Onboarding emails as a Claude-run sequence

The problem. New signups need a handful of well-timed emails to actually get value from your product, and writing a whole sequence from scratch — in your voice, not generic SaaS-onboarding-speak — keeps sliding down your list.

The play. Draft the full sequence in one session, grounded in what actually gets a new user to their first real value, then review and schedule it through whatever email tool you use.

Setup (10 min). Have PRODUCT.md, USERS.md, and VOICE.md ready. Know the one action that best predicts a user will stick around — if you don’t know it yet, that’s worth figuring out before writing the sequence.

The prompt:

Read PRODUCT.md, USERS.md, and VOICE.md. New users need to reach [the key
action that predicts they'll stick around] to get real value.

Draft a 4-5 email onboarding sequence:
1. Welcome — sets expectations, one small first step
2. Get them to the key action — the most important email, make it concrete
3. A common obstacle new users hit, addressed directly
4. A check-in — asks if they're stuck, offers help
5. (optional) A "you're set up, here's what's next" email

Each email under 150 words. My voice, not generic onboarding-speak. Flag
any email that's filler rather than actually helping them succeed.

What you get. A real sequence tied to your actual product and the actual behavior that predicts retention, instead of a generic “day 1, day 3, day 7” template that could belong to any SaaS product.

What to watch for.

• If you don’t actually know the key action that predicts retention, this workflow will produce something generic no matter how good the prompt is — that’s a signal to figure out your product’s real activation moment first.
• Read every email as if you were the confused new user, not the founder who already knows the product.

Make it repeatable. Revisit the sequence every time you learn something new about why users get stuck or where they succeed — treat it as a living document, not a one-time draft.