How to Create the Best Product Onboarding Checklists (4 Examples)

Seven product onboarding checklists appear in the screenshots below, captured in 2022, and they agree on more than most advice articles do. Six have four or five tasks. Four count a step the user already took at signup as the first tick. And one builder screenshot shows the detail most guides skip: a task that ticks itself when the product records the event ("project created is true"), not when the user clicks the item.

This post is about the checklist widget your users see. If you're after the list of work your team should finish before onboarding ships, that's our user onboarding checklist for product teams.

What is a product onboarding checklist?

A product onboarding checklist is an in-app widget that lists the few tasks a new user should complete to reach their first result in the product, and marks each one off as it's done. The user always sees how much is left and what to do next, and can reopen the list after leaving.

A product onboarding checklist does three jobs a product tour can't. It's self-paced: users pick the order and come back to it across sessions. It shows progress, which gives people a reason to finish. And it doubles as a map of what the product is for, because the tasks name the core actions. The result it leads to should be your activation event, the aha moment where a new user first gets value.

What do good product onboarding checklists look like? 4 examples

The four products below each made a different decision well. The task counts and wording come from the screenshots, so they describe each checklist at the time it was captured, not necessarily today.

1. Asana: a head start and a short list

Asana is a project management tool for teams. Its checklist, titled "On the right track!", had five tasks, and it popped up with the first one (create your project) already marked done. Asana's signup flow asked new users to name a first project, so the checklist credited work they'd just done; by the time of the screenshot the second task, sorting tasks into columns, was greyed out too.

The three tasks left were concrete: add at least 8 tasks, set due dates, assign tasks to share the project. Each is a number or an action, not "explore boards". Our library has a later version of Asana's onboarding checklist, which sat among the dashboard widgets and ended with a congratulations message.

2. Sked Social: plain words and a way out

Sked Social is a social media scheduler built around Instagram, used by brands, agencies and creators. Its checklist, "Let's start with the basics", had five tasks, and "Account Created" was ticked from the start.

The copy is informal and short, with an emoji on most items, which fits an audience of content creators. Two details matter more than the tone. The tasks follow the order a new user needs (connect Instagram, upload, schedule a first post), and a "Maybe later" link lets users put the list away without feeling they've failed it.

3. Evernote: the first task is the core feature

Long checklists get abandoned halfway, usually because the first task feels like work with no payoff. Evernote's fix was to make the first task the product's core action and make it quick: "Create your first note".

Evernote's "Getting started" panel had four tasks under a progress bar. Once the user wrote a note, the first item was crossed out and the bar moved. The remaining tasks (set a reminder, save web articles, sync to your phone and computer) each introduce one more reason to keep using it.

4. StoryChief: progress when the list is long

StoryChief, a content marketing platform, had the longest list here: eight tasks, from inviting a colleague to choosing a plan. It handled the length with a progress bar and a percentage ("You are almost there! 25% completed") on the dashboard's home screen.

If your product needs more than five setup steps, a visible percentage keeps the list from looking endless. The alternative is to split it: a short checklist for the first session, and a second one that appears once the first is finished.

How do you build a product onboarding checklist?

Building a product onboarding checklist comes down to seven decisions, made in this order:

1. Pick the one result the checklist leads to. Usually your activation event. Every task has to move the user towards it.
2. Work back to four or five tasks. Drop anything not needed for that result (profile photos, notification settings). If you can't get under six, split the list.
3. Make each task tick itself from a product event. The Userflow builder screenshot below shows a task marked complete "if project created is true". A task the user can tick by clicking it records intent, not use.
4. Give a head start. Count a step from signup as done (Asana, Sked Social, Userflow's and Userpilot's demo checklists all did) so the bar starts above zero.
5. Attach an action to every task. A click should open the right screen or start a short guided tour. Flourish's checklist launched an interactive guide from each item.
6. Let users dismiss it and find it again. Sked Social's "Maybe later", Appcues's "No, thanks" and the "Dismiss" links in the Userflow and Userpilot demos all do this.
7. Decide what 100% does. Celebrate once, then remove the widget. Track completion per task too, so you can see which one stalls people.

Which tools build in-app onboarding checklists?

All four tools that appeared in the first version of this post include checklists on every plan, according to their pricing pages in October 2026. They differ in price model and in how many checklists the entry plan allows.

Prices and trials are from each pricing page, read on 19 October 2026; G2 ratings were read the same day. The screenshots under each tool are from 2022 and show how each one presented checklists then.

Appcues

Appcues is a no-code onboarding tool; its checklists are task-based activation lists that guide users through setup, and its feature page at the time demonstrated them with a live checklist.

Of the 294 G2 reviews of Appcues we read, 186 praised how easy it is to use and 86 mentioned missing features.

Userflow

Userflow builds checklists the same way as its other flows, including checklists embedded in your own pages. Its help article at the time showed the task anatomy in full: a name, a line of explanation, a completion condition and an action that starts when the task is clicked.

Of the 125 G2 reviews of Userflow we read, 99 praised ease of use and 28 mentioned missing features.

UserGuiding

UserGuiding is a no-code onboarding tool for web products; checklists sit alongside its product tours, hotspots and surveys. The Starter plan allows one active checklist at a time, which matters if you want separate lists for different user segments.

Of the 299 G2 reviews of UserGuiding we read, 164 praised ease of use and 61 mentioned missing features.

Userpilot

Userpilot is a product growth platform for product and customer success teams, with in-app checklists on every plan. Its help centre at the time used its own setup as the demo: a four-task checklist that started at 50%, with account creation and the Chrome extension install already ticked.

Of the 300 G2 reviews of Userpilot we read, 166 praised ease of use and 97 mentioned a learning curve or hard-to-find settings.

Customer quotes on a vendor's own site are chosen by the vendor. For an independent read, compare the review themes above, or line the tools up in our price comparison.