Onboarding & First-Run Flows

Overview

Onboarding exists to get the user to their first moment of real value (activation) as fast as possible — everything that doesn't shorten time-to-value is a tax. Teach by doing inside the real product, not by telling in a tour.

When to Use

• Building the screens between account creation and first meaningful use
• Adding a personalization quiz, setup wizard, or getting-started checklist
• Reviewing why activation rate is low or first-session churn is high
• Deciding what to ask upfront vs. defer (progressive profiling)
• Choosing between a product tour, contextual hints, or seeded content
• NOT for: returning-user login (see flow-auth) or feature announcements to existing users (changelog/tooltip territory)
• NOT for: zero-setup apps where first use IS the product (a calculator) — ship straight to the working screen

The Proven Flow