{"id":2183,"date":"2022-03-25T23:33:19","date_gmt":"2022-03-25T23:33:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/userpilot.com\/blog\/user-onboarding-checklist-tips\/"},"modified":"2026-04-07T12:26:19","modified_gmt":"2026-04-07T12:26:19","slug":"user-onboarding-checklist-tips","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/userpilot.com\/blog\/user-onboarding-checklist-tips\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Create a User Onboarding Checklist [+ Tips and Examples]"},"content":{"rendered":"

One of the best features you can hope to find with the user onboarding software<\/a> you’ve chosen is a checklist. Having a user onboarding<\/a> checklist will make it easier for users to find the next step and ensure that they don’t drop off before hitting their activation point.<\/p>\n

In this article, we’ll go over why you should build user onboarding checklists, how to create one, and tips that can help you through the process!<\/p>\n

Why should you build user onboarding checklists?<\/h2>\n

You should build user onboarding checklists to minimize confusion, guide your users through the onboarding flow, and give them a structured roadmap to ensure they don’t skip any important steps or fail to discover core features.<\/p>\n

How to create an onboarding checklist?<\/h2>\n

Creating your onboarding checklist<\/a> doesn’t have to feel like rocket science since you can boil the entire process down into five steps:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Define the goals of what you want to achieve with the checklist<\/li>\n
  2. Map out the entire user journey and all related touchpoints<\/li>\n
  3. Identify the sequence of onboarding tasks for new users<\/li>\n
  4. Create onboarding content for each checklist task<\/li>\n
  5. Analyze results and optimize through iteration<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Let’s take a closer look at each of these steps in the sections below!<\/p>\n

    Define your onboarding checklist’s goal<\/h3>\n

    First and foremost, you need to figure out what you’re trying to achieve by creating an onboarding checklist. Are there any crucial actions that users should take or key features that they need to discover to fully experience the value that your product provides?<\/p>\n

    How do those milestones change across different user personas or use cases?<\/p>\n

    Answering these questions will give you the foundation for your onboarding checklist goals. If you’re still struggling to put everything together, you can use a goal-setting framework<\/a> to organize the objectives in a specific and measurable way.<\/p>\n

    This will help you list down the “why, how, and what” of your onboarding checklist:<\/p>\n

    \"why,<\/picture>
    Why, how, and what goal-setting framework.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

    Map out the user journey and important touchpoints<\/h3>\n

    Now that you’ve outlined the objectives for your onboarding checklist, it’s time to map out the customer journey<\/a> itself along with all the relevant touchpoints that it’s comprised of. You should highlight particularly important moments in the user journey, so you know where to focus your efforts.<\/p>\n

    The Aha! moment<\/a> is the point where users begin to understand the core function of your product and the value that it provides. In contrast, the activation point<\/a> is the event that occurs when users actually experience that value for themselves.<\/p>\n

    These paramount moments will set the groundwork for your onboarding tasks since all your checklist needs to do is walk them through each step and guide them toward the next milestone in their journey. Here’s our user activation playbook that you can use as a starting point:<\/p>\n

    \"User<\/picture>
    User activation onboarding playbook.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

    Build a list of onboarding tasks in a sequential order<\/h3>\n

    Now that you know what your goals are and where customers need to end up for that to happen, it’s time to list down the actual onboarding tasks (in sequence) that have to occur. This list should be structured in order of when they’ll be accomplished hen divided into distinct steps.<\/p>\n

    Your onboarding tasks may look something like this:<\/p>\n