3 builders who never spoke to each other

Walk new users through stripped-down setup pages

Rather than dropping people into the app behind a tour of tooltips, give them single-purpose pages with the navigation removed that complete the essential setup first, so they never meet an empty screen. Shrink the very first ask to something like one keystroke, use empty states to teach rather than to show a mock-up, plant rough screencasts wherever a question is likely, and turn what your best customers built into a template new arrivals can start from.

The method

1. 01

   Instead of dropping new signups into the app behind a tour of tooltips, walk them through single-purpose pages stripped of navigation that complete the essential setup steps first, so they never meet an empty screen.

2. 02

   Use empty states to teach people how to fill them rather than showing a fashionable grey placeholder mock-up of the populated screen.

3. 03

   Shrink the first thing you ask a new user to do down to one keystroke, then let a guided tour take over.

4. 04

   Record crude screencasts and plant them throughout the interface, prompting people to watch a walkthrough of whatever is on the screen in front of them, ugly as that looks.

5. 05

   Close the loop by turning what your standout customers built into a reusable template, or failing that a short how-to, that new customers can start from.

What it returned

• The author says this hand-holding does wonders for getting people to the milestone where the product starts delivering value

• When a Storemapper customer's location list is empty the page shows an embedded video explaining how to add or upload store data, which the author concedes is ugly but says works remarkably well at pre-empting questions

• The advice to a first-time user is to type two angle brackets and make one flashcard, with a demo and an interactive tour a click away.

• Made using Screenflow and YouTube inside a couple of hours; getting ahead of questions like whether a capability exists both lifted conversion and reduced support load

Sources

• From knowledge-management to knowledge-creation with RemNoteMartin Schneider · nesslabs.com · From knowledge-management to knowledge-creation with the founders of RemNote · 2022-01-20
• How I custom-built my online course (tech stack, onboarding, costs, screenshots) - Rob HopeRob Hope · robhope.com · User Journey Experience · 2025-05-29
• Micro-SaaS Ebook: Retention & SupportTyler Tringas · tylertringas.com · Tactics: Automate Empathy · 2017-07-31
• Idea Pad: Guest starring customer templates - Tyler TringasTyler Tringas · tylertringas.com · 2019-01-04
• Storemapper: Bootstrapped to $50,000/year in 2 years (with live metrics) - Tyler TringasTyler Tringas · tylertringas.com · Automate common on-boarding support requests (worked) · 2014-08-23
• That strange feeling when everything sort of seems to be workingCory Zue · coryzue.com · Product Updates · 2018-09-30