Onboarding is the growth work nobody wants to do

Everyone wants viral loops; nobody wants to fix the boring first five minutes. But onboarding is where you lose most users, silently. My rules: one obvious next action per screen, show value before asking for commitment, and never make someone read to understand what to do. A daily check-in, a quick win, a visible reward — that's not gamification fluff, it's respect for the user's time. Fix onboarding before you touch acquisition.