Consumer
Mobile
Growth
Sprout
An onboarding experience for a consumer health app that helps new users build a habit in their first week.
Role
Product Designer
Timeline
4 months · 2023
Team
2 designers, 3 engineers, PM
Platform
iOS & Android
Overview
Sprout is a consumer health app that helps people build small daily habits. Despite strong installs (1M+), most new users never completed a first check-in — week-one retention was the company's biggest growth lever, and onboarding was where people fell off.
I owned the onboarding and activation experience end to end, partnering with a PM and three engineers.
The problem
Most new users never reached their first win.
The old onboarding front-loaded setup — long forms, permission prompts, and goal-setting — before anyone experienced any value. People bounced before the app ever felt useful.
Research
I analyzed the funnel, ran 8 first-session interviews, and watched where people dropped. Three insights reframed the project:
01
Motivation peaks at install
New users arrive motivated. Every screen between install and a first action spends that motivation.
02
Tiny wins compound
People who completed one check-in on day one were 3x more likely to return in week one.
03
Setup can wait
Goals, reminders, and profile details could be gathered after the first win, not before it.
The messy middle
I tried five onboarding shapes before cutting it down to three screens.
Early versions kept the long setup but made it prettier. The breakthrough was deleting steps, not polishing them — and testing each cut against real first-session behavior.
A — Full setup
Rejected: too long
B — Value-first
Promising: fast win
C — Carousel
Rejected: passive
D — Single action
Shipped basis
What I cut
I removed 7 of 11 onboarding screens. The hardest part was convincing the team that less setup wouldn't hurt long-term engagement — an A/B test settled it.
Key decisions
Three decisions, each with a real tradeoff.
Lead with one action, not a tour
The first screen asks for a single 30-second check-in, before any account setup.
Tradeoff
We collected less profile data up front. We recovered it contextually over the first week.
Defer permissions to the moment of need
We ask for notifications right after the user sets their first reminder, not on launch.
Tradeoff
Opt-in depends on reaching that step. Framing it as the user's own choice lifted acceptance.
Make day one feel finished
A completion state celebrates the first check-in and quietly sets up day two.
Tradeoff
It added a screen — but it's the screen that drives the return visit.
The solution
The shipped flow gets a new user to a completed check-in in under a minute, then layers setup in as it becomes relevant.
🔔
Daily reminder
Morning · 8:00 AM
Midday · 1:00 PM
Evening · 8:00 PM
Reminder setup
✓
Day one done!
🔥 1-day streak started
Day-one complete
Impact
↑ 18%
Activation — users completing a check-in in their first session
↑ 23%
Week-one retention for new users
4
Onboarding screens, down from 11
41%
Notification opt-in, up from 29%
What I'd do differently
I'd have pushed for the A/B test sooner. We spent three weeks debating screen counts that one week of real data resolved in an afternoon.
Next project