarity, enthusiasm, and a strategic lens to drive results, Kate is an exceptional partner.

We're also excited to forge content partnership with Kate as her insights & audience has natural fit and alignment with ours at mobbin.com

Jovin Liew

Head of Growth , Co-founder @Mobbin

We worked with Kate when we needed more in-house expertise in Growth Design and Product Management. Our main challenge was improving the Activation of new accounts. From our collaboration, the key results were:

1) Kate completed an audit and trained the team on frameworks from both design and growth perspectives.
2) She helped instill a growth mindset in our design team by focusing on growth principles.
3) We implemented some of her recommendations, including a full overhaul of our email onboarding series.”

Artur Evstefeev

Product Leader @Manychat

We felt the collaboration was a real success — both in assessing what we had and validating the ideas we were exploring.

The Zeffy form builder went super well — that initiative alone gave us a 15% lift in activation, our biggest win so far. We're now rolling it out across all our form types.

It also helped us refocus onboarding on the core product, which had a great cumulative impact on activation in the past months (+50%).

Michel Ferry

Head of Product @Zeffy

I worked with Kate in a coaching capacity over a few months, and she made a huge impact. From actionable tactics across Activation and Monetization to thoughtful career guidance, every session delivered real value.

Kate has a unique way of teaching — grounded, approachable, and packed with real-world insights. She helped me break down complex ideas, and always ended sessions with clear next steps I could apply immediately.

Thanks to her support, I landed a dream job and expanded my thinking as a growth practitioner in ways I couldn’t have reached alone.

Ben Pham

Senior Product Designer @ Loom

Kate provided our team with comprehensive guidance around Sign Up flow, two modes for onboarding, and how we should start measuring the Aha- moment.

Ultimately, Kate helped to open our eyes to very novice users who are completely not familiar with VR and helped us making their first experience with the product a magic.

Inga Petryaevskaya

Co-founder and CEO @Shapes XR

Wall of love from clients

We invited Kate to speak to our Design and Growth teams at monday.com, and she delivered an exceptional talk on 'Growth as a User-Centric System.'

She provided deep insights into the role design plays in driving business success by delivering and communicating real user value. It was a pleasure collaborating with an expert of her caliber.

The feedback from our attendees was overwhelmingly positive—the team gained immense value from her insights. Thank you, Kate, for a fantastic session!

Vova Nurenberg

Director of Product Design, @Monday.com

I invited Kate to have a fireside-style chat with our growth team at Grammarly.

Shane Fontane

Sr. Manager, Growth Design @Grammarly

Kate worked with our team for a few months on user activation, and her structured approach helped us quickly clarify key opportunities and next steps.

She brought a ton of energy, practical examples, and clear trade-off thinking — exactly what we needed to move forward.

What stood out was her ability to switch seamlessly between strategic guidance and hands-on feedback.

If you need someone who brings clarity, energy, and actionable frameworks to growth challenges, Kate is an excellent partner.

Robert Cserti

Product Leader @Manychat

Kate partnered with our team at Mobbin to elevate user onboarding and activation strategies, bringing a fresh macro perspective that was invaluable after years of deep focus on our own product.

We're also excited to forge content partnership with Kate as her insights & audience has natural fit and alignment with ours at mobbin.com

Jovin Liew

Head of Growth , Co-founder @Mobbin

Artur Evstefeev

Product Leader @Manychat

We felt the collaboration was a real success — both in assessing what we had and validating the ideas we were exploring.

The Zeffy form builder went super well — that initiative alone gave us a 15% lift in activation, our biggest win so far. We're now rolling it out across all our form types.

It also helped us refocus onboarding on the core product, which had a great cumulative impact on activation in the past months (+50%).

Michel Ferry

Head of Product @Zeffy

Thanks to her support, I landed a dream job and expanded my thinking as a growth practitioner in ways I couldn’t have reached alone.

Ben Pham

Senior Product Designer @ Loom

Kate provided our team with comprehensive guidance around Sign Up flow, two modes for onboarding, and how we should start measuring the Aha- moment.

Ultimately, Kate helped to open our eyes to very novice users who are completely not familiar with VR and helped us making their first experience with the product a magic.

Inga Petryaevskaya

Co-founder and CEO @Shapes XR

Wall of love from clients

We invited Kate to speak to our Design and Growth teams at monday.com, and she delivered an exceptional talk on 'Growth as a User-Centric System.'

She provided deep insights into the role design plays in driving business success by delivering and communicating real user value. It was a pleasure collaborating with an expert of her caliber.

The feedback from our attendees was overwhelmingly positive—the team gained immense value from her insights. Thank you, Kate, for a fantastic session!

Vova Nurenberg

Director of Product Design, @Monday.com

I invited Kate to have a fireside-style chat with our growth team at Grammarly.

Shane Fontane

Sr. Manager, Growth Design @Grammarly

Kate worked with our team for a few months on user activation, and her structured approach helped us quickly clarify key opportunities and next steps.

She brought a ton of energy, practical examples, and clear trade-off thinking — exactly what we needed to move forward.

What stood out was her ability to switch seamlessly between strategic guidance and hands-on feedback.

If you need someone who brings clarity, energy, and actionable frameworks to growth challenges, Kate is an excellent partner.

Robert Cserti

Product Leader @Manychat

Kate partnered with our team at Mobbin to elevate user onboarding and activation strategies, bringing a fresh macro perspective that was invaluable after years of deep focus on our own product.

We're also excited to forge content partnership with Kate as her insights & audience has natural fit and alignment with ours at mobbin.com

Jovin Liew

Head of Growth , Co-founder @Mobbin

Artur Evstefeev

Product Leader @Manychat

We felt the collaboration was a real success — both in assessing what we had and validating the ideas we were exploring.

The Zeffy form builder went super well — that initiative alone gave us a 15% lift in activation, our biggest win so far. We're now rolling it out across all our form types.

It also helped us refocus onboarding on the core product, which had a great cumulative impact on activation in the past months (+50%).

Michel Ferry

Head of Product @Zeffy

Thanks to her support, I landed a dream job and expanded my thinking as a growth practitioner in ways I couldn’t have reached alone.

Ben Pham

Senior Product Designer @ Loom

Kate provided our team with comprehensive guidance around Sign Up flow, two modes for onboarding, and how we should start measuring the Aha- moment.

Ultimately, Kate helped to open our eyes to very novice users who are completely not familiar with VR and helped us making their first experience with the product a magic.

Inga Petryaevskaya

Co-founder and CEO @Shapes XR