Brief: Usability research on a B2B onboarding flow. 6 participants — mid-level product managers. Interview transcripts, 45–60 min each.
Executive summary: Onboarding fails not at the technical level but at the expectation level. Participants arrived expecting to configure a tool; the product expected them to explore one. Six of six described some version of "I didn't know what I was supposed to do first."
Key theme — the empty state is the crisis point: Every participant encountered an empty dashboard after setup. None found it inviting. Five described it as either "blank" or "intimidating." The tool has no concept of a "starter workflow."
Design implication: Make the import prominent. The behaviour that predicts retention — importing a real project — is buried. Surface it as the first option in the empty state, above "start from scratch."
Full report includes executive summary, 5 key themes, tensions, and design implications.