The AWeber onboarding experience: How we help new team members get up to speed fast

By Kathleen Herrmann August 18, 2022

Ever start a new job, get handed a laptop, and then get sent on your way? You’re unsure of where to start, who to meet with, sitting around trying to find something to do to fill your time. That doesn’t quite scream “remarkable start to a new role,” if you ask me.

At AWeber, we view onboarding a little differently than most. All new AWeber team members (regardless of their role) spend their first six days, yes six whole days, NOT doing their job. I know that might sound a little excessive — what could we possibly be covering for 6 days!? — but how can you possibly be asked to do your job before you fully understand how your company works?

So at AWeber, you spend your first six days getting to know our team, customers, and product.

Meet the AWeber Team

Getting to know your team members shouldn’t happen by accident. So we set aside dedicated time for you to develop meaningful relationships during your first week.

Every new team member is set up with a buddy, who is their “go-to” person during their first week at AWeber. If the team member has a question about where to find our product roadmap, or even which fun “off-topic” slack channels to join — their buddy is there to help. 

Buddies do everything from greeting new team members before their first day to meeting with them each day during onboarding to answer questions and get to know each other. Buddies also lead their “Meet the Team” sessions and host a celebration at the end of their onboarding.

Speaking of “Meet the Team” sessions… our new team members actually do meet the entire AWeber team during their first week. And remember what we said earlier about meaningful relationships in the first week? Each session is made up of a random mix of team members that share the following information about themselves: 

• Name
• Pronouns
• Location
• Team and Position
• Years at AWeber
• Fun Fact

These sessions are a ton of fun and really show off the vibrant, diverse personalities that make up our team! From a UX Designer who teaches Zumba to an Engineer who builds instruments from scratch to a CS Team Lead with a background in backyard wrestling — we definitely live our core value of “Don’t take ourselves too seriously. Have fun!” to the fullest. 

In addition to meeting each AWeber team member, new team members also meet with each department to learn about that department’s goals and responsibilities, how they collaborate with other departments across the company, and their impact on our company goals.

Meet the AWeber Customers

At AWeber, our customers are at the forefront of everything we do. And how can you possibly develop or design products for, market products to, or answer questions for our customers without a strong understanding of WHO we serve. We tackle this challenge during onboarding in two ways.

First, all new team members go through a “Know Your Customers” session where they learn about the creators and small business owners we serve. In that session we do a deep dive into actual customers, how they use the product, and how we continually partner with them to help grow their businesses.

All new team members also participate in a few customer solutions shadow sessions. In these sessions, new team members partner with a customer solutions team member and watch as they work through real support tickets, in real time. These sessions help new team members understand how the AWeber product works, but it also gives them a better understanding of how our customers think and what motivates them.

Learn the AWeber product

Everything we do at AWeber comes from an understanding of the creators and entrepreneurs we serve. So what better way to do that than to actually become one of them — and we do this by using our product

During onboarding, all new team members create their own pretend small businesses (or use their side hustle if they have one) to get hands on with our product just like a real customer would.

New team members set up their AWeber accounts, create a landing page, send their first email, and even create a sample product. Through this process they understand the common struggles our customers face, such as what to write in their emails or how to grow their subscriber list. As each team member moves into their new job, understanding our customers’ struggles helps them to come up with creative solutions to meet their needs.

Become part of the AWeber team

Armed with all of this AWeber knowledge, new team members can jump into their role with a great high-level understanding of who we are, who our customers are, and how their role impacts the company at large.  

We can’t wait for you to become our next AWeber team member, so you can experience our onboarding process first hand. Come see what all of the hype is about — join the AWeber team today!