onboarding-optimization

onboarding-optimization is a product-growth playbook for improving an app's first-run experience to maximize activation — the moment a new user completes the core action that predicts long-term retention. It targets common problems like high Day 1 drop-off, low activation, and poorly timed permission or sign-up asks, and it draws a sharp distinction between activation and mere sign-up, providing a table of activation events by app type (fitness, productivity, social, finance, games, meditation, photo/video).

The skill delivers a structured audit framework: map every screen from app open to activation and flag each as required, value-adding, or friction-only; score screens on necessity, timing, value exchange, and cognitive load; and apply permission-prompt timing rules (ask for push after activation, location and camera contextually, tracking/ATT only after the user is invested, always preceded by a native-looking pre-permission explanation screen). It addresses sign-up friction with recommendations to defer registration, add Sign in with Apple/Google, and offer guest mode, and it presents three onboarding patterns (value-first, personalization-first, social-first) plus funnel benchmarks, personalization-question rules, and guidance on paywall placement. It closes with concrete output templates for an onboarding audit and permission-screen copy, and cross-links retention, monetization, analytics, and A/B testing skills.

It is aimed at product managers, growth teams, and app developers who want to raise activation and Day 1 retention, reduce onboarding friction, and time permission and paywall asks for higher conversion.