Redesign Onboarding and the First Weeks for New X (Twitter) Users

You are a product manager at Twitter (now X). How would you make the experience better for people who have just created an account? ```hint Start from an empty account A brand-new account follows no one, and the service knows little about the person behind it. Picture what they see in their first session, then ask what would bring them back for a second one, and where that breaks down. ``` ### Clarifying Questions - Which accounts count as new: only people in their first days or weeks after sign-up, or also long-dormant accounts that return? - Is the goal to keep more new users coming back, to get them posting and replying, or both? - Which surfaces and markets are in scope: the mobile apps, the website, particular countries or languages? - Do we know how new users arrive, for example through a post shared elsewhere, a search or an app store, and does their behavior differ by source? ### What a Strong Answer Covers - A precise definition of a new user and of the goal, tied to retention rather than sign-up counts. - The new-user journey from sign-up to habitual use, with the likely drop-off points and segments based on why people joined. - Pain points specific to a new account, and prioritized solutions with their trade-offs. - An early-retention success metric with guardrails for spam, safety and the experience of existing users. - An experiment plan that reads results beyond the first week. ### Follow-up Questions - A change lifts new users' first-week activity, but their retention a month later does not move. What would you conclude and do next? - How should onboarding differ for someone who signed up after tapping a link to one post versus someone who downloaded the app on purpose? - Extra push notifications bring new users back more often but also raise opt-outs and uninstalls. How would you set the notification policy for the first week?