mkt-onboardinglisted

# Onboarding — Activation Design **The goal of onboarding is not "finishing the tutorial" but shortening time to first value.** A tutorial with no defined activation point is just a churn point. ## Design Order 1. **Derive the Aha moment** — find the actions top-retention cohorts took in their first week in the data (e.g. inviting 3 teammates within 7 days). Correlation is enough — causal experiments come later 2. **Shrink TVT** — Time-to-Value. Pulling the first experience forward with immediate value (sample data, templates, bulk import) is the biggest lever 3. **Checklist** — 5 items or fewer, only the minimum path to Aha. Completion rewards that are social (team notifications) outlast material ones 4. **Guide placement** — in-app tooltips right before the action, explanations after rather than before. Video tutorials are a last resort ## Judgment Criteria - Activation baseline: completing the core action within the first session, 25~40% (B2C) or 40~60% (B2B team products). Below that, redesign onboarding itself - Each added onboarding step cuts completion 10~20% — respond to requests to add steps with removals instead - Segment split: if entry intent differs (user vs buyer), split the onboarding too. One flow ruins one of the two - Post-churn resumption: keeping incomplete checklist items resident on the dashboard beats email reminders ## Output ``` # Onboarding Improvement Plan — {product} ## Aha moment hypothesis + supporting data ## Current journey step table (s