The Setup Checklist
A short visible list of setup steps that tracks progress and survives leaving the page.
The problem it solves
Setup usually spans several sessions and several surfaces. Without a persistent record, users forget what they started and abandon halfway through.
Where a checklist stalls
A modal flow assumes the user will finish in one sitting. Real setup does not work that way. Someone connects a calendar, gets pulled into a meeting, and returns two days later with no memory of what remains. A checklist is the artefact that remembers for them.
It works because an incomplete list is uncomfortable to look at, and because progress accelerates as the end gets closer. Both effects depend on the list being short and the end being visible.
Rules that decide whether it works
- Between three and five items. Seven items reads as a chore list and gets dismissed.
- Every item names an outcome, not an admin task. Invite the person you work with most beats Add team members.
- Pre complete at least one item on arrival, usually account created, so the user starts above zero.
- Items complete themselves when the user does the thing anywhere in the product, not only from the checklist.
- The whole thing disappears at completion and can be dismissed before then, permanently.
The pre completed item is the cheapest thing on this list and the one most often skipped. Starting a five item list with one already ticked is a different experience from starting a four item list at zero, even though the remaining work is identical.
Chore list
- Complete your profile
- Add team members
- Explore integrations
- Read the documentation
- Upgrade your plan
Value list
- Connect the calendar you actually book from
- Invite the person who books meetings with you
- Publish your first booking link
- Take one real booking
Notice the last item on the right. It is not something the user does alone, and it is the only one that proves the product works. A checklist that stops at configuration leaves the user fully set up and still unconvinced.
Worked example
Hypothetical: a four step list
A team runs a four item list with the first item pre ticked. Of a hundred new accounts in this illustration, imagine that most who tick a second item go on to tick the rest, while those who leave the list at one rarely return to it. The shape to watch for is the step where the list stalls, because that single step is where the real product problem lives.
When it fits
- Setup that spans multiple sessions or multiple surfaces, such as connecting accounts and inviting people.
- Products where a few specific actions reliably separate accounts that stay from accounts that leave.
- Teams who can detect completion from real product events rather than from clicks on the checklist itself.
- B2B tools where setup involves waiting on someone else, so the list holds the thread across days.
When it backfires
- When items serve the company rather than the user, such as Upgrade your plan or Follow us, which teaches people to ignore the list.
- When it cannot be dismissed, so it follows every user forever as a permanent badge of incompleteness.
- When items only tick from inside the checklist, so a user who already did the thing is told they have not.
- When it hides a broken step: a list is a good way to find out that integration setup fails, and a bad way to fix it.
Products using it
Stripe
The dashboard has long shown an activation checklist covering business details, bank account and first charge, with progress persisting across sessions.
Shopify
New stores are given a setup guide with steps like adding a product and choosing a domain, tracked on the admin home.
Canva
Onboarding prompts group a few starter actions and mark them done as they are completed elsewhere in the editor.
The psychology under it
The takeaway
Keep the list to four outcome shaped items, tick one before the user arrives, and let the product complete the rest.
Finished the teardown? Bank it and the day counts toward your run.