How Northwind Cut Onboarding Time in Half
A look at how a 40-person agency moved their client onboarding into Acme and what changed.
Northwind is a 40-person design agency that onboards three to five new clients every month. Before Acme, each onboarding lived in a patchwork of spreadsheets, email threads, and shared drives.
The problem
Every project manager ran onboarding slightly differently. Steps were missed, clients asked the same questions twice, and nobody could say at a glance how far along a new client was.
The change
Northwind built a single onboarding template in Acme: one checklist, one timeline, one place for client documents. New projects start from the template, so every client gets the same experience.
The result
Average onboarding time dropped from four weeks to under two. Just as importantly, client-facing surprises dropped to nearly zero — everyone can see the same status at any time.