*note: This article relates to the Onboarding of Accounts. Through the entire lifetime of your relationship with an Account you will potentially (hopefully) be adding new users. We will cover the Onboarding of new/additional users in another article.

Introduction:

With Akita, lifecycle stages are represented as Segments. This makes sense as a Segment is just set set of conditions that apply, in the case of a lifecycle stage those conditions to a particular account or set of accounts. In the case of the customer journey or lifecycle each stage is just a specific set of conditions that can be replicated using filters e.g.

To manage a Lifecycle stage in Akita we use a combination of Segments, Playbooks and Dashboards. i.e.

Create a Segment to identify the Accounts that are entering/within the Segment. An Akita Segment is just a set of conditions that apply and so can be tailored to meet the requirements for a Lifecycle stage.
Build a Playbook to manage the Lifecycle Stage (if required) and configure it to be triggered as a customer enters the relevant Segment (this can also be manually triggered from the relevant Account record).
Build a Dashboard to display the Accounts within the Lifecycle stage and any KPIs you need to track against that 'Segment'

1. Create a Segment(s):

By way of example, we are going to create a Lifecycle Stage: Enterprise Onboarding. We expect our Enterprise Customers to complete their Onboarding process within 30 days. In the image [below] you will see we have 2 filters that ensure we have a segment showing all such customers...

You will also want to know which customers have exceeded your 30 day optimum Onboarding period and HAVE NOT completed their onboarding. [Below] is an example of how to build a Segment to identify these customers...

You may also want to be notified when a customer (Account OR Contact) has Successfully Completed their Onboarding.

Once you have created your Segment(s) you activate a notification to be made aware when an Account enters one of the above Segments. You can also can pin its list of accounts and/or related metrics to a dashboard if required. It will also be available as a Trigger when creating Playbooks [below].

2. Build a Playbook:

Once we have built our Onboarding Segment/Lifecycle Stage, the next step is create the Playbook to manage the Onboarding process [For a Complete Guide to Creating a Playbook click HERE].

Create your new Playbook by navigating to the Playbooks tab, clicking on the + New Playbook button and completing the fields in the pop-up [Below].

Configure Playbook Settings. For an Onboarding Playbook, the settings should probably be set as follows [gif below].

Delete open tasks when a playbook is cancelled - If the conditions for the Customer being in the Onboarding stage no longer apply e.g. It is defined as a 30 day period but the customer is not Onboarded within that time, you PROBABLY want to complete the playbook activities. If that is the case select NO here.
Can this playbook be triggered more than once? It is very unlikely you will want put your Customer through the Onboarding process more than once so select NO here.

Add any Message templates you will need to send to the customer as part of the Onboarding process.

For the purposes of this playbook, managing Enterprise Customers, we will only be sending one triggered email, an introduction from our CEO (for low/tech-touch customers we will likely create a number of emails sharing training content etc.).

Add your Playbook Steps/Activities:

For our Enterprise customer Onboarding, we will be sending one automated introductory Message and scheduling a series of tasks for the members of our Customer Success team.

Tasks are assigned to you or other members or roles within your company/team and will be visible in the Planner tab or in the related Account record's Activities tab.
Messages are automated emails sent to customers (Contacts) that have been Tagged with a specific persona (Amin, Power User, Decision Maker etc.).

First we schedule our Kick off / Welcome message by clicking Add Message and completing the fields [Below].

Name or Label ... For internal use
Send as ... You have the option to send this message either as a specific member of your team or a Role you have created i.e. If you have created the Role 'CSM' and choose the option 'CSM' here, the message will be send from whomever is assigned as the CSM for the relevant Account.
Use Template ... This dropdown will list all of your previously created Message Templates.
Send to contacts tagged ... You will want the message to be sent to a specific person/persona at your customer Account. Here you can select the specific tagged person to send this message to.
Instructions for CSM ...
Assign this task ... Here you can decide when you want this message to be sent. You have the option of sending it a specific number of days after one of the other steps in the Playbook.

Next we'll add the rest of the Playbooks automated tasks. Click on the Add task link at the top of the page. A box will appear with a number of fields and dropdowns to complete... [Below].

Name or Label...
Assign task to... You have the option of assigning this task to a specific member of your team or a Role you have created i.e. If you have created the Role 'CSM' and choose the option 'CSM' here, the task will be sent from whomever is assigned as the CSM for the relevant Account.
Priority... this will be visible within the task record, in the list views in planner and can be used to filter tasks in the Grid View.
Overdue if not completed in... This will ensure any overdue tasks are moved to the Overdue tab in the Planner after the requisite number of days. You will also be able to run reports listing overdue tasks in the Playbooks Tab and in the Planner's Grid View.
Instructions for CSM... In order to build best practice into your repeatable processes, you can detail in this space the requirements for this particular task.
Assign this task - Here you can decide when you want this task to be assigned. You have the option of assigning it a specific number of days after one of the other steps in the Playbook.