Bringing a new teammate into your workflow can feel like throwing them in the deep end—especially if your team runs on tools with a learning curve. If you use Common Room to manage your community, customer engagement, or internal collaboration, you want new folks up to speed without wasting anyone’s time (including yours). This guide is for managers, team leads, or anyone tasked with onboarding someone new to Common Room. We'll skip the sales pitch and get right into what works, what doesn’t, and how to keep the process sane.
Step 1: Prep Before They Join
Onboarding shouldn’t start on someone’s first day. Set things up ahead of time so you’re not scrambling.
- Set up their account: Send an invite before their first day, ideally with the right permissions. Don’t make them wait on IT for basic access.
- Decide what they actually need: Don’t dump the whole product on them. Figure out which rooms, channels, or features matter for their role.
- Document the essentials: Make a short doc (really, keep it short) with:
- Your team’s main use cases for Common Room
- Must-join rooms or spaces
- Key people to follow or watch
- Links to any custom workflows or integrations you use
Pro tip: Skip the 80-page onboarding manual. If you need that much documentation, the process is broken.
Step 2: Give a Quick Guided Tour
The first time someone logs into Common Room, it can look busy—lots of dashboards, notifications, and options. Don’t leave them to wander.
- Walk through the basics live: A 20-minute screenshare beats a dry wiki. Show:
- How to navigate the dashboard
- Where to find important discussions or community threads
- How to search and filter for information
- The basics of posting and replying
- Highlight what not to worry about: Most of Common Room’s advanced features can wait. Don’t overwhelm with analytics, integrations, or niche settings.
What to skip: Don’t do a feature-by-feature tour. People remember workflows, not button locations. Show them how to get stuff done, not just what’s possible.
Step 3: Connect to Team-Specific Workflows
Common Room can do a lot. The trick is getting new folks to use it the way your team actually does.
- Show real examples: Walk through a current project or thread relevant to their job. Explain how your team uses tags, notes, or integrations.
- Assign a “starter task”: Have them post a question, reply to a thread, or tag a conversation—something low stakes but real. This builds confidence faster than a tutorial.
- Explain the “why”: If your team uses Common Room for more than chat (say, tracking customer feedback), explain how and why. Don’t assume the purpose is obvious.
What’s overkill: Don’t force them to read every team SOP before contributing. Let them learn by doing—just be ready to give feedback.
Step 4: Set Expectations and Permissions
A lot of headaches come from unclear roles. Make it obvious what new members can (and can’t) do in Common Room.
- Clarify permissions: Make sure they know their role (admin, member, guest, etc.) and what that means. Are they allowed to create new rooms? Invite others? Change settings?
- Explain notification settings: Everyone has a different tolerance for pings. Show them how to adjust alerts so they don’t get overwhelmed or miss something important.
- Point out “house rules”: If your team has dos and don'ts for posting, tagging, or direct messaging, lay them out now. Don’t assume people will just “get it.”
Pro tip: Encourage them to ask if they’re not sure about posting or tagging something. A little awkwardness up front beats cleaning up messes later.
Step 5: Make Help Easy to Find
No one remembers everything from day one. Set up a safety net.
- Pin the essentials: Pin your quick-start doc and any FAQ threads in a visible spot.
- Show them where to get help: Whether it’s a #help channel, a go-to teammate, or Common Room’s own support, make sure new folks know where to ask questions.
- Encourage “learning in public”: If they’re stuck, it’s likely others are too. Encourage posting questions or lessons learned—this helps everyone.
What not to do: Don’t just say “read the docs.” Good onboarding is about people, not just resources.
Step 6: Follow Up (But Don’t Micromanage)
Check in after a week or so to see how they’re doing.
- Ask what’s confusing: You’ll catch gaps in your process this way. Don’t wait for someone to struggle in silence.
- Invite feedback: What was missing? What felt like a waste of time? Use it to improve onboarding for the next person.
- Let them teach the next hire: If they picked things up quickly, ask them to help onboard the next new team member. It’s a good way to reinforce their knowledge.
What to ignore: Don’t set up standing “onboarding check-in” meetings forever. A quick DM usually does the trick.
What Actually Works (and What Doesn’t)
Here’s the reality: onboarding works best when it’s focused, interactive, and relevant.
What works: - Keeping instructions short and focused on daily tasks - Letting people get hands-on ASAP - Making it safe to ask “dumb” questions
What doesn’t: - Long, generic training videos (no one watches them) - Overloading with features or settings that don’t matter for their job - Assuming they’ll “pick it up” just by lurking
And if you’re tempted to automate every bit of onboarding—don’t. Personal guidance beats automation, especially for tools like Common Room where team culture matters.
Keep It Simple, Iterate as You Go
You don’t need a perfect onboarding plan. Start simple, focus on what actually helps people do their job, and tweak your process as you learn what sticks. Most importantly: stay available, keep documentation short, and remember that nobody gets it all right on day one.
The less time you spend explaining Common Room, the more time your new teammate spends actually using it—which is the whole point.