Write an executive summary of a UX research study

Input

study_name: Beacon Onboarding Research — Why Users Don't Launch Their First Survey
study_type: Moderated usability tests + user interviews (combined)
research_question: What prevents new users from launching their first survey within 7 days of signup?
participants: 8 HR managers at companies with 100–400 employees; all signed up within 60 days but never launched a survey
method: 55-minute moderated Zoom sessions combining think-aloud usability testing with semi-structured interview
date_conducted: November 11–15, 2024
key_findings: |
  1. "Invite team members" is the most common abandonment point — users believe it means inviting survey recipients, not software admin users, and stop when they realize they need IT approval
  2. No clear "start here" pathway — users arrive at the dashboard and don't know what to do first
  3. Template overwhelm — 30+ templates with no guidance causes decision paralysis for 4/8 users
  4. Results don't tell users what to do — users can see scores but don't know how to interpret or act on them (discovered as a secondary finding)
  5. Email domain uncertainty — users don't know if surveys will send from their company domain
supporting_evidence: Quotes from 8 sessions; screen recordings showing specific abandonment points; task completion data (see appendix)
decisions: Whether to redesign onboarding, and which specific steps to prioritize in the redesign
audience: VP Product, Head of Design, Head of Engineering, CEO (will be shared at product review)

Output

# Executive Summary: Beacon Onboarding Research
**Conducted:** November 2024 | **Researcher:** [Name] | **Participants:** 8 HR managers

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## At a Glance

**What we studied:** Why new users sign up for Beacon but don't launch their first survey within 7 days.

**How we studied it:** 8 moderated usability sessions (55 minutes each) with HR managers who signed up but never launched a survey.

**Most important finding:** The primary barrier is a labeling problem — "Invite team members" means something different to users (survey recipients) than it means in the product (software admin users). This single point of confusion stops most users in their tracks because adding software users requires IT approval they don't have.

**We recommend:**
- Rename and separate "Invite team members" from "Add survey recipients" immediately
- Add a guided "Start here" wizard that directs users to their first survey before exploring anything else
- Reduce visible templates from 30+ to 5–7 with a brief recommendation question

**Confidence:** High for findings 1 and 2 (confirmed by 5+ of 8 participants with direct behavioral evidence). Medium for findings 3–5.

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## Key Findings

**Finding 1: "Invite team members" causes the most abandonment — and the reason is semantic, not technical**
*Confidence: High | 5/8 participants abandoned here*

Users encounter "Invite team members" and assume it means adding employees as survey recipients. In reality, it means adding admin users to the Beacon account. When users realize this is a software access grant (requiring IT approval), they stop. This is not a complex technical problem — it's a labeling problem with a low-effort fix.

> "I don't have permission to add new software users — that goes through IT. So I just stopped." — P2
> "I thought I was inviting people to take the survey. Those are very different things." — P5

**So what:** This single point of confusion likely explains a significant portion of our 62% non-launch rate. The fix — renaming the step and separating the two workflows — should be fast and high-impact.

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**Finding 2: No "start here" signal — users wander**
*Confidence: High | 6/8 participants*

Users arrive at the dashboard after signup and don't know what to do first. The product presents multiple entry points (templates, settings, team management) but no clear first action. Most users clicked around for several minutes before asking for help or giving up.

> "Nothing felt like the 'start here' button." — P1
> "I spent an hour trying to read all the settings. I never actually sent anything." — P4

**So what:** A guided onboarding wizard that surfaces "Create your first survey" as the obvious first action could unblock most new users with minimal engineering investment.

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**Finding 3: 30+ templates paralyzes decision-making**
*Confidence: Medium | 4/8 participants*

When presented with more than 30 survey templates, nearly half of participants froze. Without guidance on which template fits their situation, they worried about choosing wrong.

> "There were like 30 templates and I didn't know which one was right. I ended up just closing the window." — P3

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## Recommendations

| Priority | Recommendation | Effort | Impact | Based On |
|----------|---------------|--------|--------|---------|
| 1 | Rename "Invite team members" to "Add admin users" and create a separate "Add survey recipients" flow | Low | High | Finding 1 |
| 2 | Add a guided "Start here" wizard surfacing survey creation as step 1 | Medium | High | Finding 2 |
| 3 | Reduce initial template display to 5–7 with a recommendation question | Low | Medium | Finding 3 |
| 4 | Add email domain information to setup screen | Low | Low-medium | Finding 5 |
| 5 | Add benchmark context and "what to do next" guidance to results view | High | High | Finding 4 |

**Quick Wins (Low effort, High impact):** Recommendations 1 and 3
**Big Bets (High effort, High impact):** Recommendations 2 and 5
**Fill-ins:** Recommendation 4

## What We Don't Know
- Whether these findings hold for different customer segments (enterprise vs. SMB, different industries)
- Whether fixing Finding 1 alone is sufficient to unblock most users, or whether Finding 2 also needs to be fixed simultaneously
- Long-term retention impact of fixing these barriers (would need post-launch measurement)

**Recommended follow-up:** A/B test the "Invite team members" relabeling with the next 200 signups before committing to the full onboarding redesign.