New members decide whether to stay within their first session. A good onboarding flow removes the guesswork, points them at one relevant thing to do, and gives them a reason to come back tomorrow. In MateFlow you build this once, and every new member is guided through it automatically. This guide walks through the setup.
Where onboarding lives
Everything below is configured in your admin area under Settings → Onboarding. Two tools work together there: a welcome message and a new-member checklist. Save your changes and they apply to everyone who joins from that point on.
Step 1 โ Write a welcome message
Turn on the welcome toggle and write a short, warm note. This is the first text a new member reads, so keep it to a sentence or two: who the community is for and the single most useful first action. You can insert {{site.name}} and it is replaced with your community's name automatically, so the greeting always reads correctly.
Resist the urge to explain everything. The message sits above the checklist, and the checklist does the guiding.
Step 2 โ Build the new-member checklist
The checklist is the heart of onboarding. Add one step at a time; each step is a small, concrete task. For every step you set a title, a short description, and an action type that determines what completes it:
- Complete profile โ sends the member to fill in their profile; completes when they do.
- Join a space โ points them to your spaces so they land somewhere with activity.
- Make first post โ nudges the single highest-value action: an introduction or first contribution.
- Link โ sends them to any URL you choose (a house-rules space, an intro thread, a welcome event). A link step is marked done as soon as they open it.
You can mark a step required to signal it matters most, and drag steps to reorder them. Keep the list short โ three or four steps beats ten. One completed action is worth more than a long tour.
Step 3 โ Preview the member experience
New members see the checklist as a card on the home feed, led by a progress ring and your welcome message. As they complete steps, the ring fills; profile, join-a-space, and first-post steps are detected automatically, while link steps complete on click. When everything is done the card shows a brief celebration and then tidies itself away. Members can also dismiss it at any time, so it never becomes clutter.
Step 4 โ Reinforce beyond day one
Onboarding does not end when the checklist is complete. Follow up in the first week with a nudge that references what the member actually did, not a generic digest. Surface the people and conversations most relevant to them, and welcome introduction posts personally. Retention is won in these early touches, long before any paywall.
Next steps
- Plan the flow before you build it with designing your onboarding flow.
- Give new members somewhere worth landing — see spaces and writing clear space descriptions.
- Reward early participation with points and badges via gamification.
- Setting up a brand-new community? Start with launching a community from scratch.