Open your product in a fresh browser tab, in an incognito window, as if you had never seen it. Now go all the way from the landing page to the first real thing a new user does. Somewhere between the ad they clicked and the moment they get value, people quit. The template below gives you a fixed sequence of items to capture as you walk that path, so you never finish the flow and realize you forgot to note what the empty dashboard looked like.
The idea is simple: one captured still per screen, one specific note attached to it, in the order a real user hits them. You fill it in live, in a single browser tab, and publish a link at the end. No install, no extension, no signup to start. If this is a job you do often, the onboarding feedback use case shows the same flow start to finish.
The four items every onboarding walk needs
Structure the review as an ordered list of items. Each item is a screenshot plus a comment. Here is the skeleton to copy:
- Landing page. Capture the first screen a visitor sees. Note: does the headline match the promise that sent them here, and where is the primary action?
- Signup. Capture the form. Note every required field, and flag anything that would make a stranger hesitate.
- First task. Capture the moment right after signup where the product asks the user to do something. Note whether it is obvious what to do next.
- Empty state. Capture the main screen before any data exists. Note whether it teaches or just sits there blank.
Four items covers most flows. Add more only where a real screen exists between these, like an email verification step or a plan picker. Do not invent items for screens you did not actually see.
Item 1: the landing page
Capture the full frame before you scroll. The prompt to answer in your comment: if I arrived from a specific campaign, does this page continue that thought or restart the pitch? Name the single most prominent button and whether it points at signup or at something else. If the value proposition takes three scrolls to appear, say so and pin the spot where you expected it.
Drop a numbered pin on the primary call to action so the receiver knows exactly which element you mean. This is where a cropped still with a pin beats a paragraph of description, and it is easier to act on than an annotated live page.
Item 2: the signup form
Capture the form as it first loads, then fill it in and capture again if the errors are interesting. Count the fields. Write them out: email, password, company name, role, phone. Every field past email and password is a place someone bails. Note the ones that feel unnecessary for a first login and flag any that reject valid input with a confusing message.
If you can dictate instead of type, do it here. Talking through a form while looking at it is faster than typing, and you can speak your comments in Chrome or Edge while your hands stay on the flow. On Firefox you type instead.
Item 3: the first task
This is the screen right after account creation, where the product asks for the first action. Capture it before you touch anything. The prompt: without reading help text, is it obvious what I should click and why? Note the gap between what the marketing promised and what the product now asks me to do. A common failure is a signup that sells a finished result, then dumps the user into a setup wizard with eight steps.
If the first task requires connecting an integration or importing data, capture that prompt too and note how much work it demands before any payoff.
Item 4: the empty state
Capture the main working screen with zero data in it. Most teams design the full version and forget that new users see nothing. The prompt: does this screen tell me what to do, show me an example, or leave me staring at a blank table? Note whether there is a visible next step. An empty state that just says "No items yet" with no button is a dead end, and it is worth pinning.
When to adjust the sequence
The four items are a floor, not a cage. Adjust for your product:
- Email verification in the middle. If signup sends a confirmation email before the user can proceed, add an item between signup and first task and note how long the wait feels.
- Plan or role selection. If the user picks a tier or a persona early, capture that choice as its own item and note whether the options are clear.
- Mobile vs desktop. Walk the flow once per device. Do not mix screenshots from both in one review; run two reviews so the receiver knows which is which.
Add a free-floating comment with no screenshot for anything that spans the whole flow, like a broken back button or inconsistent button styling. Not every note needs an image.
Turning the walk into something the team acts on
When you finish the last item, hit Publish. You get a short public link anyone can open with no login, plus the same review as a PDF or Word document if a stakeholder wants a file. If a developer or an agent picks up the fixes, the review is also available as clean markdown, the format that reads well when you hand feedback to an AI coding agent.
People with the link can comment on individual items, and you can mark each one resolved as it gets fixed. That closes the loop without a bug tracker. For a full worked example of this exact walk, see capturing onboarding feedback as you walk the flow, and when you are ready, start a new review and fill in the four items on your own signup.