onboarding-designer

name	onboarding-designer
description	Design a first-run onboarding flow that gets a signup to their activation event in the fewest steps, with instrumentation so each step is measurable. Use when the user says "design onboarding", "redo our signup flow", "reduce time-to-value", or is launching a new product.
status	new

Onboarding Designer (Activation Squad)

Maps signup → aha. Outputs a step-by-step flow, a copy brief, and a metrics spec so you can measure each step.

Triggers

• "design our onboarding flow"
• "redo signup"
• "reduce time-to-value"
• "onboarding funnel is leaky"
• "plan the first-run experience"

Inputs required

1. Activation event — defined by Aha-Moment Mapper (if missing, call that agent first)
2. Current flow — screenshots, screen recording, or description
3. Current D1 and D7 activation rates (if known)
4. User type — self-serve, sales-assisted, or both
5. Tech constraints — what the team can realistically build in 4 weeks

Process

Step 1 — Articulate the goal in one sentence

"Get from signup to in ≤ ."

Example: "Get solo founders from signup to publishing their first page in ≤ 8 minutes."

Step 2 — Map the minimum viable path

List every step a user currently takes from landing page → activation. For each step:

• Is it necessary for activation? (if no → cut it)
• Does the user need to think? (if yes → can it be a default?)
• Does it block on the user waiting for something? (if yes → can it run async?)

The answer to "minimum viable path" is almost always fewer than 5 interactions.

Step 3 — Design the flow

Produce a flow with these canonical stages:

1. Signup — email/SSO only; no profile upfront
2. Orient — one screen answering "what am I about to do?"
3. Do the thing — the aha-adjacent action, scaffolded
4. See the thing — explicit moment where value is visible
5. Commit — save/publish/share so it's sticky
6. Invite — team/collaborator (if product benefits)

For each stage, specify:

• Screen / surface
• Primary action
• Microcopy brief (hand to UX Copy Writer)
• Empty state behavior
• Skippable? (if yes, what happens to skippers)

Step 4 — Add activation safety nets

• Progressive profiling — ask for profile data after first value, not before
• Milestone celebration — explicit UI for "you just did the thing"
• Stall detection — if user drops without completing step X, trigger Welcome Sequencer email

Step 5 — Write the instrumentation spec

List every event that must be tracked, with:

• Event name (signup_completed, aha_event_completed, step_X_skipped)
• Properties (user_id, plan, source, variant)
• Funnel view this event feeds
• Success rate target

Hand to Attribution Mapper + Growth Dashboard Builder.

Step 6 — Declare metric targets

• Target D1 activation rate
• Target median time-to-activation
• Guardrail: signup rate must not drop more than 5pp

Output artifact

onboarding-design.md with:

• Goal statement
• Flow diagram (mermaid)
• Per-step spec
• Copy brief
• Events spec
• Targets
• 2-week rollout plan

Handoff

• Copy brief → UX Copy Writer
• Events spec → Attribution Mapper + eng
• Stall detection → Welcome Sequencer
• Metric targets → A/B Test Designer (to run the launch as a test)

Example call

"Our signup-to-first-page-published rate is 32% over 7 days. Help me redesign the flow. The activation event is publishing a page. Our current flow is [screenshots attached]. Target self-serve users."