The first 60 seconds

---
name: first-run
description: "Applies “The first 60 seconds” as a repeatable product-quality gate. Use during design work when splash, onboarding, first value — the first minute is a designed product surface."
---

# The first 60 seconds

Apply this skill during **Design** work. It supports Any stack.

Splash, onboarding, first value — the first minute is a designed product surface.

## Instructions

Treat the first 60 seconds as its own product surface. Define the first value moment precisely ('user sees their first X within Y seconds') and design backwards from it. Splash and boot are a brand moment, not a spinner: under 2 seconds, choreographed, skippable. The first session is a designed state — seed realistic example content and guide exactly one action; refuse multi-step tours and empty dashboards. Delay signup, permission prompts, and upsells until after the user has felt value once. Instrument every first-run step so drop-off is measurable, and re-walk the flow as a brand-new user after every release — cold cache, incognito, slow network.

## Detect the problem

- A signup wall before any value
- An empty dashboard on first login
- A five-step tour nobody reads

## Hold the gate

Do not declare this phase complete until every item passes:

- [ ] Time-to-first-value is stated and measured ('user sees X within Y seconds')
- [ ] Splash/boot is a brand moment under 2s — never a dead spinner screen
- [ ] First session has seeded example content and ONE guided action, not a tour
- [ ] Signup/permissions are requested AFTER the first value moment, not before
- [ ] Each first-run step is instrumented; drop-off per step is visible

## Verify the result

Cold cache, incognito, throttled network: time land → first value; it must beat your stated number.