Empty State Guidance
Design compelling empty states that guide new users to their first action through contextual CTAs, sample data, and quick-start templates. Audit every empty state surface, instrument tracking, validate CTR, personalize by persona, and converge at the local maximum via autonomous AI optimization.
npx gtm-skills add product/onboard/empty-state-onboardingOutcome
>=40% empty state CTR on the primary P0 surface across 20+ users
Leading Indicators
- Empty state CTR
- CTA click-to-creation rate
- Time from empty state view to first item created
Instructions
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Run the
posthog-gtm-eventsdrill to define the empty state event taxonomy:empty_state_viewed,empty_state_cta_clicked,first_item_createdwith surface and variant properties. -
Run the
empty-state-designdrill: watch 10-20 new user session recordings to identify the P0 empty state, then design it with a contextual headline, 2-3 templates or sample data, a specific CTA button, and a secondary help link. -
Deploy the new empty state behind a PostHog feature flag to 20-50 users. Monitor PostHog Live Events to confirm tracking fires correctly.
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Observe for 7 days without changes. Watch 5 session recordings of users who did NOT click the CTA to diagnose friction.
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Run the
threshold-enginedrill: compute empty state CTR. If >=40%, document and proceed to Baseline. If <40%, iterate CTA copy, templates, or placement and re-test.
Recommendations
Time
5 hours over 1 week
Play-specific cost
Free (PostHog free tier: 1M events + 5K recordings/mo)