Onboardly

Keep every customer onboarding on track without spreadsheet chaos.

Onboardly is a small B2B SaaS for managing customer onboarding checklists, tasks, owners, and due dates in one shared workspace. It helps customer success, implementation, and services teams replace scattered spreadsheets and manual follow-ups with a clear, status-driven onboarding process that clients and internal teams can trust.

Business Goals

  • Reach 10 paying teams within 90 days of launch with a self-serve trial-to-paid conversion rate of at least 12%.
  • Achieve 40% week-4 retention among activated workspaces within 6 months.
  • Keep monthly churn below 5% by making onboarding status visible and easy to maintain.
  • Reduce average time to first value to under 10 minutes from signup to first checklist created.
  • Drive 30% of new signups through referral or shared-link invites by month 6.

User Goals

  • Create a customer onboarding checklist in under 5 minutes.
  • Assign owners and due dates so nothing slips through the cracks.
  • Track each customer’s onboarding status at a glance.
  • Share a clear onboarding view with teammates and optionally with the customer.
  • Automatically remind people when tasks are overdue or blocked.

Non-Goals

  • Not a full CRM or sales pipeline tool.
  • Not a generic project management platform with unlimited workflow customization.
  • Not a customer support ticketing system or knowledge base.
  • Not designed for enterprise procurement workflows, multi-department approval chains, or complex billing automation in v1.

CS Manager Priya, 34 - Priya manages onboarding for 20 to 40 new customers per month across a small customer success team. She needs a simple way to standardize onboarding and keep leadership updated without building status reports manually.

CS Manager Priya, 34

  • As a CS manager, I want to create reusable onboarding templates, so that every new customer starts with the same baseline checklist.
  • As a CS manager, I want to see which onboardings are blocked or overdue, so that I can intervene before the customer experience suffers.
  • As a CS manager, I want to export onboarding status to a shareable report, so that I can update my team and leadership quickly.

Implementation Lead Marco, 41 - Marco owns technical onboarding for a services business and coordinates tasks across internal specialists and customer contacts. He needs clear ownership, dependencies, and reminders so handoffs do not get lost.

Implementation Lead Marco, 41

  • As an implementation lead, I want to assign tasks to internal teammates and customer contacts, so that responsibility is always clear.
  • As an implementation lead, I want to mark tasks as blocked with a reason, so that delays are visible and easy to explain.
  • As an implementation lead, I want automatic reminders for upcoming deadlines, so that I do not need to chase people manually.

Founder-Operator Lena, 29 - Lena runs a small agency software business and needs an inexpensive tool that can be set up quickly without admin overhead. She wants visibility into onboarding progress across all customers and a polished experience for clients.

Founder-Operator Lena, 29

  • As a founder, I want a quick way to clone a checklist for each new customer, so that onboarding starts immediately after a deal closes.
  • As a founder, I want to see a dashboard of all active onboardings, so that I can spot risk and bottlenecks early.
  • As a founder, I want customer-facing status sharing, so that clients know what is happening without emailing me.

Checklist Templates and Reusable Projects · High priority

  • Users must be able to create, save, and reuse onboarding templates for common customer types or plans.
  • Create templates with sections, tasks, due offsets, default owners, and required fields.
  • Clone a template into a new customer onboarding in one click.
  • Allow editing a specific customer onboarding without changing the source template.
  • Support template versioning so future updates do not break active onboardings.
  • Provide a starter template library for common onboarding motions such as SaaS implementation and agency kickoff.

Customer Onboarding Workspace · High priority

  • Each customer should have a dedicated onboarding record with status, tasks, notes, owners, and progress tracking.
  • Store customer name, plan, start date, target go-live date, and current stage.
  • Show a progress indicator based on completed tasks and overdue items.
  • Support statuses such as Not Started, In Progress, Blocked, Waiting on Customer, and Complete.
  • Allow internal notes and activity history on every onboarding record.
  • Surface overdue, due soon, and blocked items prominently.

Task Assignment, Reminders, and Notifications · High priority

  • The product should help teams execute work on time through assignments and automated nudges.
  • Assign each task to an internal user or external customer contact.
  • Send email reminders before due dates and after tasks become overdue.
  • Allow manual reminders and mention-style notifications in comments.
  • Support recurring reminder rules for tasks that routinely stall.
  • Provide a notification center so users can review what was sent and what needs attention.

Collaboration and Customer Sharing · Medium priority

  • Teams need a shared view for internal collaboration and a safe, limited view for customers when appropriate.
  • Allow internal team members to comment, mention teammates, and update statuses.
  • Generate a customer-facing shared link that shows only approved tasks and milestones.
  • Hide internal notes and private tasks from customer views.
  • Support invited guest users with limited permissions for key stakeholders.
  • Track who viewed or updated major onboarding items for accountability.

Reporting and Admin Controls · Medium priority

  • Managers need simple reporting and workspace controls without heavy setup.
  • Show dashboard metrics for active onboardings, overdue tasks, and average time to completion.
  • Filter by owner, customer segment, status, and date range.
  • Export CSV for customer list, tasks, and status history.
  • Provide role-based access for admin, member, and guest.
  • Support workspace settings for business hours, reminder timing, and branding.

Fast First Onboarding Setup

  • Sign up with email, Google, or Microsoft in under 30 seconds.
  • Choose a starter template for SaaS, agency, or create a custom checklist.
  • Add the first customer record with company name and target launch date.
  • Assign task owners and optionally invite teammates or customer contacts.
  • See a live onboarding board and first due dates immediately.
  • Time to first value target: create and share a first onboarding in under 10 minutes.

1. Create or Clone a Checklist

  • The user starts with a template or a blank checklist tailored to a customer type.
  • Validate required fields for template name and at least one task.
  • Warn when due dates are missing or unrealistic relative to the target go-live date.
  • Allow duplicate task names only if they are in different sections to reduce confusion.

2. Add a Customer Onboarding

  • The template is applied to a real customer record with dates, owners, and status.
  • Auto-calculate task due dates from offsets and the start date.
  • If the target launch date changes, offer to shift related task dates together or keep them fixed.
  • Show a preview before creation so users can catch missing owners or conflicts.

3. Execute Tasks and Coordinate Work

  • Team members update tasks, leave comments, and handle blockers in one place.
  • Support quick status changes from keyboard and inline controls.
  • Require a reason when marking a task blocked or waiting on customer.
  • Maintain an audit trail for status changes and comments.

4. Monitor Progress and Risk

  • Managers review the onboarding dashboard to spot delays and intervene early.
  • Highlight overdue tasks, blocked customers, and onboardings at risk based on stale activity.
  • Provide filters and sorting by owner, customer, and priority.
  • Show empty states that recommend next actions instead of blank screens.

5. Share Status and Close Out

  • When onboarding is complete, the team shares results and archives the record cleanly.
  • Allow a completion summary with dates, completed milestones, and open follow-ups.
  • Offer a customer-facing view link with read-only access.
  • Prevent archiving until required tasks are complete or explicitly waived.

Power User and Edge Case Features

  • Template versioning with safe migration for future onboardings.
  • Bulk import customers and tasks from CSV or Airtable exports.
  • Conditional tasks that appear only for certain plans, regions, or products.
  • Custom fields such as implementation owner, segment, renewal date, and integration type.
  • SLA-style escalation rules for overdue tasks and blocked milestones.
  • Guest access for customers with limited visibility and approval-only actions.

Clear, Calm, and Fast Interface

  • Use a status-first dashboard with strong color contrast and plain-language labels.
  • Keep task editing inline to reduce navigation and speed up updates.
  • Design for keyboard shortcuts, screen readers, and visible focus states.
  • Make empty, loading, and error states informative and actionable.
  • Optimize for quick scanning on desktop first, with responsive tablet support for customer calls.
  • Keep latency low enough that common interactions feel instant, ideally under 200 ms perceived response time for in-app updates.

Priya’s team at a growing SaaS company is juggling 18 customer onboardings in spreadsheets, Slack threads, and calendar reminders. Every week, someone misses a handoff, a customer asks for an update, and Priya spends an hour rebuilding status by hand.

With Onboardly, Priya starts from a reusable checklist template, creates a new onboarding in minutes, and assigns tasks to the right people with clear due dates. The dashboard shows exactly which customers are blocked or overdue, and automated reminders reduce the back-and-forth that used to consume her day.

A month later, Priya’s team is closing onboardings faster, customers have clearer visibility, and leadership finally has a trustworthy view of implementation progress. Onboardly turns a messy operational process into a repeatable system that improves delivery quality and protects revenue.

User-Centric Metrics

  • At least 80% of new customers have a checklist created within 1 business day.
  • Reduce average onboarding setup time to under 10 minutes.
  • At least 70% of users update task status weekly.
  • Reduce overdue task count by 30% within 60 days for active workspaces.
  • Achieve a customer-facing share-link usage rate of 25% among teams that onboard external stakeholders.

Business Metrics

  • 12%+ trial-to-paid conversion within the first 90 days.
  • 40%+ week-4 retention among activated workspaces.
  • Monthly churn below 5% after month 6.
  • Average revenue per workspace increases by 15% through multi-seat adoption and template usage.

Technical Metrics

  • 99.9% monthly uptime.
  • P95 API response time under 300 ms for core reads and under 500 ms for writes.
  • Zero critical security findings before launch and quarterly scans thereafter.
  • Automated backups completed daily with restore tests each month.

Tracking Plan

  • Track workspace_created to measure acquisition and activation.
  • Track template_created and template_cloned to measure setup behavior.
  • Track onboarding_created to measure first value and activation time.
  • Track task_assigned and task_completed to measure collaboration and execution.
  • Track task_overdue and onboarding_blocked to identify risk points.
  • Track share_link_created and share_link_viewed to measure customer-facing adoption.
  • Track workspace_upgraded to measure conversion from trial to paid.

Technical Needs

  • Frontend built with Next.js and TypeScript for fast UI iteration and agent-friendly code structure.
  • Backend API using Node.js with a typed framework such as NestJS or tRPC for end-to-end type safety.
  • PostgreSQL for relational data like customers, tasks, comments, templates, and audit logs.
  • Background job runner such as BullMQ or Temporal for scheduled reminders and escalations.
  • Authentication and authorization layer with role-based access control and guest permissions.
  • File and export handling for CSV import/export and branded PDF summaries.
  • Observability stack with structured logging, error monitoring, and product analytics.

Integration Points

  • Google Workspace authentication and calendar-friendly notifications.
  • Microsoft 365 authentication for B2B teams using Outlook and Entra ID.
  • SendGrid or Postmark for transactional email reminders.
  • Slack for task notifications and escalation alerts.
  • Stripe for subscriptions, trials, and billing management.

Data Storage & Privacy

  • Store customer records, comments, and notifications in encrypted PostgreSQL tables.
  • Use row-level access controls or equivalent workspace scoping to prevent cross-tenant leakage.
  • Support GDPR and CCPA requests for data export and deletion at the workspace level.
  • Minimize personally identifiable information in customer-facing shared links.
  • Log administrative access and critical changes in an immutable audit trail.

Scalability & Performance

  • Design for at least 1,000 workspaces with 50,000 total tasks before requiring architectural changes.
  • Use pagination and indexed filters for dashboard queries.
  • Queue reminder jobs so notification spikes do not slow the app.
  • Cache template lists and dashboard summaries for fast repeat views.

Potential Challenges

  • Customers may want highly custom workflow logic; mitigate by shipping conditional tasks and clear template constraints instead of a full rules engine in v1.
  • Shared customer links could leak internal information; mitigate with explicit visibility settings, guest-only views, and automated permission tests.
  • Reminder fatigue may cause users to ignore notifications; mitigate with digest options, quiet hours, and configurable escalation timing.
  • Template duplication can create data inconsistency; mitigate with template versioning and a clear separation between templates and active onboardings.
  • Multiple roles and guest access can complicate authorization; mitigate with a small, explicit permission model and comprehensive access tests.

Team & resourcing - Small team - 2 full-stack engineers, 1 product designer, part-time PM, and shared QA support.

Phase 1: MVP Foundation · Weeks 1–4

  • Authentication and workspace setup
  • Customer onboarding records
  • Basic checklist templates
  • Task assignment and status updates
  • Simple dashboard with active and overdue onboardings
  • Email reminders for due and overdue tasks

Phase 2: Collaboration and Visibility · Weeks 5–7

  • Comments and activity history
  • Guest customer-facing shared links
  • Role-based access controls
  • Filters, search, and CSV export
  • Notification center and manual reminders

Phase 3: Automation and Reporting · Weeks 8–10

  • Template cloning and versioning
  • Conditional tasks and bulk import
  • Escalation rules for overdue items
  • Manager reporting views
  • Stripe billing and trial-to-paid conversion flow

Phase 4: Polish and Scale · Weeks 11–12

  • Accessibility pass and keyboard shortcuts
  • Performance optimization for dashboard queries
  • Audit logs and admin controls
  • Analytics instrumentation and event dashboard
  • Beta hardening and launch checklist

Paste this into Cursor, Bolt, Lovable, or v0 to start building.

Build a small B2B SaaS called Onboardly for managing customer onboarding checklists.

Core product:
A workspace-based web app for customer success, implementation, and services teams to create reusable onboarding templates, spin up a new customer onboarding in minutes, assign tasks, track status, send reminders, and share a limited customer-facing view.

Primary screens:
1. Auth and workspace creation
2. Main dashboard showing active onboardings, overdue tasks, blocked items, and quick actions
3. Template library with create, edit, clone, and version templates
4. Customer onboarding detail page with checklist sections, task status, assignees, due dates, comments, audit history, and progress indicator
5. Customer-facing shared read-only view with only approved items visible
6. Settings page for roles, notifications, branding, and billing
7. Reports page with filters, exports, and completion metrics

Core flows:
1. Sign up with Google or email, create workspace, and choose a starter template
2. Create onboarding from template, add customer name and target launch date, assign owners, and generate due dates automatically
3. Update tasks inline, comment, mark blocked or waiting on customer, and send reminders
4. Share a customer-safe link with limited visibility
5. View metrics, overdue items, and completion summaries

Data model:
Workspace, User, Membership, Role, Customer, Onboarding, Template, TemplateVersion, ChecklistSection, Task, TaskAssignment, Comment, Notification, AuditLog, SharedLink, BillingSubscription.
Relationships:
A workspace has many users, customers, templates, onboardings, and logs.
A template has many sections and tasks, and a template version preserves history.
An onboarding belongs to one customer and one template version, and has many tasks, comments, notifications, and audit log entries.
A task can be assigned to one or more users or guest contacts, has a due date, status, blocker reason, and visibility flag.
SharedLink grants read-only access to a limited subset of onboarding data.

Tech stack:
Use Next.js with TypeScript, Tailwind CSS, and shadcn/ui for the frontend.
Use a Node.js backend with NestJS or tRPC, PostgreSQL with Prisma, Redis for job queues, and BullMQ or Temporal for reminders.
Use Stripe for billing, Clerk or Auth.js for authentication, SendGrid or Postmark for email, and Slack integration for notifications.
Include analytics events for workspace_created, template_created, onboarding_created, task_assigned, task_completed, task_overdue, shared_link_created, and workspace_upgraded.

Implementation requirements:
Make the app responsive, accessible, and fast. Prioritize a clean status-first UI with inline editing, keyboard shortcuts, strong empty states, and clear overdue/blocker highlighting. Build the MVP first with authentication, templates, onboarding records, task management, dashboard, and email reminders, then add shared links, reporting, and billing.

Business Idea

Generate a PRD I can adapt for any AI builder. Include sections that work for both UI-led builders (v0, Lovable) and agent IDEs (Cursor, Claude Code, Windsurf, Codex). My project: a small B2B SaaS for managing customer onboarding checklists.

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