Importing users for a browser extension rollout

Organize the Userlane rollout, change the user access and enrich the user profile with custom data for user targeting.

What is user import? 

The user import feature allows you to upload a list of your users that can use Userlane via the browser extension. This not only allows you to address all your users easily but also enables user-group-specific targeting.

The setup via user import is only required (and therefore available) for customers that use Userlane for third-party applications. 

When to use it

There are different use cases why you should import your users: 

  1. Single activation: Test Userlane with some users only

  2. Complete activation: The first rollout for all users

  3. Segmentation: Define user groups for content-specific targeting

  4. Maintenance

For each use case, you need a CSV or Excel file with your users. 

How it works

Preparation: Create a CSV or Excel file

To upload a list of users you need a CSV (.csv) or Excel (.xlsx) file that contains all your users' email addresses and optionally their attributes. You can ask your tech department for such a list or you can create it by yourself. 

Each row represents one user. The first row must contain the column headers (email & names of the custom data attributes). The column listing the user emails is seen as an identifier and must have the column header “email” in place. All other column headers are flexible in namings. The positioning in the file does not matter. Also, you can skip columns within the import progress.  

Example: Table Sheet

Example: Converted into a CSV file

1. Test Phase: test Userlane only with some users

Roll out Userlane only for specific test users via:

  1. Self-Invitation: Your employees can register themselves with their working email address via https://family.userlane.com/mll if the working email domain is registered in Userlane (ask your Customer Success Manager if you are not sure). Then they’ll receive a confirmation email with their Userlane access. 

  2. Uploading: You can create a short test user list to send the email invite directly to those test users only.


2. Rollout: rollout Userlane to all users

If you plan to roll Userlane out for the first time to all your users, you can import a complete user list and trigger the invitation mail to all users at once.

In the uploading process, you have the choice to: 

  • Invite all your users automatically: After this process, all your imported users will receive an invitation email to activate their accounts.

  • Finish the user upload without the invitation for now: In this case, you can send the email invites to all users later under  Account > Global Settings > Users - Invite users.

After adding the users you’ll see all the uploaded users with their status in the User overview.


3. Segmentation: Target your users with specific content

You can use custom user attributes to define user segments that should see specific content (e.g. a chapter that is only useful for admins). To do this: 

  • Create a segmentation concept: to have a clear plan of who should see which tours and how you’ll differentiate between users.

  • Create the attributes you decided to use from the Portal under Account > Global Settings: you can also do this during the import process.
    ⇨ Start this Guide for a guided walkthrough.

  • Create your user CSV/Excel file with the respective attributes. 

  • Follow the import process and match the attributes in the Portal with those in your list. You can create now the attributes that are still not in your Portal.
    ⇨ Start this Guide for a guided walkthrough.

  • Create your user segments: using the attributes you create you can now create your user segments (aka. user groups).
    If you have already an Userlane Account and you are based in Europe ⇨ Start this Guide for a guided walkthrough. If you are based in US ⇨ Start this Guide

  • Apply your user segments: once this is done, only the users within those segments will have access to the Guides/chapters you applied the segmentation. If you already have a Userlane account and you are based in Europe ⇨ Start this Guide for a guided walkthrough. If you already have a Userlane account and you are based in Europe ⇨ Start this Guide for a guided walkthrough.

✅ Good to know 

  • Your imported users will be referred to as Company Users.
  • After importing and inviting your company users you can view the status of each user in the Users overview under Account > Global Settings. This helps you to keep the overview and follow up on unresponsive employees, e.g. by resending the invitation (to pending users).
  • You can use any company user attributes for segmentation on the application level in the Segment section. Find out more about how to show different chapters/Guides for other user groups
  • After importing and inviting your users, you will see your new Users only in the Account > Global Settings > Users section, but not in the Segment - Users section. The User overview in the Segment section only shows users that opened the application after they activated Userlane. Therefore, as soon as a user activates the browser extension via the invitation email and enters one of your applications, they'll appear in the Segment section as well.


4. Maintenance
4.1. Understand Status

After uploading a user list you’ll see the status of each user under  Account > Global Settings > Users.

  • Imported: the user is already uploaded but isn’t invited yet. 

  • Pending: the user already received the invitation mail, but didn’t confirm yet. 

  • Active: the user already completed the Userlane browser extension activation via email within at least one browser and can now use Userlane in the software.

4.2. Change Status

If you want to change this status, you can 

  • (re-) invite individual users by clicking on the options (three little dots) next to the user and choosing “Activate”.

  • Invite all imported users at once by clicking on Invite Users and choosing to Send to imported users.

  • Re-invite all your pending users at once by clicking on Invite Users, and choosing to Resend to pending users. This action will only address pending users who have not been sent an email invite within 48 hours.

  • Terminate access for individual users by clicking at the options (three little dots) next to the user and choosing Delete. This will prevent them from seeing Userlane.

4.3. Change Attributes for users
  • Create your user CSV/Excel file with the respective attributes and upload it under Account > Global Settings > Users

    • This file is the same style as the one used for the initial invitation as described in How it works but with the updated list of users and/or attributes

4.4. Inviting new Users later on
  • Regularly promote magic link https://family.userlane.com/mll to allow for self-invitation
  • Manually re-invite users via uploading of users under Account > Global Settings > Users

✅ Good to know 

What happens when a user has a new device? 
  • If a browser profile has been saved and is activated again, Userlane is still available. No further action needed.
  • If a browser profile was not saved, Userlane is not available anymore.
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