Early-Stage Tech Startups Can Use Trello to Automate Client Onboarding
Trello-powered onboarding process
If you're an early-stage tech startup founder, you already know: client onboarding can make or break the customer experience. From the moment someone clicks buy to the final delivery of your service, your onboarding flow needs to feel smooth, smart, and scalable. That’s where Trello, a flexible project management tool, can help. Yes, even for client onboarding. Let me explain.
A friend of mine, Myles, runs a creative agency that helps businesses transform their branding strategy. Like many founders, he realized early on that client communication wasn’t a one-and-done email. So he built a onboarding process on Trello, complete with automation. Myles mapped out the key actions clients typically take: booking meetings, submitting briefs, approving deliverables. Then he automated as much as possible inside Trello to reduce back-and-forth. I got to test it from the client side. I signed up as a pretend customer, received the Trello invite, requested a company logo, and started exploring. That’s when things got interesting. Since Myles was working solo, gooodbusy was the first real user outside the agency to fully go through the flow. We hit two main issues: Trello’s technical limitations, and client-facing language.
1. Trello’s Automation Has Limits
While Trello is great for task management, it wasn’t built with client onboarding as its core use case. Myles wanted to hide certain features to avoid overwhelming new users, but Trello shows everything by default. Instead of reducing admin, it added friction. This is a great reminder: when building systems as a lean startup, don’t assume your tools will scale as smoothly as your idea. Always test with real users (or friendly fake ones like me).
2. Naming Conventions Matter
Here’s where we found a surprising win.
From an outsider’s perspective, the Trello board was a little unclear. Labels like “Client Actions” and “Complete” made sense to Myles—but didn’t speak directly to the client. So, we reframed the language using first- and second-person narratives: “My Requests” or “Your Feedback” etc. This subtle shift improved clarity instantly. When you're onboarding new clients—especially non-technical ones—every word matters.
💡 Top tip: Myles can later remove ”My” and “Your” from the Trello board to keep things brief, but right now they’re a powerful way to reduce confusion between his POV and that of the client.
Final Thoughts for Startup Founders
Trello might not be a full-blown CRM or onboarding platform, but with the right automations and thoughtful design, it can absolutely support your early-stage onboarding process. If you're building a lean tech stack, focusing on automation, and trying to improve the first impression your startup makes, Trello could be your MVP for client onboarding.
💡 Bonus tip: the more polished your experience, the easier it becomes to upsell clients to higher-tier packages later.
Looking for more ideas to automate your client experience? That’s what we do at gooodbusy—test, refine, and help founders like Myles build better onboarding UX.