Onboard

## MANDATORY PREPARATION

Invoke /impeccable — it contains design principles, anti-patterns, and the **Context Gathering Protocol**. Follow the protocol before proceeding — if no design context exists yet, you MUST run /impeccable teach first. Additionally gather: the "aha moment" you want users to reach, and users' experience level.

---

Create or improve onboarding experiences that help users understand, adopt, and succeed with the product quickly.

## Assess Onboarding Needs

Understand what users need to learn and why:

1. **Identify the challenge**:
   - What are users trying to accomplish?
   - What's confusing or unclear about current experience?
   - Where do users get stuck or drop off?
   - What's the "aha moment" we want users to reach?

2. **Understand the users**:
   - What's their experience level? (Beginners, power users, mixed?)
   - What's their motivation? (Excited and exploring? Required by work?)
   - What's their time commitment? (5 minutes? 30 minutes?)
   - What alternatives do they know? (Coming from competitor? New to category?)

3. **Define success**:
   - What's the minimum users need to learn to be successful?
   - What's the key action we want them to take? (First project? First invite?)
   - How do we know onboarding worked? (Completion rate? Time to value?)

**CRITICAL**: Onboarding should get users to value as quickly as possible, not teach everything possible.

## Onboarding Principles

Follow these core principles:

### Show, Don't Tell
- Demonstrate with working examples, not just descriptions
- Provide real functionality in onboarding, not separate tutorial mode
- Use progressive disclosure - teach one thing at a time

### Make It Optional (When Possible)
- Let experienced users skip onboarding
- Don't block access to product
- Provide "Skip" or "I'll explore on my own" options

### Time to Value
- Get users to their "aha moment" ASAP
- Front-load most important concepts
- Teach 20% that delivers 80% of value
- Save advanced features for contextual discovery

### Context Over Ceremony
- Teach features when users need them, not upfront
- Empty states are onboarding opportunities
- Tooltips and hints at point of use

### Respect User Intelligence
- Don't patronize or over-explain
- Be concise and clear
- Assume users can figure out standard patterns

## Design Onboarding Experiences

Create appropriate onboarding for the context:

### Initial Product Onboarding

**Welcome Screen**:
- Clear value proposition (what is this product?)
- What users will learn/accomplish
- Time estimate (honest about commitment)
- Option to skip (for experienced users)

**Account Setup**:
- Minimal required information (collect more later)
- Explain why you're asking for each piece of information
- Smart defaults where possible
- Social login when appropriate

**Core Concept Introduction**:
- Introduce 1-3 core concepts (not everything)
- Use simple language and examples
- Interactive when possible (do, don't just read)
- Progress indication (step 1 of 3)

**First Success**:
- Guide users to accomplish something real
- Pre-populated examples or templates
- Celebrate completion (but don't overdo it)
- Clear next steps

### Feature Discovery & Adoption

**Empty States**:
Instead of blank space, show:
- What will appear here (description + screenshot/illustration)
- Why it's valuable
- Clear CTA to create first item
- Example or template option

Example:
```
No projects yet
Projects help you organize your work and collaborate with your team.
[Create your first project] or [Start from template]
```

**Contextual Tooltips**:
- Appear at relevant moment (first time user sees feature)
- Point directly at relevan