How Sustainly Drives Deeper Product Engagement with Saltfish

''Saltfish has become our go-to layer for guiding users, from their very first login to the most advanced features. It’s flexible, subtle, and surprisingly effective''

- Frederik Denning, CEO & Co-founder of Sustainly

About Sustainly

Sustainly democratizes access to quality sustainability data by making life-cycle assessments (LCAs) accessible to anyone.

Sustainly's AI, built on their proprietary LCA engine, supercharges experts and empowers non-experts to get started. Sustainly makes a highly complex discipline simple, without compromising on the data quality and granularity. That's also why having a proper user onboarding journey is key.

Opportunity

Coming off its recent platform launch, Sustainly wanted to support early users with a clear, helpful experience that didn’t depend on live demos or hands-on support. With a diverse audience ranging from engineering specialists to product- and sustainability generalists, the team needed a way to educate progressively without cluttering the UI or overwhelming users.

The team had explored traditional onboarding tools like product tours and checklists, but they felt rigid, hard to maintain, and misaligned with Sustainly’s emphasis on usability. The goal was to create a more flexible, embedded experience - one that could meet users both when they actively sought help and when they needed a subtle nudge.

Solution

Sustainly chose Saltfish to create a flexible, video-first onboarding experience that could grow with the product. Instead of relying on static guides or linear tours, the team embedded short, contextual video playlists directly into the interface, offering just-in-time support throughout the user journey.

• A personal welcome video from Frederik sets the tone and introduces the platform at first login.

• Key pages feature short, interactive video playlists that explain core concepts and guide users through essential actions.

• Advanced features are supported with discreet tooltip icons (?) that reveal bite-sized video explainers exactly when users need them.

This layered approach creates a seamless, self-serve flow. New users get clarity from the start, while more experienced users can discover deeper value as they explore.

Outcome

The new interactive onboarding experience has already seen strong engagement, with video completion rates reaching upward of 80% depending on placement and user intent. More importantly, users are discovering features without needing one-on-one guidance.

The team now spends less time fielding basic how-to questions and more time helping customers succeed. This embedded, multi-layered video strategy sets a compelling example for other software teams: guidance doesn’t have to be linear, and onboarding doesn’t stop after the first session.

''We’ve been especially happy with how Saltfish lets us meet users at different levels of engagement, whether they’re brand new or diving into advanced functionality''

- Frederik Denning, CEO & Co-founder of Sustainly

Looking ahead

Sustainly plans to continue building on this progressive model. With Saltfish, they’re exploring new use cases like onboarding tailored to specific roles, contextual feature launches, and surfacing relevant guidance based on in-product behavior.

As the company advances toward its vision of becoming the leading platform for life cycle assessment and sustainability data management, it’s equally focused on delivering an exceptional user experience. Sustainly’s in-product guidance layer will evolve alongside the product and the ESG landscape, continuously guiding, educating, and supporting users at every step.