What Makes a Good vs. Bad Onboarding Task

One of the most common onboarding questions we get is:

What makes a good onboarding task… and what makes a bad one?

There’s no one-size-fits-all answer—your process and product matter—but after helping hundreds of teams streamline onboarding in HubSpot, we’ve spotted some patterns.

Here’s the key difference:

✅ A good task is:

• Clear
• Action-oriented
• Easy to complete

Let’s say your customer needs to schedule a kickoff call. A good task would say:

Schedule your kickoff call
"Pick a time that works best for your team so we can hit the ground running together."

And right below that? An embedded calendar, so they can do the thing without leaving the plan.

No confusion. No back-and-forth. Just progress.

❌ A bad task looks like:

Kickoff Call
"We’ll email you to find a time."

Now the customer’s wondering:

Do I wait? Do I reach out? Did I miss something?

Worse, if there’s a random link to a knowledge base thrown in for good measure, it only muddies the waters.

Bottom line:

Great onboarding tasks help customers know what to do, why it matters, and how to get it done—right now.

Your turn

Take a few minutes to review your existing onboarding tasks.

Make adjustments where needed—especially if a task isn’t crystal clear or immediately actionable.

Need a little extra help? Join one of our live training sessions, every Tuesday and Wednesday.

👉 Grab a spot here