← Back to examples

Create onboarding pack

Build week-1 learning paths and reusable Q&A from team docs.

For
Team leads
Time
18 minutes
Difficulty
Beginner

The problem

Onboarding new teammates means repeatedly answering the same questions and curating scattered docs. Smaran connects your team knowledge (docs, conventions, glossaries) so you can generate a structured onboarding pack with a week-1 learning path and reusable chat prompts for common questions.

What you need before starting

Team documentation
READMEs, wikis, process docs
Team conventions and style guides
Coding standards, design patterns, workflows
Glossary or FAQ (optional)
Common terms and questions

Step-by-step workflow

STEP 1

Add team knowledge sources

Go to Sources and upload team docs, conventions, style guides, and any FAQ or glossary. Include repo READMEs if applicable.

Success looks like: All team knowledge indexed in workspace.
STEP 2

Define onboarding goals

In chat, ask: "What should a new [role] learn in week 1?", "What are the most important conventions?", "What questions do new people usually ask?"

Success looks like: Cited list of topics and questions grounded in team docs.
STEP 3

Create onboarding artifact

Create artifact titled "Onboarding Guide: [Role]". Structure: Welcome, Week 1 Plan, Key Resources, Common Questions, Next Steps.

Success looks like: Blank onboarding guide ready for content.
STEP 4

Generate week-1 learning path

Ask chat: "Create a day-by-day plan for week 1", "What docs should they read first?", "What tasks should they complete?" Insert and organize by priority.

Success looks like: Structured week-1 plan with doc citations and clear tasks.
STEP 5

Build reusable Q&A prompts

Add a section with common questions new teammates can ask in chat: "How do we handle code review?", "Where are our design assets?", "What's our deployment process?"

Success looks like: List of pre-written prompts that retrieve from team docs.
STEP 6

Customize for role variants

If onboarding differs by role (eng vs design vs PM), create role-specific sections or duplicate and customize the artifact.

Success looks like: Each role has tailored onboarding with relevant docs.

What good output looks like

Day 1: Setup and orientation
  • • Read team README (linked)
  • • Set up dev environment (see setup.md)
  • • Review code style guide (conventions.md)
Day 2-3: Core workflows
  • • Learn branching strategy (git-workflow.md)
  • • Submit first PR following review guidelines
  • • Join team standup
Common questions (use in chat):
  • • "How do we handle code review?"
  • • "Where are deployment instructions?"
  • • "What's our testing strategy?"

Common mistakes and fixes

Overwhelming with too much on day 1

Assigning 20 docs to read in the first day leads to nothing getting read.

Fix: Limit day 1 to 3 key docs and 2 concrete setup tasks.
Not updating when team docs change

Onboarding guide references stale docs or outdated workflows.

Fix: Review and re-generate sections quarterly as team docs evolve.

Reusable prompt template

Create onboarding guide for new [role] from team docs.

Include:
- Week 1 day-by-day learning plan
- Priority order for docs to read
- Concrete tasks to complete
- Reusable Q&A prompts for common questions

Keep day 1 light (setup + 2-3 key docs).
Link all resources with citations.

Related examples

Document product decisions →

Help new teammates understand past choices

Build a PRD from sources →

Create requirements docs new people can reference

Ready to build your onboarding pack?

Connect your team docs and follow this guide in Smaran.

Start FreeView all examples