How much does a UX design sprint cost?

A UX design sprint costs $500 fixed price with 7-day delivery. This includes Figma files ready for development and revisions until you approve within your package scope. No hidden costs.

How long does UX design take for a SaaS startup?

A focused UX design sprint takes 7 working days from kickoff to Figma delivery. Full SaaS MVP design and development takes 30 days.

What is included in a UX design sprint?

The sprint includes Figma files ready for development, revisions until you approve within your package scope, daily progress updates, and delivery in 7 working days for $500 fixed price.

Do I need to pay upfront for the design sprint?

No payment is required to apply. After reviewing your request within 24 hours, a 50% deposit reserves your seat and the remaining 50% is paid before final file delivery.

← All teardowns

Onboarding Pattern•5 min read

The Empty Dashboard Is Where Your Trial Signups Go to Die

The hardest part already happened -- a visitor trusted you enough to become a user. Then first login greets them with empty charts, a table that says "No records found", and a navigation bar built for power users. Nobody tells them what to do first. Most SaaS churn does not happen at cancellation; it happens here, silently, in the first session. This teardown covers the pattern and the redesign that turns a blank screen into an activation engine.

The findings

01High impact

Zero guidance at the moment of highest intent

The user arrives more motivated than they will ever be again -- and the product answers with a blank dashboard. No next step, no suggested action. Motivation has nowhere to go, so it evaporates.

The fix

Replace the empty state with a 3-step setup checklist front and center: connect your data, invite a teammate, complete your first core action. Show progress as they go -- a half-done checklist pulls people back to finish it.

Principle: Zeigarnik Effect -- unfinished tasks pull people back; momentum dies in silence without a next action (Zeigarnik, 1927; Weinschenk, "100 Things Every Designer Needs to Know About People").

02High impact

Empty charts read as a broken product

Widgets rendering "No data" look like errors, not potential. The user cannot tell what the product will look like when it works -- so they cannot want it yet.

The fix

Fill charts with clearly-labeled sample data until real data arrives. The user should see what "good" looks like on day one, with a one-click path to replace the demo with their own numbers.

Principle: Mental Models -- show the promise before the data exists, so users can picture what the product does (Norman, "The Design of Everyday Things").

03Medium impact

Full navigation exposed on day one

Fourteen nav items on first login is not power -- it is noise. New users click three random sections, find them empty too, and conclude the product is heavier than their problem.

The fix

De-emphasize or progressively unlock advanced sections until core setup is done. Day-one navigation should have one visually obvious path, not fourteen equal ones.

Principle: Hick's Law -- decision time grows with the number of options; match surface area to user maturity (Hick & Hyman, 1952; "Laws of UX").

04Medium impact

The "aha" action is buried three levels deep

The single action that proves the product’s value -- the first report, the first automation, the first insight -- sits behind menus and settings the new user has no reason to open.

The fix

Put one primary button on the empty dashboard that drives straight to that action, pre-filled with sensible defaults so it succeeds on the first try.

Principle: Goal-Gradient Effect -- the shortest visible path to first value beats feature completeness (Hull, 1932; Kivetz, Urminsky & Zheng, 2006).

05Low impact

No human fallback at the friction point

When a trial user gets stuck during setup, there is no visible way to reach a human -- and trial users do not file support tickets. They just leave.

The fix

Add a contextual "Stuck? Book 10 minutes" link inside the setup checklist. At trial stage, one short call converts better than any tooltip.

Principle: Fogg Behavior Model -- place the prompt where ability is lowest; high-touch beats churn while trust forms (BJ Fogg, Stanford Behavior Design Lab).

The Empty Dashboard Is Where Your Trial Signups Go to Die

The findings

Zero guidance at the moment of highest intent

Empty charts read as a broken product

Full navigation exposed on day one

The "aha" action is buried three levels deep

No human fallback at the friction point

What this buys you

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