# Epic PRD: Referral Onboarding Improvements for Invited Teams

## 1. Epic Name

Referral Onboarding Improvements for Invited Teams

## 2. Goal

- **Problem:** TeamSync's referral program drives strong top-of-funnel signup (41% link-to-account conversion), but activation collapses to just 15% at Day 30. 62% of referred signups never complete the Getting Started checklist. The root cause is that invited teams land in a blank workspace with zero context — no indication of why they were referred, no templates or channel structures from the referrer, and no collaborative setup path. The referrer has no visibility into whether their invitee activated or needs help, eliminating organic follow-up that could rescue at-risk signups. Referred user NPS (34) trails overall NPS (52) by 18 points, confirming a degraded first-run experience.

- **Solution:** Replace the generic post-referral signup flow with a context-rich, guided onboarding experience. The referrer can attach a "Workspace Starter Kit" (selected templates, channel structures, and a personal welcome message) to their referral link. The invited team lands on a personalized onboarding page that explains who referred them and why, and can one-click provision their workspace from the Starter Kit. A referral dashboard gives the referrer real-time visibility into invitee activation status, with the option to nudge or offer help.

- **Impact:**
  - Increase referral activation rate from 15% to 35%+ within 90 days of launch.
  - Reduce referred-user time-to-value (first project created) from ~6 days to <1 day.
  - Lift referral user NPS from 34 to 45+.
  - Drive incremental revenue: each activated referral workspace represents ~$12-24/user/mo in ARR.

## 3. User Personas

- **Referrer — Workspace Admin (Alex):** A Team-plan admin at a 40-person marketing agency. Alex loves TeamSync and wants partner agencies to adopt it so they can collaborate cross-org. Alex has a well-organized workspace with project templates and channel structures they'd like to share.

- **Invitee — Team Lead (Morgan):** Head of Operations at a 25-person consultancy that received Alex's referral link. Morgan is evaluating collaboration tools but has limited time for setup. They need to see value fast or they'll abandon the trial.

- **Invitee — Team Member (Sam):** An individual contributor on Morgan's team who will be invited into the new workspace. Sam expects things to "just work" and won't explore features proactively — the workspace needs to feel ready on Day 1.

- **Internal Stakeholder — Growth PM (Dana):** Owns referral program KPIs. Needs instrumented analytics across the new funnel to measure impact and iterate.

## 4. High-Level User Journeys

### Journey 1: Referrer creates and sends a Starter Kit referral

1. Alex navigates to **Settings > Referrals** and clicks "Create Referral."
2. A new "Attach Starter Kit" option appears. Alex selects templates (e.g., "Client Project," "Sprint Board"), channels (e.g., "#general," "#standups"), and types a personal welcome message.
3. Alex previews what the invitee will see, then copies the referral link.
4. Alex shares the link via email or Slack.

### Journey 2: Invited team signs up with context-rich onboarding

1. Morgan clicks Alex's referral link and lands on a **personalized landing page** showing Alex's name/company, their welcome message, and a preview of the Starter Kit contents.
2. Morgan creates an account (email + password or SSO). The 30-day extended trial is automatically applied.
3. Instead of an empty workspace, Morgan sees a **guided setup wizard** with three steps:
   - **Step 1 — Apply Starter Kit:** One-click to provision the workspace with Alex's recommended templates and channels. Morgan can deselect items they don't want.
   - **Step 2 — Invite your team:** Pre-built invite flow with suggested roles based on the Starter Kit structure.
   - **Step 3 — Connect integrations:** Contextual suggestions based on what the referrer's workspace uses (e.g., "Alex's team uses the Slack integration").
4. Morgan completes setup in under 5 minutes and lands in a workspace that feels ready to use.

### Journey 3: Referrer monitors and assists invitee activation

1. Alex visits **Settings > Referrals > My Referrals** and sees a dashboard with each invitee's status: Link Sent, Signed Up, Starter Kit Applied, Active (Day 7+).
2. Alex sees Morgan is stuck at "Signed Up" after 3 days. Alex clicks "Send Nudge" which triggers a personalized email to Morgan with a direct link back into setup.
3. Once Morgan activates, Alex sees the status update and both parties receive a confirmation with the referral rewards applied.

## 5. Business Requirements

### Functional Requirements

- **Starter Kit Builder:** Referrers can select up to 5 project templates and 10 channels from their workspace to include in a Starter Kit. They can add a welcome message (max 500 characters).
- **Personalized Referral Landing Page:** Displays referrer's name, company, welcome message, and a visual preview of the Starter Kit contents. Includes clear CTA to sign up.
- **Guided Setup Wizard:** Three-step post-signup flow (Apply Kit, Invite Team, Connect Integrations) replacing the current generic Getting Started checklist for referred users.
- **One-Click Workspace Provisioning:** Applying a Starter Kit creates the selected channels and instantiates project templates in the invitee's workspace in under 10 seconds.
- **Referral Dashboard:** Referrers see a list of their referrals with status tracking (Link Sent, Signed Up, Kit Applied, Active). Supports "Send Nudge" action for inactive invitees.
- **Nudge Emails:** Automated email sent to invitees who signed up but haven't completed setup after 48 hours. Referrer can also trigger a manual nudge. Maximum 2 automated + 1 manual nudge per invitee.
- **Integration Suggestions:** The setup wizard surfaces the referrer's active integrations as recommendations (display only — no data sharing or auto-connection).
- **Analytics Instrumentation:** Every step of the new funnel emits Mixpanel events: link_clicked, landing_page_viewed, signup_completed, starter_kit_previewed, starter_kit_applied, setup_wizard_step_completed, workspace_activated. Include referral_id and starter_kit_id as properties.
- **Backwards Compatibility:** Existing referral links without Starter Kits continue to work with the current flow. The Starter Kit is opt-in for referrers.
- **Referral Reward Attribution:** Existing reward logic (20% referrer discount, 30-day invitee trial) is preserved. Rewards trigger on the same activation criteria as today.

### Non-Functional Requirements

- **Performance:** Starter Kit provisioning (workspace creation from kit) must complete in <10 seconds for kits with up to 5 templates and 10 channels.
- **Scalability:** Support up to 500 concurrent referral signups without degradation (peak load during marketing campaigns).
- **Security:** Starter Kits must not leak any content or data from the referrer's workspace — only structural metadata (template names, channel names, integration types) is shared. No messages, files, or member data.
- **Privacy:** Referral dashboard shows invitee email and activation status only. Referrers cannot see invitee workspace contents.
- **Accessibility:** All new UI (landing page, setup wizard, dashboard) must meet WCAG 2.1 AA.
- **Email Compliance:** Nudge emails must include unsubscribe links and comply with CAN-SPAM. Rate-limited to prevent abuse.
- **Data Retention:** Referral tracking data retained for 12 months. Starter Kit metadata retained as long as the referrer's workspace is active.

## 6. Success Metrics

| Metric | Baseline (Q1 2026) | Target (90 days post-launch) |
|--------|-------------------|------------------------------|
| Referral activation rate (Day 30) | 15% | 35% |
| Getting Started completion rate (referred users) | 38% | 70% |
| Referred-user time-to-value (first project created) | ~6 days | <1 day |
| Referral user NPS | 34 | 45+ |
| Starter Kit attach rate (referrers) | N/A (new) | 50% of new referral links |
| Nudge-to-activation conversion | N/A (new) | 20% |
| Referral links generated/month | ~3,200 | 3,800+ (lift from improved referrer experience) |

## 7. Out of Scope

- **Cross-workspace collaboration:** This epic does not enable real-time collaboration between the referrer's and invitee's workspaces (e.g., shared channels across orgs).
- **Starter Kit marketplace:** No public library of community Starter Kits. Kits are private to the referrer who created them.
- **Automated integration connection:** The setup wizard recommends integrations but does not auto-connect them on behalf of the invitee. Each integration requires the invitee's own OAuth consent.
- **Referral program changes:** Reward structure (20% / 30-day trial), eligibility rules, and billing logic remain unchanged.
- **Mobile onboarding:** The new guided setup wizard is web-only for v1. Mobile users will see the existing flow.
- **Custom branding on referral pages:** Referral landing pages use TeamSync branding. White-label or co-branded pages are a future consideration.
- **Multi-level referrals:** No referral chains or tiered rewards (e.g., "refer someone who refers someone").

## 8. Business Value

**High** — The referral channel currently converts 3,200 links/month into just ~197 active workspaces (41% signup x 15% activation). Raising activation to 35% would yield ~460 active workspaces/month — a 2.3x increase in organic workspace growth with zero additional acquisition cost. At an average $12/user/mo with 10 users per workspace, each incremental activated workspace represents ~$1,440 ARR. The estimated incremental revenue impact is **$380K+ ARR** within the first year. Additionally, improving referred-user NPS from 34 to 45+ strengthens the viral loop, as satisfied referred teams are more likely to become referrers themselves.