First value moment is achievable in under 5 minutes

Time-to-first-value is the activation metric that predicts retention. Users who experience value within the first 5 minutes return; users who are still configuring at minute 10 churn. The user-experience taxon treats every blocking step between signup and first value — mandatory email verification, required external connections, long profile forms, unguided configuration — as a direct activation tax. Products that take more than 5 minutes to deliver a value moment lose the majority of new signups before they ever see what the product does.

Map every step between signup completion and the first value moment, then cut everything non-essential. Mark optional steps as deferrable in src/app/(app)/onboarding/ so they can be completed later from settings, and seed sample data so users see value before they create content themselves.

const steps = [
  { id: 'welcome', required: true },
  { id: 'profile', required: false },
  { id: 'first-project', required: true },
];