onboard | Impeccable

When to use it

/impeccable onboard is for the moments that decide whether a new user sticks around: the first screen, the empty state, the setup flow, the product tour, the “what do I do now” gap. Reach for it when activation is weak, when new users drop off before reaching value, or when your product has empty states that say “no items yet” and stop there.

How it works

The command starts from one question: what is the aha moment, and how fast can a new user get there. Every design decision points at that moment.

It works across the surfaces that shape first impressions:

First-run experience: the moments immediately after sign-up. Should the user see a tour, a blank canvas, a filled example, or nothing at all. Pick the approach that matches the product.
Empty states: every zero-data screen gets oriented. Where am I, why is this empty, what do I do next, what will it look like once it is full.
Setup and installation: required configuration is minimized, defaults are smart, each step explains why it matters.
Progressive disclosure: advanced features stay out of the way until they are earned.
Activation events: the moment a user first experiences the core value is instrumented and celebrated, quietly.

The command resists two common failure modes: over-tutorialized onboarding where users click through a carousel before they can touch anything, and zero-onboarding where users are dropped into an empty app and expected to figure it out.

Try it

/impeccable onboard the editor

Typical output:

First-run: replaces empty editor with a filled example document the user can modify. Cancel button discards the example, edit replaces the content with the user’s work.
Empty state on document list: “No documents yet. Create your first, or import from Notion, Google Docs, or Markdown.”
Setup: reduced from 6 required fields to 1 (workspace name). Everything else has a smart default and can be edited later in settings.
Activation: the first time a user saves a document, a quiet toast says “Saved. Your work is in the cloud now.” One-time, not repeated.

Pitfalls

Adding a product tour as the default answer. Most products do not need a tour. They need a better first screen. Tours are a crutch.
Designing onboarding without defining the aha moment. If you cannot say in one sentence what the user should feel in the first 60 seconds, go back to /impeccable shape first.
Running onboard on a broken flow. Fix the flow first. Onboarding cannot rescue a product where the core action is broken.