Why We Rebuilt the Onboarding Checklist Around Your First Tenancy
Why We Rebuilt the Onboarding Checklist Around Your First Tenancy
Release v0.1.107 · Usability
When a new user signs up, the first thing they see after logging in is the onboarding checklist. It's a small component, but it carries a lot of weight — it tells the user what matters, what to do next, and implicitly, what the product is for.
In v0.1.107 we changed it.
The problem with the old checklist
The previous checklist presented five steps in this order:
- Complete Profile
- Upload Logo
- Choose Brand Color
- Invite Teammate
- Set Up Billing
Steps 2 and 3 — logo upload and brand colour — are product customisation settings. They have nothing to do with whether a tenancy is managed fairly, a deposit is handled correctly, or a check-in report gets produced. A letting agency that spends its first fifteen minutes picking a hex code has not yet seen what this platform does.
Worse: the checklist contained none of the three actions that form the platform's core workflow. A brand new user could complete every item on the list and still not know how to add a property, create a tenancy, or run a check-in.
The new checklist
Starting in v0.1.107, the onboarding checklist reflects the critical path:
| Step | Action |
|---|---|
| 1 | Add your first property |
| 2 | Create a tenancy |
| 3 | Run a check-in report |
| 4 | Invite a teammate |
| 5 | Set up billing |
This sequence matches the minimum viable workflow for the platform: you need a property before you can have a tenancy, a tenancy before you can run a check-in, and a check-in before you can manage a deposit fairly at the end of the tenancy. Each step is a prerequisite for the next. That's what a good onboarding checklist should communicate.
Where brand customisation went
Logo upload and brand colour selection haven't been removed — they've been moved to Settings > Organization, where they belong. They're available whenever a user wants them, but they're no longer positioned as urgent first actions.
Consistency with the Work Queue
The Work Queue already shows an EmptyPortfolioState that guides users through the same three-step flow: add a property, create a tenancy, run a check-in. The updated checklist now aligns with that guidance, so new users see a consistent message across the product regardless of where they land first.
The onboarding checklist is defined in src/components/onboarding-checklist.tsx.