How much effort did it take to learn the product? Product Survey Question

Measure how intuitive your onboarding is and identify friction points that could be preventing users from reaching their first "aha moment" with your product.

Question type

Rating scale 1-7

Primary metric

CES (Customer Effort Score)

Answer scale variations

Comparison table
Style	Options
Typical choice	Very difficult Difficult Somewhat difficult Neutral Somewhat easy Easy Very easy
Time-focused	Took a very long time Took a long time Took some time Moderate amount of time Fairly quick Quick Very quick
Learning curve	Extremely steep learning curve Steep learning curve Somewhat steep Moderate Somewhat gentle Gentle learning curve Very gentle learning curve
Effort intensity	Required enormous effort Required significant effort Required some effort Moderate effort Required little effort Required minimal effort Required almost no effort

Follow-Up Questions

Understanding how easily users can learn your product is only the beginning. The real insights come from understanding why they rated their learning experience a certain way and where they encountered friction during onboarding.

This open-ended follow-up captures the specific moments, features, or resources that shaped their learning experience, giving you actionable detail beyond the numeric score.

Identifying which specific area caused learning friction helps you prioritize improvements to documentation, tutorials, or in-app guidance where they'll have the most impact.

This forward-looking question surfaces specific resource gaps or support needs that users wish had existed, directly informing your onboarding roadmap.

When to Use This Question

SaaS Products: Survey users at the 30-day mark after initial onboarding via in-app modal or email, capturing their learning curve while the experience is fresh but they've had time to explore core features—this timing helps identify if your onboarding effectively reduces friction or if users are still struggling with basics that should feel intuitive.

Web Apps: Trigger the survey immediately after users complete their first significant workflow or achieve a key milestone through an exit-intent overlay or post-action slide-in, because this moment captures genuine effort perception when it's most accurate and helps you understand if the path to value delivery requires too much cognitive load.

Mobile Apps: Deploy via push notification at the 7-day point for daily-use apps or after 3-5 sessions for occasional-use apps, timing it when users have moved past novelty but before they've either mastered it or abandoned it—this sweet spot reveals whether your mobile UX truly delivers on the promise of intuitive, fingers-first design.

E-commerce: Present the question within the order confirmation page or 2-3 days post-purchase via email for first-time buyers, specifically asking about the effort to complete their purchase journey, because high effort scores here directly correlate with cart abandonment rates and reveal friction in your checkout flow before it costs you repeat customers.

Digital Products: Ask within 48 hours of first login using an embedded survey widget or contextual tooltip after they've accessed core functionality, capturing initial learning effort while avoiding the overwhelm of day-one surveying—this helps distinguish between products that feel immediately accessible versus those that hide complexity poorly, informing whether your feature discovery needs work.

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