Onboard
Personalized employee onboarding plans
Thesis
Employee onboarding is inconsistent. AI can personalize plans based on role while ensuring nothing is missed.
The Problem
Employee onboarding is chaos: HR has a checklist. The manager has different expectations. The new hire doesn't know who to ask what. Some people get great onboarding, some get thrown in. It takes months to feel productive. The information exists. The personalization doesn't. Everyone gets the same generic checklist regardless of role.
Implementation Approaches
Role-Based Plan Generator (Recommended)
Generate personalized onboarding from role + company materials
Implementation
- →Input: job description, team info, company docs
- →AI generates: week-by-week onboarding plan
- →Mix of: company-wide + team-specific + role-specific
- →Track progress, surface blockers
- →Adapt plan based on new hire feedback
Pros
- +Personalized without manual work
- +Consistent baseline with role customization
- +Measurable: track onboarding metrics
- +Flywheel: learns what makes good onboarding
Cons
- −Quality depends on source materials
- −Role-specific content needs to exist
- −May miss company culture nuances
Buddy + AI Assist
AI supports assigned onboarding buddy
Implementation
- →Buddy assigned as usual
- →AI provides: suggested topics, reminders, check-in prompts
- →New hire can ask AI questions first
- →Escalate to buddy when AI can't help
Pros
- +Keeps human connection central
- +Reduces buddy burden
- +AI handles repetitive questions
- +Works alongside existing programs
Cons
- −Still depends on buddy quality
- −Doesn't fix broken programs
- −Limited impact compared to full solution
Self-Service Knowledge Base
Searchable onboarding knowledge base with AI chat
Implementation
- →Centralize all onboarding materials
- →AI chat for questions
- →Suggested reading paths by role
- →Track: what do people search for?
Pros
- +New hires can self-serve
- +Scales without adding headcount
- +Shows gaps via search patterns
- +Foundation for more advanced features
Cons
- −Passive, requires self-motivation
- −Doesn't replace structured program
- −Knowledge base must be created first
Validation Plan
Hypothesis to Test
Companies will pay $99/mo for AI-generated personalized onboarding plans
Validation Phases
Manual Plan Generation
1 week- •Get job descriptions and onboarding materials from 2 companies
- •Manually generate personalized plans using Claude
- •Compare to their existing onboarding
- •Get feedback: better, worse, what's missing?
Generator MVP
2 weeks- •Build role-based plan generator
- •Support 3 common role types
- •Test with 5 upcoming hires across 2 companies
- •Gather feedback from new hires and managers
Full Program Pilot
4 weeks- •Run full onboarding program for 10 new hires
- •Track: time to productivity, satisfaction scores
- •Compare to control group with standard onboarding
- •Validate $99/mo pricing
Kill Criteria
Stop and move on if any of these become true:
- ✕Generated plans are too generic to be useful
- ✕Companies don't have source materials to work with
- ✕New hires prefer human-led onboarding regardless
- ✕Too hard to measure ROI