From signup
to the moment it clicks.

Empty states, treated as a design problem: The first thing most new users see is a product with nothing in it. Empty states are usually written last by whoever built the feature, which is why they so often explain the interface rather than getting someone started.

The gap between signup and value, measured in steps: Count every screen, field, and permission between the button and the payoff. Teams are consistently surprised by the number, because nobody added more than one or two at a time.

Branches for genuinely different users: An invited teammate, a solo trial, and an enterprise evaluation are not the same journey. Mapping them as one flow is how products end up asking an invited user to set up a workspace that already exists.

Emails and notifications in sequence: Put the lifecycle sequence on the same map as the app. Half of onboarding happens outside the product, and it is designed in a different tool by different people almost everywhere.

Prompt against the whole canvas: Ask it to map the invited-teammate branch, propose a nudge sequence for users who stall at setup, or draft empty state copy for a screen you have already placed. It reads the flow you have built.

It structures, it does not decide the product: Storyflow lays out and organizes the journey. What counts as activation, and what is worth asking a new user for, are product decisions that stay with the team.

Iterate without losing work: Re-prompt as often as you want. Steps and screenshots you have already placed stay exactly where they are while the AI builds around them.

Funnel numbers beside the step: Write the completion rate on the step it belongs to. A funnel chart tells you the number; the number written on the screen tells you what to change, because you can see what that screen asks for.

Session recordings and quotes attached: Pin a support quote or a note from a recording next to the step it concerns. Qualitative evidence sitting on the flow survives; qualitative evidence in a research doc does not.

Before and after, side by side: Keep the current flow and the proposed one next to each other on the same canvas. It is the fastest way to show leadership what is actually being removed.

View-only links, no seat required: Engineering, lifecycle marketing, support, and leadership all open the flow in a browser with no design tool seat. The people who own pieces of onboarding rarely have one.

Comments on the step they concern: Feedback attaches to the specific screen or email, so a conversation about the verification step happens on the verification step rather than in a thread with four subjects.

Hand off to the design file: When the flow is agreed, build the screens in Figma and keep the map as the reference. The board explains why the sequence is what it is, which no set of frames ever does.