What should be included in an onboarding checklist?

An effective onboarding checklist includes: welcome experience, core feature discovery, first value moment, progress tracking, account setup, team collaboration prompts, integration setup, and success verification. Focus on actions that correlate with retention.

How many steps should an onboarding checklist have?

Keep user-facing checklists to 5-7 items maximum. Internal onboarding checklists (for your team to verify) can be longer. Users abandon long checklists—prioritize the actions most correlated with activation and cut everything else.

What is the best onboarding checklist format?

The best format is a persistent widget (sidebar or bottom corner) that shows progress and can be minimized. Users should see it across sessions. Include clear task names, progress indicators, and completion rewards. Make tasks clickable to start them.

How do I track onboarding checklist completion?

Connect checklist items to actual product events using your analytics or onboarding tool. Track completion rates, time-to-complete, and which items get stuck. Correlate checklist completion with retention to validate item selection.

Should onboarding checklists be required?

No—forcing checklist completion frustrates power users and creates friction. Make checklists visible and valuable, but skippable. The exception is compliance or security requirements where you genuinely need verification before access.

User Onboarding Checklist Template: 27 Essential Items

Building effective user onboarding requires attention to dozens of details. Miss a critical step, and users might churn before ever experiencing your product's value.

This checklist template covers every aspect of user onboarding—from initial welcome to long-term engagement. Use it as a framework to audit your current onboarding or build a new experience from scratch.

How to Use This Checklist

This template serves two purposes:

Internal planning checklist: For your team to ensure you've covered all bases
User-facing inspiration: Ideas for what to include in your product's visible checklist

Not everything applies to every product. Select what's relevant, adapt the language, and make it yours.

Pre-Onboarding Preparation

Before users ever sign up, set the stage for success:

1. Define Your Activation Metric

[ ] Identify the specific action that correlates with retention
[ ] Validate with data that activated users retain better
[ ] Ensure the metric is measurable in your analytics
[ ] Get team alignment on this definition

2. Map the User Journey

[ ] Document steps from signup to activation
[ ] Identify common paths and edge cases
[ ] Note decision points where users might get lost
[ ] Catalog existing friction points from support tickets and user research

3. Establish Baseline Metrics

[ ] Current signup-to-activation conversion rate
[ ] Average time to activation
[ ] Step-by-step funnel completion rates
[ ] Retention curves by activation status

4. Prepare Your Tech Stack

[ ] Select or build onboarding tools
[ ] Integrate with analytics for event tracking
[ ] Set up A/B testing capability
[ ] Ensure user property passing works

Welcome Experience Checklist

The first 30 seconds after signup:

5. Welcome Modal/Screen

[ ] Personalized greeting (use their name)
[ ] Clear value proposition reminder
[ ] Goal/role selection if personalizing experience
[ ] Single, obvious primary action
[ ] Design matches product aesthetic

6. Account Verification (if required)

[ ] Email verification flow is frictionless
[ ] Allow product access before verification (if possible)
[ ] Clear feedback when verification completes
[ ] Handle edge cases (typos, expired links)

7. Initial Personalization

[ ] Collect minimal required info (less is more)
[ ] Explain why you're asking
[ ] Use progressive profiling for additional data
[ ] Provide smart defaults for skipped fields

First Session Experience

Getting users to value in their first sitting:

8. Product Tour

[ ] 5-7 steps maximum
[ ] Focuses on core workflow, not all features
[ ] Each step drives an action
[ ] Ends with user accomplishing something
[ ] Clear navigation (back, next, skip)
[ ] Exit always possible
[ ] Matches product styling

9. First Action Guidance

[ ] Clear prompt for what to do first
[ ] Pre-filled templates or examples available
[ ] Quick win achievable in under 3 minutes
[ ] Celebration when first action completes

10. Empty States

[ ] All empty states have helpful content
[ ] Clear CTAs to create first items
[ ] Sample data or templates available
[ ] No dead ends or blank screens

11. Progress Tracking

[ ] Visible checklist or progress indicator
[ ] Shows completed and remaining tasks
[ ] Accessible from anywhere in product
[ ] Rewards or feedback on completion

Core Feature Discovery

Ensuring users find what they need:

12. Feature Highlighting

[ ] Core features are prominently discoverable
[ ] Tooltips explain non-obvious elements
[ ] Beacon/pulse draws attention to key areas
[ ] Feature discovery spaced over time, not all at once

13. Contextual Help

[ ] Help content available where users need it
[ ] Tooltips are concise and actionable
[ ] Links to deeper documentation available
[ ] Search works in help content

14. Shortcuts and Efficiency

[ ] Keyboard shortcuts documented
[ ] Power user tips introduced gradually
[ ] Bulk actions explained when relevant
[ ] Templates save repetitive work

For products with team features:

15. Team Invitation

[ ] Prompt to invite teammates at right moment
[ ] Simple invitation flow (email invite works)
[ ] Show value of collaboration (e.g., "Projects with 2+ members are 3x more likely to succeed")
[ ] Provide invitation templates

[ ] Clear explanation of who sees what
[ ] Easy sharing of specific items
[ ] Permission levels explained simply
[ ] Onboard invited users effectively

Integration Setup

Connecting with other tools:

17. Key Integrations

[ ] Surface most popular integrations early
[ ] Explain value of connecting other tools
[ ] Simple OAuth or one-click connection
[ ] Verify connection works with test

18. Data Import

[ ] Offer import from competitors/common tools
[ ] Clear instructions for manual import
[ ] Progress indicator for long imports
[ ] Validation and error handling for bad data

Ongoing Engagement

Beyond the first session:

19. Email Sequences

[ ] Welcome email sends immediately
[ ] Follow-up emails triggered by behavior
[ ] Emails complement (not repeat) in-app experience
[ ] Clear unsubscribe option
[ ] Frequency is respectful

20. Return Visit Prompts

[ ] Notifications for important updates
[ ] Daily/weekly digest options
[ ] Re-engagement for inactive users
[ ] Deep links to relevant content

21. Advanced Feature Education

[ ] Secondary features introduced after core adoption
[ ] "Did you know?" style tips
[ ] Feature announcement for new releases
[ ] Best practices content available

Support and Recovery

When users struggle:

22. Help Access

[ ] Help accessible from anywhere in product
[ ] Chat/support contact visible
[ ] FAQ or common questions prominent
[ ] Community/forum option available

23. Error Recovery

[ ] Error messages are helpful, not just descriptive
[ ] Suggest solutions, not just problems
[ ] Easy way to contact support from errors
[ ] Logging captures context for debugging

24. Stuck User Intervention

[ ] Identify users who haven't progressed
[ ] Automated outreach to stuck users
[ ] Offer live help or consultation
[ ] Provide escape hatch resources

Success Verification

Confirming onboarding worked:

25. Activation Tracking

[ ] Monitor activation rate daily
[ ] Track cohort performance over time
[ ] Alert on significant metric changes
[ ] Segment by user properties

26. Qualitative Feedback

[ ] NPS or satisfaction survey after onboarding
[ ] Open-ended feedback opportunity
[ ] User interviews scheduled regularly
[ ] Support feedback loop established

27. Iteration Planning

[ ] Regular onboarding review meetings
[ ] Backlog of improvement ideas
[ ] A/B tests running continuously
[ ] Competitive teardowns periodically

User-Facing Checklist Template

Here's an example of what users might see in your product:

Simple SaaS Checklist

✓ Complete your profile
○ Create your first [item]
○ Invite a team member
○ Set up your first [workflow]
○ Connect [popular integration]

3 of 5 complete — 2 more steps to unlock [reward]!

Project Management Checklist

✓ Welcome! Your account is ready
✓ Create your first project
○ Add 3 tasks to your project
○ Assign a task to someone
○ Mark a task complete
○ Share your project with your team

4 of 6 complete — Finish for a special template pack!

Marketing Tool Checklist

✓ Connect your domain
✓ Import contacts
○ Create your first campaign
○ Set up automation trigger
○ Send test email
○ Launch your first campaign

Complete setup for unlimited templates →

Checklist Design Best Practices

Keep It Short

5-7 items maximum. Users abandon long checklists. Be ruthless about prioritization.

Make It Visible

Use a persistent widget visible across the product. Don't bury it in settings.

Connect to Real Actions

Each item should complete automatically when users take the action in your product.

Provide Quick Wins

Include at least one easy item users can complete immediately.

Celebrate Completion

Mark items complete with animation. Celebrate full checklist completion meaningfully.

Make Items Clickable

Each item should deep-link to where users complete that action.

Show Progress

Visual progress bar motivates completion. "3 of 5" is better than just checkboxes.

Allow Hiding

Let users minimize or hide the checklist. Forced visibility breeds resentment.

Common Mistakes

Too Many Items

Avoid the temptation to add "just one more thing." Every addition makes completion less likely.

Vanity Tasks

"Complete your profile" only matters if profile completion correlates with retention. Cut non-essential items.

Poor Sequencing

Tasks should build on each other. Don't ask users to share before they've created anything.

No Real Tracking

Checklists that require manual check-off don't reflect reality. Connect to actual events.

Ignoring Data

Track which items users skip or get stuck on. Iterate based on evidence.

Measuring Checklist Effectiveness

Completion Rate

What percentage of users complete all checklist items?

Target: 40%+ for a well-designed checklist

Item Completion Rates

Which specific items do users complete or skip?

Action: Investigate low-completion items for friction

Time to Complete

How long does full checklist completion take?

Target: Under 15 minutes for initial checklist

Retention Correlation

Do checklist completers retain at higher rates?

Validation: If not, reconsider item selection

Implementation Tools

Ways to build your checklist:

No-Code Options

Jelliflow: AI-powered checklists with automatic event tracking
Appcues: Checklist component with basic analytics
Userflow: Template-based approach

Code-It-Yourself

Store completion state in user profile
Track events that satisfy each item
Build UI component that displays progress
Implement celebration animations

Hybrid Approach

Use no-code tool for rapid iteration, then rebuild custom when pattern is proven.

Download and Customize

Take this checklist template and make it yours:

Audit: Compare against your current onboarding
Prioritize: Select items most relevant to your product
Customize: Rewrite for your specific use case
Implement: Build what you're missing
Measure: Track impact and iterate

The best onboarding checklist is the one that actually gets used—by your team to build great experiences, and by users to find success in your product.