A new platform can set up in a hundred directions at once. The Get Started checklist picks the handful that actually matter and puts them in order. It sits on your dashboard and ticks itself off as you work.
How it decides what to show you
The checklist is not the same for everyone. When you create a workspace, the setup asks what you would like to build, and the steps follow that answer. Creating your workspace describes the setup.
- Community asks you to set up your community spaces and write a first post.
- Courses & Coaching asks you to get one course ready and sell it.
- Membership business asks you to publish a product, connect payments and set up your community.
If you picked Configure yourself, or your workspace has no setup type, you get the general list instead: your account, your profile, branding, then the steps for each area you have switched on.
Steps for features you do not use never appear. If Payments is off, nobody asks you to connect Stripe.
The steps
Create account. Ticked the moment you sign up. It is there so the list starts with something already done.
Personalize your profile. Only in the general list. Add a photo to your own user. Your name sits on posts, comments and lessons, and a face makes the place feel inhabited.
Customize branding. Upload your own logo and pick a primary colour other than the default blue. The step needs both. This is the step that changes the most for the least work, because it touches every screen your members see.
Then come the content steps, one real thing in each area so the platform is no longer empty when you invite someone:
- The general list asks for Create your first forum and Customize your community for the community, plus Create your first course, Create your first hub and Create your first event, each only while that area is switched on.
- The setup types ask for Customize your community spaces, Write your first post or Build your course content. Community spaces are done once you add a forum of your own, delete one of the sample forums or remove the sample content. The first post has to be your own, the sample posts do not count.
Connect Stripe to accept payments. Done once your Stripe account has finished its onboarding and can accept payments, or once PayPal is connected. Only shown when Payments is switched on.
Publish your first product. Only on the course and membership lists. Done once a product is active. Event tickets do not count.
Invite your first members. The last step on the community, course and membership lists, and deliberately last. Everything above it is what a new member sees when they arrive. It turns green with the first active member. Your team does not count, so inviting an admin or a trainer leaves it open. The general list has no invite step.
Work the list top to bottom. Each step assumes the ones above it are done, which is why branding comes before you invite anybody.
Checking your progress
The checklist shows how many steps are done out of the total, for example 3/8. A step turns green on its own once the platform can see it is finished, so there is nothing to tick by hand. Upload a logo and pick a colour, and Customize branding is complete the next time the dashboard loads.
On a new, empty dashboard the checklist is a full card called Get Started with the Next step on top and every other step below it. Once your dashboard has content, it becomes a slim row at the top of Overview: the next step, your progress and Continue. The arrow beside it, Show all steps, lists the rest.
When every step is done, the checklist disappears.
Removing the sample content
If the setup created sample content for your workspace, the checklist offers Remove sample content: below the steps on the full card, or once you open all steps with the arrow button (Show all steps) in the slim row. The same button sits in the Sample content box at the bottom of the features page.
It deletes the sample community areas, forums, posts, events, courses, hubs and product drafts that were created for you. Samples you have edited since, and samples that already hold posts, comments or events, stay. Your own content stays untouched.
Hiding the checklist
Once you are set up, the checklist has done its job. Click Hide guide and your dashboard gets the space back. On the full card it is the cross in the corner, and Hide the setup guide? asks you to confirm first. Hiding applies to the whole workspace, so your team no longer sees it either.
Hiding the checklist does not reset anything. Your progress is kept.
If you hide it too early, click Show setup guide on your dashboard to bring it back. That link is there as long as steps are still open.