What good onboarding looks like for developer tools
Most developer tools have terrible onboarding. They drop you into a complex interface, show you a tooltip tour, and hope you figure it out.
We've been thinking hard about how to do this better with Axon.
The problem with feature tours
Tooltip tours are a trap. They feel helpful when you're building them and useless when you're experiencing them.
The problem is that they show you features before you understand why you'd want them. "This is the agent panel" means nothing if you've never run an agent. "This is your codebase index" means nothing if you don't know what indexing does.
Good onboarding teaches through doing, not through explaining.
What we tried
We tried a lot of things. Interactive tutorials. Sample projects. In-product checklists. Video walkthroughs.
The thing that worked best was the simplest: just start working. Open your project. Start typing. Axon shows up exactly when it's relevant.
The first time Axon catches a bug you would have missed, or completes a function you were halfway through writing, it earns your trust. No tutorial needed.
What we changed
We reduced our onboarding from a 12-step flow to three things: connect your editor, open a project, start typing.
That's it. Everything else is discoverable in context.
Our activation metrics improved significantly. More importantly, the developers who get through onboarding now seem to actually understand what they've signed up for.