Crafting The First Mile Of Product | by Scott Belsky | Positive Slope | Medium

"first mile of a product’s user experience is almost always an afterthought. The welcome/tour, the onboarding, the explanatory copy, the empty states, and the defaults ... the “top of your funnel” for engaging new users... increasingly neglected over time despite becoming more important ... products built for a tech-savvy ... early adopters must simplify to go mainstream"

New users must be able to see "(1) why they’re there, (2) what they can accomplish, (3) and what to do next (note: users don’t need to know how to use your product at the beginning, they just need to know what to do next!). "

To craft a first mile:

1) "Optimize For The First 15 Seconds Of Laziness, Vanity, & Selfishness... your visitors are lazy ... no extra time to invest in something they don’t know...; vain ... want to look good quickly using your product; ... selfish ... want to know what will immediately benefit them."

At least SHOW using tooltips, UI guides, animations. Ideally DO things for uses that make them "feel successful from the start ... present options users are most likely to want."

Ego analytics stroke the ego and reward engagement.

Don't rely on longterm promise: offer novel benefits immediately.

Users "don’t want to make choices... when ... in the first mile. The default options ... which tab they land on and pre-populating fields with suggested selections" are critical. "make sure your empty states are engaging and informative... [and] make as many things as familiar as possible."

Don't lose site of new users because you're listening to power users. News users are the source of growth. Staying simple is card.