Onboarding Activation Audit

Goal

Audit the path from first entry to meaningful activation: public entry, signup/login, first-run state, workspace/project setup, permissions, plan gates, sample data, checklist/progress, handoff into core workflow, and activation measurement. Keep only issues supported by repository evidence.

Inspect

Public routes, auth flows, onboarding routes/components, empty states, setup wizards, workspace/project/team creation, invitations, plan/trial/quota gates, seed/demo/sample data, emails/notifications, analytics events, feature flags, docs, tests, and navigation maps.

Issue classes

• Entry-to-value continuity: unclear next step, dead ends after signup/login, missing first-run state, inconsistent redirect, setup steps not aligned with core workflow.
• Setup correctness: workspace/project/team/role/plan context not established, sample data conflicts with permissions, incomplete defaults, or invalid states after partial setup.
• Activation clarity: checklist/progress/CTA copy does not match implemented behavior, success state lacks next step, upgrade/trial/no-access states block without explanation.
• Recovery: failed invite/payment/setup/import/integration states lose user input or do not provide a safe retry path.
• Measurement: activation-critical events missing, duplicated, fired before success, leaking PII, or impossible to connect to funnel state using existing instrumentation patterns.
• Regression resistance: no tests/previews for primary first-run path, stale docs, or route guards that make onboarding fragile.

Finding quality

• Include affected role/plan/tenant state, expected behavior, acceptance criteria, and validation direction.
• Merge symptoms that share the same onboarding owner/source of truth.

Handoff

Start with a specific new/returning actor and initial setup/plan/tenant state. Follow the actual entry, setup commits, next-step navigation and defined activation outcome, including one partial/failure path. Pass the lost state or broken handoff, authoritative owner and observable completion criterion to Improve Onboarding Activation. A checklist completion event is not proof of meaningful value unless the product defines it that way.