# User onboarding Human Guide

## What This Is For
Design and improve product user onboarding (first-time user experience) to drive activation and early retention. It gives the agent a clearer input/output frame for user onboarding: what context to ask for, what decisions to make, and what usable artifact to return.

Use this as a human-readable version of the User onboarding agent skill. It is meant for marketers, operators, founders, and other non-coders who want the workflow without reading agent-specific implementation instructions.

## When To Use This
- Use this when you need a repeatable process for user onboarding.
- Use this when the task needs judgment, examples, constraints, or a clear output format rather than a one-off prompt.
- Use this when you want to hand an AI assistant enough context to produce a usable marketing artifact.

## When Not To Use This
- Do not use this when you only need a quick factual answer.
- Do not use this when the work depends on private data you cannot share with the assistant.
- Do not use this as a replacement for legal, compliance, financial, or medical review.

## What You Need Before Starting
- The goal or business outcome you want.
- The audience, customer segment, or market context.
- Any source material the assistant should respect, such as notes, briefs, examples, URLs, or brand guidance.
- Constraints such as tone, length, channel, deadline, region, or approval requirements.
- A clear definition of what a good final answer should look like.

## Step-By-Step Workflow
1. State the job clearly: "Use the User onboarding guide to help me with..."
2. Add context: audience, goal, offer, channel, source material, and constraints.
3. Ask the assistant to identify missing inputs before producing the final output.
4. Have the assistant follow the skill-specific guidance below.
5. Review the result against the final checklist and ask for revisions where needed.

## Skill-Specific Guidance
- Designing the first-time user experience (FTUE) from entry/signup → first value
- Defining activation / the “aha moment” and reducing time-to-value
- Creating a “first 30 seconds” experience and a “first mile” plan (milestones to activation)
- Onboarding mechanics: progressive disclosure, guided setup, empty states, templates, checklists, feedback loops
- Instrumentation + experiments to improve activation and early retention
- “Activation is low” / “users drop during signup/onboarding”
- “The first session doesn’t feel magical”
- “We need an onboarding redesign / guided setup / empty state improvements”
- “Define our aha moment and design onboarding to get users there”
- “Create an onboarding experiment backlog + measurement plan”
- You’re onboarding employees, customers to a service process, or running training (not product onboarding).
- You don’t have a stable value proposition / ICP (use `brand-messaging-and-positioning` or `product-market-fit-analysis` first).

## Decision Points And Nuance
The original skill emphasizes: Workspace Context, Operating Contract, Scope, Inputs, Outputs (deliverables), Workflow (7 steps), 1) Intake + goal framing (activation-first), 2) Map the current first-time journey (FTUE), 3) Define the activation / “aha moment” (behavioral), 4) Design the “first 30 seconds” (make it feel magical).

Use these questions to steer the work:
- What is the intended audience or buyer?
- What source material must be preserved?
- What should the assistant optimize for: clarity, persuasion, accuracy, speed, creativity, or conversion?
- What examples represent the desired quality bar?
- What should the assistant avoid?

## Common Mistakes
- Do not request secrets or PII; prefer aggregated funnels and redacted screenshots.
- Deliver a fast, native, interactive win (avoid passive carousel “tours”).
- **Context:** Team analytics tool. New admins must connect 1+ integrations before value appears.
- Any hard constraints (permissions required, data imports, integrations, teammate invites)?
- Anything you must avoid (non-native frameworks, heavy tours/carousels, incentives)?
- Design avoids passive tours and focuses on interactive value.
- Avoids dark patterns; respects privacy; no secrets/PII requested.
- Apply **game design principles**: onboarding should be part of the product experience; avoid common traps like passive carousels and non-native experiences. (Merci Grace)

## Copy-And-Paste Prompt
```text
Use the User onboarding human guide.

My goal:
[Describe the business outcome]

Audience:
[Describe who this is for]

Context and source material:
[Paste notes, examples, links, or existing copy]

Constraints:
[Tone, length, channel, timeline, must-include items, must-avoid items]

Before producing the final output, ask me for any missing information that would materially improve the result.
```

## Final Checklist
- [ ] The output matches the original goal.
- [ ] The audience and context are reflected in the answer.
- [ ] Important constraints and source material were preserved.
- [ ] The assistant made the relevant decisions explicit.
- [ ] The final artifact is ready to use, review, or hand to the next person.

## Source
This guide was generated from the manojbajaj95/claude-gtm-plugin skill entry for `user-onboarding`.

## Source Skill Notes
These notes preserve the nuance from the original skill. Use them as supporting reference when the workflow above feels too generic.

# User Onboarding

## Workspace Context

Read bootstrap context before asking questions: `strategy/brand.md` for brand, audience, offer, channels, tools, constraints, and metrics; `about/me.md` for personal voice; `content/ideas.md` and `content/calendar.md` for content planning. Use legacy product-marketing context files only as fallback. Save generated drafts to `content/<platform>/drafts/YYYY-MM-DD_short-topic-slug.md`, and route durable learnings back to `strategy/brand.md`, `about/me.md`, or `content/ideas.md`.

## Operating Contract

This skill is self-contained for its frontmatter scope: use its local instructions, references, scripts, and assets as the playbook; ask only for missing task-specific inputs; hand off to adjacent skills instead of expanding scope; and return an actionable artifact, decision, plan, draft, or diagnostic.


## Scope

**Covers**
- Designing the first-time user experience (FTUE) from entry/signup → first value
- Defining activation / the “aha moment” and reducing time-to-value
- Creating a “first 30 seconds” experience and a “first mile” plan (milestones to activation)
- Onboarding mechanics: progressive disclosure, guided setup, empty states, templates, checklists, feedback loops
- Instrumentation + experiments to improve activation and early retention

**When to use**
- “Activation is low” / “users drop during signup/onboarding”
- “Time-to-value is too long”
- “The first session doesn’t feel magical”
- “We need an onboarding redesign / guided setup / empty state improvements”
- “Define our aha moment and design onboarding to get users there”
- “Create an onboarding experiment backlog + measurement plan”

**When NOT to use**
- You’re onboarding employees, customers to a service process, or running training (not product onboarding).
- You don’t have a stable value proposition / ICP (use `brand-messaging-and-positioning` or `product-market-fit-analysis` first).
- You need a full retention strategy beyond onboarding (use `customer-success-and-retention`).
- You need a conversion review of a marketing page or form (use `conversion-rate-optimization`).

## Inputs

**Minimum required**
- Product + ICP/segment(s) (1–2) and the primary job-to-be-done
- Platform + entry point (web/mobile; where FTUE starts)
- Best-available baseline metrics (even rough):
  - visit → signup → first key action → activation
  - time-to-value (time or sessions to first value)
  - D1 retention (if available)
- Current onboarding flow summary (steps/screens) and the biggest drop-off point(s)
- Constraints: timebox, eng/design capacity, allowed channels (in-app/email/push), privacy/legal/brand limits

**Missing-info strategy**
- Ask up to 5 questions from [references/INTAKE.md](references/INTAKE.md), then proceed.
- If metrics are missing, proceed with explicit assumptions and label confidence.
- Do not request secrets or PII; prefer aggregated funnels and redacted screenshots.

## Outputs (deliverables)

Produce an **Onboarding & Activation Pack** (Markdown in-chat; or as files if requested) containing:

1) Context snapshot (goal, segment, constraints, baseline)
2) Current FTUE map (step-by-step) + friction log
3) Activation / aha moment spec (behavioral definition + threshold + validation plan)
4) “First 30 seconds” experience spec (magic moment + success criteria)
5) “First mile” onboarding plan (milestones to activation; mechanics per milestone)
6) Experiment backlog (prioritized) + 3–5 experiment cards
7) Measurement + instrumentation plan (events, properties, dashboards, guardrails)
8) Rollout/rollback + risk plan
9) Risks / Open questions / Next steps (always included)

Templates and checklists:
- [references/TEMPLATES.md](references/TEMPLATES.md)
- [references/WORKFLOW.md](references/WORKFLOW.md)
- [references/CHECKLISTS.md](references/CHECKLISTS.md)
- [references/RUBRIC.md](references/RUBRIC.md)

## Workflow (7 steps)

### 1) Intake + goal framing (activation-first)
- **Inputs:** User prompt; [references/INTAKE.md](references/INTAKE.md).
- **Actions:** Define the primary segment and the activation outcome. Make the goal measurable (baseline → target, date). Capture constraints and guardrails (e.g., don’t increase drop-off, don’t add dark patterns).
- **Outputs:** Context snapshot + goal statement.
- **Checks:** Goal is one sentence with a metric, baseline, target, and date.

### 2) Map the current first-time journey (FTUE)