You can use automations with user-specific time conditions to create a structured onboarding experience. By linking widgets, journeys, and notifications to the contract start date, each learner sees exactly the right content during their first weeks and months.
Learning objectives
By the end of this article, you will be able to:
Build an onboarding dashboard using widgets in the discovery stream
Use contract start date as a condition in automations
Unlock journeys, activities, and widgets over time
Add notifications to guide learners during onboarding
Step 1: Create your content
Start by creating the journeys and adding the activities you want learners to complete during onboarding. Think of these as your building blocks: Welcome activities, compliance modules, product training, or team introductions.
For example:
Learning bite 1: Welcome
Learning bite 2: Basic I
Learning bite 3: Basic II
Learning bite 4: Advanced I
Learning bite 5: Expert
Journey 1: Safety
Journey 2: Security
Step 2: Add widgets to the stream
Remember, widgets determine how content is displayed in the discovery stream. For a default Newbies Onboarding dashboard, we recommend:
Spotlighted activity: Welcome to newbies
Included activity: Learning bite 1: Welcome
Featured activities: Belgium onboarding
Included activities:
Learning bite 2: Basic I
Learning bite 3: Basic II
Learning bite 4: Advanced I
Learning bite 5: Expert
Magic wall: Fun fact
Journey slider: Important concepts
Included journeys:
Journey 1: Safety
Journey 2: Security
Place the widgets in the stream in the order you want learners to see them.
⚠️ Important:
Each widget is only a container. You still need automations to unlock them and their content.
Step 3: Define your automations
You will use automations to control when onboarding content appears.
💡 Tip:
We recommend you create a little calendar to help you creating these automations. For example:
Week | From | To |
Preboarding (week 0) | 7d before | 1s before |
Week 1 | 0h after | 6d 23h 59m after |
Week 2 | 7d after | 13d 23h 59m after |
Week 3 + 4 | 14d after | 27d 23h 59m after |
Month 2 | 28d after | 55d 23h 59m after |
Month 3 | 56d after | 83d 23h 59m after |
Unlocking widgets:
The widget automation makes the content in a container
Widget: Spotlighted activity: Welcome to newbies
Automation: Unlock the widget
Name: Unlock widget: Spotlighted activity: Welcome to newbies
Event type: Check periodically
Condition (and):
Is group: Belgium
User-specific time condition: Contact start date of user, start from 0s after to 3 months after
Action: Unlock widget: Spotlighted activity: Welcome to newbies
Purpose: makes the widget container visible in the stream for the right group.
Widget: Featured activities: Belgium onboarding
Automation: Unlock the widget
Name: Unlock widget: Featured activities: Belgium onboarding
Event type: Check periodically
Condition (and):
Is group: Belgium
User-specific time condition: Contact start date of user, start from 0s after to 3 months after
Action: Unlock widget: Featured activities: Belgium onboarding
Purpose: makes the container visible in the stream for the right group.
Unlocking content:
The content automation controls when learners see the activities or journeys inside the widget. For onboarding, you can apply time conditions based on the contract start date.
Automation 1: Unlock learning bite 1 (Week 1)
Name: Boarding Belgium – Unlock Module 1
Event type: Check periodically
Condition (and):
Is group: Belgium
User-specific time condition: contract start date of user, start from 0s after to 7d after
Action: Unlock activity Learning bite 1
Automation 2: Unlock learning bite 2 (Week 2)
Name: Boarding Belgium – Unlock Module 2
Event type: Check periodically
Condition (and):
Is group: Belgium
User-specific time condition: contract start date of user, start from 7d after to 14d after
Action: Unlock activity Learning bite 2
Automation 3: Unlock learning bite 3 (Week 3)
Name: Boarding Belgium – Unlock Module 3
Event type: Check periodically
Condition (and):
Is group: Belgium
User-specific time condition: contract start date of user, start from 14d after to 21d after
Action: Unlock activity Learning bite 3
Automation 4: Unlock learning bite 4 (Week 4)
Name: Boarding Belgium – Unlock Module 4
Event type: Check periodically
Condition (and):
Is group: Belgium
User-specific time condition: contract start date of user, start from 21d after to 28d after
Action: Unlock activity Learning bite 4
Automation 5: Unlock learning bite 5 (Month 2)
Name: Boarding Belgium – Unlock Module 5
Event type: Check periodically
Condition (and):
Is group: Belgium
User-specific time condition: contract start date of user, start from 28d after to 55d after
Action: Unlock activity Learning bite 5
⚠️ Important:
Always separate widget and content unlocks into different automations.
What other automations can you create?
Beyond unlocking widgets and activities, you can also set up automations that notify learners at the right time. Notifications help guide learners and make sure they stay on track during onboarding.
Examples of notification automations:
Welcome message
Event type: Check periodically
Condition (and):
Is group: Belgium;
User-specific time condition: contract start date of user, start from 0s after to 1d after
Action: Notify user: “Welcome to the team! Start with Module 1 in your dashboard.”
Reminder message
Event type: Check periodically
Condition (and):
Is group: Belgium;
User-specific time condition: contract start date of user, start from 6d after to 7d after
Is activity: Learning bite 1, status: Uncompleted
Action: Notify user: “Don’t forget to complete Module 1 before moving to Module 2 next week.”
Encouragement message
Event type: Check periodically
Condition (and):
Is group: Belgium;
User-specific time condition: contract start date of user, start from 20d after to 21d after
Action: Notify user: “Great work so far! Your Week 4 module is now ready.”