Designing an Onboarding Experience That Works for Every User Journey

Overview

As Pulumi continues to grow its user base, the Pulumi Cloud Dashboard needed a fresh perspective—one that centered around new user onboarding and simplified navigation. The goal was to redesign the dashboard so that, no matter the user’s background or objective, the experience would help guide them effectively through the platform.

This project focused on the user story:
“As a new user coming to app.pulumi.com, I want my experience to be as simple as possible for any type of user scenario I might find myself in.”

Rather than a separate onboarding page, we envisioned a dashboard experience that welcomed new users, helped them orient quickly, and supported a wide range of user journeys right from the start.

Challenge 

The existing dashboard didn’t provide clear direction for new users, lacked a consistent onboarding experience, and wasn’t flexible enough to support varying user goals (e.g., individual vs. team users, different cloud providers, etc.). Key challenges included:

• Designing a unified experience for multiple user types and workflows
• Creating guidance without overwhelming users
• Balancing onboarding elements with core dashboard content
• Planning ahead for future dashboard customization and analytics

This wasn’t just about UI—it required a deep understanding of our users’ behaviors and needs, as well as competitive and cross-industry research to explore how similar platforms onboard and support their users.

Solution

To solve these challenges, I took a research-first approach, conducting competitive analysis to understand how similar platforms onboard and guide their users. I also collaborated closely with the product team to walk through key user journeys—focusing on different user types, goals, and edge cases.

Using this insight, I created low-fidelity wireframes and interactive prototypes to explore layout options, test onboarding patterns, and get early feedback. Through several iterations, I arrived at a reimagined dashboard design that:

• Introduces a prominent “Getting Started” section at the top, offering simple, step-by-step guidance
• Eliminates the need for a standalone Home page by integrating onboarding directly into the dashboard
• Organizes content clearly, making it easy for new users to orient themselves without feeling overwhelmed

The result is a dashboard that serves both first-time users and returning power users—all within the same interface.

Outcome

Though the project is still a work in progress, the redesigned dashboard lays a strong foundation for a more intuitive and flexible user experience. Early feedback within the team has been positive, and the design is shaping the way we think about Pulumi Cloud onboarding moving forward.

Key improvements so far:

• A seamless, built-in onboarding flow that feels like part of the product
• A modular dashboard design that supports both onboarding and data insights
• A forward-thinking layout designed to support future customization

Looking ahead, we’re planning to introduce a customizable dashboard experience, allowing users to add charts, remove sections, and personalize their workspace. With this shift toward analytics-focused dashboards, it makes sense to eventually move the onboarding content to its own dedicated Home page, fulfilling the original vision while giving users more control.