# Onboarding flow

An onboarding flow is the sequence of screens, steps and prompts a new user goes through between signing up and completing the first meaningful task in a product, such as creating a first project or connecting a data source.

## What are the steps of a user onboarding flow?

A user onboarding flow usually runs through the same stages, whatever the product:

1. **Sign-up.** Email or single sign-on, as few fields as possible.
2. **Verification.** Confirming the email address, sometimes a phone number.
3. **Welcome and personalization.** A screen or a few questions about role and goal.
4. **Setup.** Creating a workspace, connecting an integration, importing data.
5. **First key action.** The task that delivers the first result: the first report, the first campaign sent, the first invoice paid.
6. **Team invite.** Bringing in colleagues, in products that are better shared.
7. **Follow-up.** Emails and prompts that bring the user back to finish what they left.

Not every flow needs every stage. The test for each step is simple: is it required to reach the first key action? If not, it belongs after it, or nowhere.

## Where do users drop off in an onboarding flow?

Users drop off where the flow asks for something they don't have at hand, or don't yet see the point of. The usual spots:

- **Email verification** placed before the user has seen the product.
- **A blank first screen** with nothing to act on.
- **An integration that needs someone else,** such as an admin or an API key from another team.
- **Data import,** especially when fields have to be mapped by hand.
- **The team invite** asked too early, before the user knows whether they'll keep the product.
- **A payment step** before any value.

To find yours, measure the share of users who reach each step, by sign-up cohort. The biggest single drop is where to start.

## How do you shorten an onboarding flow?

Take a CRM with a nine-step flow: sign up, verify email, five questions, create pipeline, define stages, import contacts, connect email, invite team, create first deal. The first deal is the first result, and it sits at step nine.

Four moves cut it down:

- **Delete.** Drop four of the five questions; keep the one that changes the setup.
- **Defer.** Move email verification and the team invite after the first deal.
- **Default.** Create a standard pipeline with common stages instead of asking the user to define them.
- **Do it for them.** Pre-fill the company from the sign-up domain and offer sample contacts, so the first deal can happen before any import.

The flow to first value is now four steps: sign up, one question, connect email, create first deal. The deferred steps still happen, just after the user has a reason to do them.

The last move is the one most flows underuse. An in-product agent can take it further, doing the setup steps with the user as they ask. Foldspace's Product Agent handles "do it for them" in the product, [calling the product's own APIs](https://docs.foldspace.ai/start/faq/) under the user's own access, so the steps that can't be cut don't have to be done alone.

## Learn more

- [Product Agent](/platform/product-agent)