[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"sanity-98TutuNCE42ERNa3N5JbnvxLvSZX7-qWAHsYqpxeJ30":3,"sanity-O7E2GrPtN9U10FptDbVomFTKvpYCoMw_yR41HAG-TSs":508},{"data":4,"sourceMap":-1},{"latestPodcast":5,"latestReleases":14,"post":39,"recent":483},[6],{"_id":7,"publishedAt":8,"slug":9,"sponsored":12,"title":13},"50f4509c-4f55-4f11-8adc-5556e821ea77","2026-06-30T07:40:00.000Z",{"_type":10,"current":11},"slug","why-intent-prediction-needs-more-than-an-llm",null,"Why intent prediction needs more than an LLM",[15,21,27,33],{"_id":16,"publishedAt":17,"slug":18,"title":20},"eb5b66eb-9410-4329-83bb-22bbff39402a","2026-04-28T13:00:00.000Z",{"_type":10,"current":19},"turn-scattered-knowledge-into-trusted-intelligence","Turning scattered knowledge into trusted intelligence: Stack Internal 2026.3",{"_id":22,"publishedAt":23,"slug":24,"title":26},"369c2401-b62e-4a37-8ff8-bf603023ecad","2026-03-02T15:03:00.988Z",{"_type":10,"current":25},"what-s-new-at-stack-overflow-march-2026","What’s new at Stack Overflow: March 2026",{"_id":28,"publishedAt":29,"slug":30,"title":32},"5e9053a4-07ea-447c-91ea-29e0b6228537","2026-02-02T15:00:00.000Z",{"_type":10,"current":31},"what-s-new-at-stack-overflow-february-2026","What’s new at Stack Overflow: February 2026",{"_id":34,"publishedAt":35,"slug":36,"title":38},"a1b538eb-a8a6-46d0-80a1-ac70ec9bb935","2026-01-05T10:00:00.000-05:00",{"_type":10,"current":37},"what-s-new-at-stack-overflow-january-2026","What’s new at Stack Overflow: January 2026",{"_createdAt":40,"_id":41,"_rev":42,"_type":43,"_updatedAt":44,"author":45,"body":61,"comments":432,"dateUrl":433,"excerpt":434,"image":435,"legacyBody":438,"product":12,"publishedAt":441,"slug":442,"sponsored":12,"tags":444,"title":482,"visible":432},"2023-05-25T09:39:11Z","wp-post-9310","myT5Pq7GfgxKvTeIcgo1by","blogPost","2023-11-08T14:47:14Z",[46],{"_createdAt":47,"_id":48,"_rev":49,"_type":50,"_updatedAt":51,"avatar":52,"employee":57,"name":58,"slug":59},"2023-05-23T16:27:18Z","wp-author-111","dpQ2IysUm09sCEUZjPVCIH","blogAuthor","2023-12-14T17:22:35Z",{"_type":53,"asset":54},"image",{"_ref":55,"_type":56},"image-29dcb7ee682be107184c7c27777cb8b0c779d270-1024x1024-png","reference","former","Joshua Hynes",{"current":60},"hynes",[62,73,94,104,112,120,139,147,155,165,173,181,189,197,205,214,222,230,255,263,271,279,287,292,300,308,316,324,332,340,352,364,376,384,389,397,402,410,418],{"_key":63,"_type":64,"children":65,"markDefs":71,"style":72},"a8fbcb4f0519","block",[66],{"_key":67,"_type":68,"marks":69,"text":70},"a8fbcb4f05190","span",[],"How we tested, designed, and built a brand-new Team onboarding process",[],"h2",{"_key":74,"_type":64,"children":75,"markDefs":89,"style":93},"be7c7ab8bf75",[76,80,85],{"_key":77,"_type":68,"marks":78,"text":79},"be7c7ab8bf750",[],"Two weeks ago, we released ",{"_key":81,"_type":68,"marks":82,"text":84},"be7c7ab8bf751",[83],"a3fd292cd0c7","Stack Overflow for Teams",{"_key":86,"_type":68,"marks":87,"text":88},"be7c7ab8bf752",[],"—a way for teams to share information privately. A ton of work over the last year has been done to release this exciting new product. This post goes into how we designed the custom Team onboarding experience and how we see this feature possibly expanding in the future.",[90],{"_key":83,"_type":91,"href":92,"reference":12},"link","https:\u002F\u002Fstackoverflow.com\u002Fteams","normal",{"_key":95,"_type":64,"children":96,"markDefs":102,"style":103},"6743114849c3",[97],{"_key":98,"_type":68,"marks":99,"text":101},"6743114849c30",[100],"strong","Hard problems",[],"h3",{"_key":105,"_type":64,"children":106,"markDefs":111,"style":93},"321545b0e68f",[107],{"_key":108,"_type":68,"marks":109,"text":110},"321545b0e68f0",[],"The hardest problem at Stack Overflow isn’t creating the functionality to post questions or answers, notify users of these posts, calculate reputation, commenting, voting, or any of the other various tools that are used within a community (These are all core features to a Stack Overflow community.) The hardest problem is starting a community. If you’ve ever tried to start a forum discussion, chat, or other type of online group, you’ve experienced the massive amount of effort needed to start that group. And once the community starts generating some momentum, your work doesn’t go away—it shifts toward increasing the community’s momentum. It’s difficult work, which is rarely recognized. In fact, if you’re a part of a community like this—take a minute and tell the community owners how much you appreciate the effort they put into helping shepherd and guide that community.",[],{"_key":113,"_type":64,"children":114,"markDefs":119,"style":103},"afef40f86a6e",[115],{"_key":116,"_type":68,"marks":117,"text":118},"afef40f86a6e0",[100],"Small(er) communities",[],{"_key":121,"_type":64,"children":122,"markDefs":136,"style":93},"7b2effdf1651",[123,127,132],{"_key":124,"_type":68,"marks":125,"text":126},"7b2effdf16510",[],"One interesting feature about the Stack Exchange network is that anyone can suggest creating a new community. If there’s a knowledge area that interests you and potentially interests others, you can submit your idea on our ",{"_key":128,"_type":68,"marks":129,"text":131},"7b2effdf16511",[130],"7e5b7e7b0604","“Area 51” website",{"_key":133,"_type":68,"marks":134,"text":135},"7b2effdf16512",[],". This website walks you through a number of steps to help you go from a community idea to an actual Q&A community. One criteria we’ve held for new communities is that they need to be of a certain size and show consistent growth for us to “graduate” that community as an official Stack Exchange network site. There have been hundreds of proposals submitted, and failure to reach the needed community size is consistently a top reason for a community’s inability to graduate.",[137],{"_key":130,"_type":91,"href":138,"reference":12},"http:\u002F\u002Farea51.stackexchange.com\u002F",{"_key":140,"_type":64,"children":141,"markDefs":146,"style":103},"bcbcf2070ca9",[142],{"_key":143,"_type":68,"marks":144,"text":145},"bcbcf2070ca90",[100],"Understanding the problem",[],{"_key":148,"_type":64,"children":149,"markDefs":154,"style":93},"da882bb1ef80",[150],{"_key":151,"_type":68,"marks":152,"text":153},"da882bb1ef800",[],"One of the largest, initial problems for Stack Overflow for Teams then was a three-fold problem:",[],{"_key":156,"_type":64,"children":157,"level":162,"listItem":163,"markDefs":164,"style":93},"5c7fba7ca2d7",[158],{"_key":159,"_type":68,"marks":160,"text":161},"5c7fba7ca2d70",[],"Communities are hard to start.",1,"number",[],{"_key":166,"_type":64,"children":167,"level":162,"listItem":163,"markDefs":172,"style":93},"a10261122674",[168],{"_key":169,"_type":68,"marks":170,"text":171},"a102611226740",[],"Smaller communities are even tougher to start and maintain.",[],{"_key":174,"_type":64,"children":175,"level":162,"listItem":163,"markDefs":180,"style":93},"fc47e2c576c3",[176],{"_key":177,"_type":68,"marks":178,"text":179},"fc47e2c576c30",[],"An inability to solve problems 1 and 2 will mean Stack Overflow for Teams doesn’t have a future.",[],{"_key":182,"_type":64,"children":183,"markDefs":188,"style":93},"0f379fde69cb",[184],{"_key":185,"_type":68,"marks":186,"text":187},"0f379fde69cb0",[],"This is a big problem. It’s also a unique problem. How do we help anybody start their own private Q&A community and be successful at it?",[],{"_key":190,"_type":64,"children":191,"markDefs":196,"style":103},"e81b617ded89",[192],{"_key":193,"_type":68,"marks":194,"text":195},"e81b617ded890",[100],"Some key findings",[],{"_key":198,"_type":64,"children":199,"markDefs":204,"style":93},"019da9b49161",[200],{"_key":201,"_type":68,"marks":202,"text":203},"019da9b491610",[],"Thankfully we had already been starting to think about this problem for our Stack Overflow Enterprise customers. Through this team’s work and other work the User Research team conducted, we started to learn a few key things:",[],{"_key":206,"_type":64,"children":207,"markDefs":212,"style":213},"8ade4431e95d",[208],{"_key":209,"_type":68,"marks":210,"text":211},"8ade4431e95d0",[100],"1. Identify people who really care about this.",[],"h4",{"_key":215,"_type":64,"children":216,"markDefs":221,"style":93},"e711a9f76587",[217],{"_key":218,"_type":68,"marks":219,"text":220},"e711a9f765870",[],"It’s hard work to start a community, and it becomes even harder if people don’t care about the community’s success.",[],{"_key":223,"_type":64,"children":224,"markDefs":229,"style":213},"710aff052e49",[225],{"_key":226,"_type":68,"marks":227,"text":228},"710aff052e490",[100],"2. Starting with an empty community rarely works.",[],{"_key":231,"_type":64,"children":232,"markDefs":254,"style":93},"382705058e04",[233,237,242,246,250],{"_key":234,"_type":68,"marks":235,"text":236},"382705058e040",[],"It’s ",{"_key":238,"_type":68,"marks":239,"text":241},"382705058e041",[240],"em","really",{"_key":243,"_type":68,"marks":244,"text":245},"382705058e042",[]," tempting once you create a Team to let everyone know about it. The idea is that if you build it, people will come—right? What we find though is that people prefer to have some content already in place. This seeded content removes the decision paralysis that comes with a blank canvas: there are so many possible questions that ",{"_key":247,"_type":68,"marks":248,"text":249},"382705058e043",[240],"could",{"_key":251,"_type":68,"marks":252,"text":253},"382705058e044",[]," be asked, that you end up asking none. Seeding content provides some ideas right away and helps people overcome this paralysis a lot quicker.",[],{"_key":256,"_type":64,"children":257,"markDefs":262,"style":213},"b24c64c34ce3",[258],{"_key":259,"_type":68,"marks":260,"text":261},"b24c64c34ce30",[100],"3. Don’t go it alone.",[],{"_key":264,"_type":64,"children":265,"markDefs":270,"style":93},"1b5e935913ae",[266],{"_key":267,"_type":68,"marks":268,"text":269},"1b5e935913ae0",[],"If we find that starting with an empty community doesn’t work, the goal during setup becomes about creating some initial content before everyone else joins in. While this content could be created by 1-2 people, we found that the task becomes a lot easier if its shared with 7-10 people. By sharing the community setup workload with this core group, the task becomes easier for everyone.",[],{"_key":272,"_type":64,"children":273,"markDefs":278,"style":103},"b6a41aa434ae",[274],{"_key":275,"_type":68,"marks":276,"text":277},"b6a41aa434ae0",[100],"Testing ideas",[],{"_key":280,"_type":64,"children":281,"markDefs":286,"style":93},"23f057aa2b0d",[282],{"_key":283,"_type":68,"marks":284,"text":285},"23f057aa2b0d0",[],"Taking this initial research, our next step was to test out these ideas. A typical project at this point at Stack Overflow would have had us writing a spec, creating some wireframes, designing artwork, and building a prototype before testing it with users. This process would take weeks for us to learn crucial information. We didn’t want to waste weeks to test an idea, so we changed our approach by testing lo-fidelity versions within a couple days. Using slide decks and clickable prototypes we were able to test and adjust our ideas within a couple weeks versus a couple months. We knew that above all else, clear copy would win the day. So we created a simple Google Slide presentation with our proposed copy and interviewed a number of individuals to gauge their reactions. [caption id=\"attachment_9312\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"800\"]",[],{"_key":288,"_type":53,"alt":289,"asset":290,"markDefs":12},"c1da749cb4e0","your channel is created",{"_ref":291,"_type":56},"image-928d57332197ebc4e5b1452f14b4c21d927d5f43-1064x609-png",{"_key":293,"_type":64,"children":294,"markDefs":299,"style":93},"bc94ba1e5bbb",[295],{"_key":296,"_type":68,"marks":297,"text":298},"bc94ba1e5bbb0",[],"An example slide from our initial wireframes[\u002Fcaption] By testing the ideas out early and in such a low-fidelity manner, we discovered two things:",[],{"_key":301,"_type":64,"children":302,"level":162,"listItem":163,"markDefs":307,"style":93},"4b7bd3fd2f54",[303],{"_key":304,"_type":68,"marks":305,"text":306},"4b7bd3fd2f540",[],"By keeping things low-fidelity, we didn’t become attached to the idea. Since we hadn’t invested a lot of time in the ideas, letting go of them became easier.",[],{"_key":309,"_type":64,"children":310,"level":162,"listItem":163,"markDefs":315,"style":93},"68394f9bd4a3",[311],{"_key":312,"_type":68,"marks":313,"text":314},"68394f9bd4a30",[],"Because we were able to let go of ideas more easily, we were able to iterate more quickly.",[],{"_key":317,"_type":64,"children":318,"markDefs":323,"style":93},"6923fdcb77e2",[319],{"_key":320,"_type":68,"marks":321,"text":322},"6923fdcb77e20",[],"Altogether we were able to test multiple low-fidelity versions within a two-week period.",[],{"_key":325,"_type":64,"children":326,"markDefs":331,"style":103},"3ab419b12c11",[327],{"_key":328,"_type":68,"marks":329,"text":330},"3ab419b12c110",[100],"Finalizing our checklists",[],{"_key":333,"_type":64,"children":334,"markDefs":339,"style":93},"b38bb289f352",[335],{"_key":336,"_type":68,"marks":337,"text":338},"b38bb289f3520",[],"One thing we learned during our research was that people responded well to being provided a setup checklist. One person, upon seeing the checklist, remarked that it helped them better understand the effort level required to start their community, which they had not considered before. Every feature or task holds some value—otherwise why would we have it? The hard part when creating onboarding workflows is identifying the core items people need to understand at specific moments in the process. For example, while it might be a good idea for someone to understand how to create a new tag, this isn’t a primary concern. Understanding how to create a tag only becomes important when people are asking and answering questions. Our goal was to help a Team focus on specific, core tasks during certain stages in their first 60–90 days. We divided these tasks into three groups:",[],{"_key":341,"_type":64,"children":342,"level":162,"listItem":163,"markDefs":351,"style":93},"f21311511d2b",[343,347],{"_key":344,"_type":68,"marks":345,"text":346},"f21311511d2b0",[100],"Setup period:",{"_key":348,"_type":68,"marks":349,"text":350},"f21311511d2b1",[]," Initial 10–14 days during which 5–10 people help seed content and get the Team setup for everyone else to join.",[],{"_key":353,"_type":64,"children":354,"level":162,"listItem":163,"markDefs":363,"style":93},"3b424ce69ca4",[355,359],{"_key":356,"_type":68,"marks":357,"text":358},"3b424ce69ca40",[100],"Launch day:",{"_key":360,"_type":68,"marks":361,"text":362},"3b424ce69ca41",[]," The day you’re ready to invite everyone into your community.",[],{"_key":365,"_type":64,"children":366,"level":162,"listItem":163,"markDefs":375,"style":93},"f38da2770b2c",[367,371],{"_key":368,"_type":68,"marks":369,"text":370},"f38da2770b2c0",[100],"Post-launch:",{"_key":372,"_type":68,"marks":373,"text":374},"f38da2770b2c1",[]," Provide community goals for the next 45–75 days to help continue and maintain momentum.",[],{"_key":377,"_type":64,"children":378,"markDefs":383,"style":93},"6674129fff12",[379],{"_key":380,"_type":68,"marks":381,"text":382},"6674129fff120",[],"[caption id=\"attachment_9319\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"1024\"]",[],{"_key":385,"_type":53,"alt":386,"asset":387,"markDefs":12},"03a3d6542ed4","The various sidebar guides that we present to users during the onboarding workflow.",{"_ref":388,"_type":56},"image-0b8c8d9d65dd4641ae00be5929caff65bb379903-1050x675-png",{"_key":390,"_type":64,"children":391,"markDefs":396,"style":93},"280081fe22a0",[392],{"_key":393,"_type":68,"marks":394,"text":395},"280081fe22a00",[],"The various sidebar guides that we present to users during the onboarding workflow.[\u002Fcaption] Every task within these checklists reinforced core activities that are regularly found within successful communities. Along with the checklists, we also created starter questions. Going back to one of our original key findings: “Starting with an empty community rarely works.”, we found this applies to Team creators and guides as well! To help this first group get started, we provide questions that range from identifying people within a team to type of questions that should be asked. These unanswered questions allow for admins and Team Guides to jump in right away and start providing thoughts. [caption id=\"attachment_9314\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"800\"]",[],{"_key":398,"_type":53,"alt":399,"asset":400,"markDefs":12},"ef167c68aba5","company inc launch day",{"_ref":401,"_type":56},"image-433e0ac77afefe0e5574c55bf28cdf9f41254240-864x675-png",{"_key":403,"_type":64,"children":404,"markDefs":409,"style":93},"0853502ceca2",[405],{"_key":406,"_type":68,"marks":407,"text":408},"0853502ceca20",[],"An example of a clickable prototype that we tested[\u002Fcaption]",[],{"_key":411,"_type":64,"children":412,"markDefs":417,"style":103},"145771d5f495",[413],{"_key":414,"_type":68,"marks":415,"text":416},"145771d5f4950",[100],"Looking ahead",[],{"_key":419,"_type":64,"children":420,"markDefs":430,"style":93},"c370b62e012d",[421,425],{"_key":422,"_type":68,"marks":423,"text":424},"c370b62e012d0",[],"This is just the beginning for onboarding. Our goal isn’t just to start communities, but to create strong, healthy, lasting communities that are trusted sources for a team. But that doesn’t happen if people don’t continually participate. So we’re exploring how we can continue to help teams as they reach the 90-day period and beyond. That said, we know it’s not perfect and we’ll continue to test and observe communities as they use the current onboarding process. We also excited about the possibility of taking this work and bringing it back to Area 51 for public communities. Much of what we’ve done within Teams applies within a public community setting as well. Healthy, strong communities don’t just happen. They’re products of purposeful, diligent work from a cohort of dedicated individuals that help provide a place for others to join in and share. By providing initial guidance, we hope that everyone will feel confident in starting their own community today. ",{"_key":426,"_type":68,"marks":427,"text":429},"c370b62e012d1",[428,100],"13e435ed8745","Learn more about Stack Overflow for Teams >>",[431],{"_key":428,"_type":91,"href":92,"reference":12},true,"2018\u002F05\u002F16","",{"_type":53,"asset":436},{"_ref":437,"_type":56},"image-62fd0fc653b1d2f05258fe7b5ec2482f89e0d0b3-1920x1080-jpg",{"code":439,"language":440},"\u003Ch2>\u003Cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">How we tested, designed, and built a brand-new Team onboarding process\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003C\u002Fh2>\n\n\u003Cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Two weeks ago, we released \u003C\u002Fspan>\u003Ca href=\"https:\u002F\u002Fstackoverflow.com\u002Fteams\">\u003Cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Stack Overflow for Teams\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003C\u002Fa>\u003Cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">—a way for teams to share information privately. A ton of work over the last year has been done to release this exciting new product. This post goes into how we designed the custom Team onboarding experience and how we see this feature possibly expanding in the future.\u003C\u002Fspan>\n\n\u003Ch3>\u003Cb>Hard problems\u003C\u002Fb>\u003C\u002Fh3>\n\n\u003Cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The hardest problem at Stack Overflow isn’t creating the functionality to post questions or answers, notify users of these posts, calculate reputation, commenting, voting, or any of the other various tools that are used within a community (These are all core features to a Stack Overflow community.) The hardest problem is starting a community.\u003C\u002Fspan>\n\n\u003Cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">If you’ve ever tried to start a forum discussion, chat, or other type of online group, you’ve experienced the massive amount of effort needed to start that group. And once the community starts generating some momentum, your work doesn’t go away—it shifts toward increasing the community’s momentum. It’s difficult work, which is rarely recognized.\u003C\u002Fspan>\n\n\u003Cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In fact, if you’re a part of a community like this—take a minute and tell the community owners how much you appreciate the effort they put into helping shepherd and guide that community.\u003C\u002Fspan>\n\n\u003Ch3>\u003Cb>Small(er) communities\u003C\u002Fb>\u003C\u002Fh3>\n\n\u003Cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">One interesting feature about the Stack Exchange network is that anyone can suggest creating a new community. If there’s a knowledge area that interests you and potentially interests others, you can submit your idea on our \u003C\u002Fspan>\u003Ca href=\"http:\u002F\u002Farea51.stackexchange.com\u002F\">\u003Cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">“Area 51” website\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003C\u002Fa>\u003Cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. This website walks you through a number of steps to help you go from a community idea to an actual Q&A community.\u003C\u002Fspan>\n\n\u003Cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">One criteria we’ve held for new communities is that they need to be of a certain size and show consistent growth for us to “graduate” that community as an official Stack Exchange network site. There have been hundreds of proposals submitted, and failure to reach the needed community size is consistently a top reason for a community’s inability to graduate.\u003C\u002Fspan>\n\n\u003Ch3>\u003Cb>Understanding the problem\u003C\u002Fb>\u003C\u002Fh3>\n\n\u003Cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">One of the largest, initial problems for Stack Overflow for Teams then was a three-fold problem:\u003C\u002Fspan>\n\n\u003Col>\n    \u003Cli style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u003Cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Communities are hard to start.\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003C\u002Fli>\n    \u003Cli style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u003Cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Smaller communities are even tougher to start and maintain.\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003C\u002Fli>\n    \u003Cli style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u003Cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">An inability to solve problems 1 and 2 will mean Stack Overflow for Teams doesn’t have a future.\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003C\u002Fli>\n\u003C\u002Fol>\n\n\u003Cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This is a big problem. It’s also a unique problem. How do we help anybody start their own private Q&A community and be successful at it?\u003C\u002Fspan>\n\n\u003Ch3>\u003Cb>Some key findings\u003C\u002Fb>\u003C\u002Fh3>\n\n\u003Cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Thankfully we had already been starting to think about this problem for our Stack Overflow Enterprise customers. Through this team’s work and other work the User Research team conducted, we started to learn a few key things:\u003C\u002Fspan>\n\n\u003Ch4>\u003Cb>1. Identify people who really care about this.\u003C\u002Fb>\u003C\u002Fh4>\n\n\u003Cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It’s hard work to start a community, and it becomes even harder if people don’t care about the community’s success.\u003C\u002Fspan>\n\n\u003Ch4>\u003Cb>2. Starting with an empty community rarely works.\u003C\u002Fb>\u003C\u002Fh4>\n\n\u003Cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It’s \u003C\u002Fspan>\u003Ci>\u003Cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">really\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003C\u002Fi>\u003Cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> tempting once you create a Team to let everyone know about it. The idea is that if you build it, people will come—right?\u003C\u002Fspan>\n\n\u003Cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">What we find though is that people prefer to have some content already in place. This seeded content removes the decision paralysis that comes with a blank canvas: there are so many possible questions that \u003C\u002Fspan>\u003Ci>\u003Cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">could\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003C\u002Fi>\u003Cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> be asked, that you end up asking none.\u003C\u002Fspan>\n\n\u003Cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Seeding content provides some ideas right away and helps people overcome this paralysis a lot quicker.\u003C\u002Fspan>\n\n\u003Ch4>\u003Cb>3. Don’t go it alone.\u003C\u002Fb>\u003C\u002Fh4>\n\n\u003Cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">If we find that starting with an empty community doesn’t work, the goal during setup becomes about creating some initial content before everyone else joins in. While this content could be created by 1-2 people, we found that the task becomes a lot easier if its shared with 7-10 people. By sharing the community setup workload with this core group, the task becomes easier for everyone. \u003C\u002Fspan>\n\n\u003Ch3>\u003Cb>Testing ideas\u003C\u002Fb>\u003C\u002Fh3>\n\n\u003Cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Taking this initial research, our next step was to test out these ideas. A typical project at this point at Stack Overflow would have had us writing a spec, creating some wireframes, designing artwork, and building a prototype before testing it with users. This process would take weeks for us to learn crucial information. We didn’t want to waste weeks to test an idea, so we changed our approach by testing lo-fidelity versions within a couple days.\u003C\u002Fspan>\n\n\u003Cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Using slide decks and clickable prototypes we were able to test and adjust our ideas within a couple weeks versus a couple months. We knew that above all else, clear copy would win the day. So we created a simple Google Slide presentation with our proposed copy and interviewed a number of individuals to gauge their reactions.\u003C\u002Fspan>\n\n[caption id=\"attachment_9312\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"800\"]\u003Cimg class=\"wp-image-9312\" src=\"https:\u002F\u002Fstackoverflow.blog\u002Fwp-content\u002Fuploads\u002F2018\u002F05\u002Fyour-channel-is-created.png\" alt=\"your channel is created\" width=\"800\" height=\"458\" \u002F> An example slide from our initial wireframes[\u002Fcaption]\n\n\u003Cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">By testing the ideas out early and in such a low-fidelity manner, we discovered two things:\u003C\u002Fspan>\n\n\u003Col>\n    \u003Cli style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u003Cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">By keeping things low-fidelity, we didn’t become attached to the idea. Since we hadn’t invested a lot of time in the ideas, letting go of them became easier.\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003C\u002Fli>\n    \u003Cli style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u003Cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Because we were able to let go of ideas more easily, we were able to iterate more quickly.\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003C\u002Fli>\n\u003C\u002Fol>\n\n\u003Cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Altogether we were able to test multiple low-fidelity versions within a two-week period.\u003C\u002Fspan>\n\n\u003Ch3>\u003Cb>Finalizing our checklists\u003C\u002Fb>\u003C\u002Fh3>\n\n\u003Cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">One thing we learned during our research was that people responded well to being provided a setup checklist. One person, upon seeing the checklist, remarked that it helped them better understand the effort level required to start their community, which they had not considered before.\u003C\u002Fspan>\n\n\u003Cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Every feature or task holds some value—otherwise why would we have it? The hard part when creating onboarding workflows is identifying the core items people need to understand at specific moments in the process. For example, while it might be a good idea for someone to understand how to create a new tag, this isn’t a primary concern. Understanding how to create a tag only becomes important when people are asking and answering questions.\u003C\u002Fspan>\n\n\u003Cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Our goal was to help a Team focus on specific, core tasks during certain stages in their first 60–90 days. We divided these tasks into three groups:\u003C\u002Fspan>\n\n\u003Col>\n    \u003Cli style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u003Cb>Setup period:\u003C\u002Fb>\u003Cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Initial 10–14 days during which 5–10 people help seed content and get the Team setup for everyone else to join.\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003C\u002Fli>\n    \u003Cli style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u003Cb>Launch day:\u003C\u002Fb>\u003Cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> The day you’re ready to invite everyone into your community.\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003C\u002Fli>\n    \u003Cli style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u003Cb>Post-launch:\u003C\u002Fb>\u003Cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Provide community goals for the next 45–75 days to help continue and maintain momentum.\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003C\u002Fli>\n\u003C\u002Fol>\n\n[caption id=\"attachment_9319\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"1024\"]\u003Cimg class=\"size-large wp-image-9319\" src=\"https:\u002F\u002Fstackoverflow.blog\u002Fwp-content\u002Fuploads\u002F2018\u002F05\u002Fonboarding-checklists@2x-1050x675.png\" alt=\"The various sidebar guides that we present to users during the onboarding workflow.\" width=\"1024\" height=\"658\" \u002F> The various sidebar guides that we present to users during the onboarding workflow.[\u002Fcaption]\n\n\u003Cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Every task within these checklists reinforced core activities that are regularly found within successful communities.\u003C\u002Fspan>\n\n\u003Cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Along with the checklists, we also created starter questions. Going back to one of our original key findings: “Starting with an empty community rarely works.”, we found this applies to Team creators and guides as well! To help this first group get started, we provide questions that range from identifying people within a team to type of questions that should be asked. These unanswered questions allow for admins and Team Guides to jump in right away and start providing thoughts.\u003C\u002Fspan>\n\n[caption id=\"attachment_9314\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"800\"]\u003Cimg class=\"wp-image-9314\" src=\"https:\u002F\u002Fstackoverflow.blog\u002Fwp-content\u002Fuploads\u002F2018\u002F05\u002Fcompany-inc-launch-day-864x675.png\" alt=\"company inc launch day\" width=\"800\" height=\"625\" \u002F> An example of a clickable prototype that we tested[\u002Fcaption]\n\n\u003Ch3>\u003Cb>Looking ahead\u003C\u002Fb>\u003C\u002Fh3>\n\n\u003Cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This is just the beginning for onboarding. Our goal isn’t just to start communities, but to create strong, healthy, lasting communities that are trusted sources for a team. But that doesn’t happen if people don’t continually participate. So we’re exploring how we can continue to help teams as they reach the 90-day period and beyond.\u003C\u002Fspan>\n\n\u003Cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">That said, we know it’s not perfect and we’ll continue to test and observe communities as they use the current onboarding process.\u003C\u002Fspan>\n\n\u003Cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">We also excited about the possibility of taking this work and bringing it back to Area 51 for public communities. Much of what we’ve done within Teams applies within a public community setting as well.\u003C\u002Fspan>\n\n\u003Cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Healthy, strong communities don’t just happen. They’re products of purposeful, diligent work from a cohort of dedicated individuals that help provide a place for others to join in and share. By providing initial guidance, we hope that everyone will feel confident in starting their own community today.\u003C\u002Fspan>\n\n\u003Ca href=\"https:\u002F\u002Fstackoverflow.com\u002Fteams\">\u003Cstrong>Learn more about Stack Overflow for Teams >>\u003C\u002Fstrong>\u003C\u002Fa>","html","2018-05-16T15:20:24.000Z",{"current":443},"helping-teams-get-started",[445,453,458,463],{"_createdAt":446,"_id":447,"_rev":448,"_type":449,"_updatedAt":446,"slug":450,"title":452},"2023-05-23T16:43:21Z","wp-tagcat-bulletin","9HpbCsT2tq0xwozQfkc4ih","blogTag",{"current":451},"bulletin","Bulletin",{"_createdAt":446,"_id":454,"_rev":448,"_type":449,"_updatedAt":446,"slug":455,"title":457},"wp-tagcat-for-work",{"current":456},"for-work","For Work",{"_createdAt":446,"_id":459,"_rev":448,"_type":449,"_updatedAt":446,"slug":460,"title":462},"wp-tagcat-stackoverflow",{"current":461},"stackoverflow","Stackoverflow",{"_createdAt":446,"_id":464,"_rev":465,"_system":466,"_type":449,"_updatedAt":469,"description":470,"slug":479,"title":481},"wp-tagcat-stack-overflow-for-teams","FumDKDH8vd8OVFbknOKFJY",{"base":467},{"id":464,"rev":468},"66bNz0mmUxbMe9OZ0bbNam","2025-11-18T18:48:38Z",[471],{"_key":472,"_type":64,"children":473,"markDefs":478,"style":93},"e83c43fa0a26",[474],{"_key":475,"_type":68,"marks":476,"text":477},"a53345e47569",[],"Formerly Stack Overflow for Teams",[],{"current":480},"stack-internal","Stack Internal","Helping Teams Get Started",[484,490,496,502],{"_id":485,"publishedAt":486,"slug":487,"sponsored":12,"title":489},"28e560af-f0aa-4d46-bd90-f435ad604aa7","2026-06-26T14:00:27.102Z",{"_type":10,"current":488},"paging-charity-how-can-engineering-leaders-avoid-becoming-bond-villains","Paging Charity! How can engineering leaders avoid becoming Bond villains?",{"_id":491,"publishedAt":492,"slug":493,"sponsored":12,"title":495},"4b22c2a3-3779-4966-93eb-5230391dbdce","2026-06-23T14:08:58.595Z",{"_type":10,"current":494},"your-ai-shipped-a-backend-that-boots-that-is-the-whole-problem","Your AI shipped a backend that boots. That is the whole problem.",{"_id":497,"publishedAt":498,"slug":499,"sponsored":12,"title":501},"5cf362e1-fe7b-45af-b69c-914731c6a052","2026-06-23T14:00:00.000Z",{"_type":10,"current":500},"the-2026-developer-survey-is-now-open-for-human-developers-only","The 2026 Developer Survey is now open (for human developers only)!",{"_id":503,"publishedAt":504,"slug":505,"sponsored":12,"title":507},"30b995f7-7cb9-4dd8-bf71-d0685940a32b","2026-06-19T14:00:00.000Z",{"_type":10,"current":506},"dispatches-from-o-reilly-from-capabilities-to-responsibilities","Dispatches from O'Reilly: From capabilities to responsibilities",{"data":509,"sourceMap":-1},{"count":510,"lastTimestamp":511},6,"2023-05-25T09:46:33Z"]