Shortcut the setup that blocks activation

A helping-hand email for people who started your hardest setup step and didn't finish it — sent while they're still in the attempt, with the shortest way around the blocker.

When to run it

There's a setup step between signup and value — connect a data source, verify a domain, install a snippet — and your funnel shows people starting it and not finishing. They didn't reject the product; they hit friction on the way to it, usually somewhere you can't see (a permissions dialog, a colleague who owns the DNS).

Why it works

Someone who started the blocking step has already told you two things: they want the outcome, and something specific stopped them. That's the easiest email in lifecycle to write, because you know exactly what to offer — the docs page for that step, a sample-data shortcut that skips it, or a human. Timing matters more than polish: an hour later they're still in the attempt; a week later they've mentally filed the product as "didn't work".

The play

1. Track two moments: when someone starts the blocking step and when they finish it. The gap between them is the play's trigger.
2. Wait a few hours after the start — long enough to not interrupt, short enough to still be in their working day.
3. Send the shortcut: a direct link back into the step, the one docs page that covers the common failure, and an explicit "reply and a human will do it with you".
4. Offer a way to see value without the step where you can — sample data, a sandbox — so the blocked path isn't the only path.

Ship it with Hogsend

import { defineJourney, hours, sendEmail } from "@hogsend/engine";

export const setupShortcut = defineJourney({
  meta: {
    id: "aha-moment-shortcut",
    trigger: { event: "setup.step_started" },
    entryLimit: "once",
    suppress: hours(0),
    // Finishing setup any other way ends the journey mid-wait.
    exitOn: [{ event: "setup.completed" }],
  },
  run: async (user, ctx) => {
    const finished = await ctx.waitForEvent({
      event: "setup.completed",
      timeout: hours(4),
      label: "await-setup",
    });
    if (!finished.timedOut) return;
    await sendEmail({
      to: user.email,
      userId: user.id,
      template: "activation/setup-shortcut",
    });
  },
});

For the high-touch variant — a human offering to do the setup live — see the concierge onboarding recipe.

How you'll know

Completion rate of the blocking step, before and after. The step is already two tracked moments, so the funnel exists the moment you ship the instrumentation — watch started → completed conversion and the time between them.