Our Onboarding Assumed You Were Starting From Zero

By Junaid Ahmed

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A beta tester sat down to set up PodGlue this week and sent me the most useful feedback I've had in a while. Not "it's great." A list of every place they got stuck.

Reading it, I noticed a pattern. Almost every sticking point came from the same assumption: that you're brand new, you have nothing yet, and you've got time to fill in everything we ask.

That's not most podcasters.

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What was getting in the way

The password. You typed one, hit continue, and got an error listing rules you'd never been shown. Worse, the message didn't match what we actually check.

Cover art. The cover step could only make a cover. If you already had one, the one you've been using for three years, there was no way to just use it.

No real skip. The step asking for your show's feed said you could skip it. There was no skip button.

The AI profile. This is where PodGlue learns how you sound. It's six short sections, and in setup every one was required. Nobody told you it takes 20 to 30 minutes. And if you run a hobby show, the business sections had nothing for you to say.

Refreshing. If you refreshed partway through that AI step, you landed in your workspace with no hint anything was unfinished.

What changed

The password rules now sit right under the field before you type, and each one ticks off as you meet it. If something still goes wrong, the message tells you exactly which rule you missed.

The cover step has an "Use my existing cover" button. Upload it, and that's your cover. We'll warn you if it isn't square or is smaller than what Apple wants, but we won't stop you.

The feed step has a proper "I don't have a show yet" button.

The AI profile is now optional. Before you start, it tells you how long it takes, that your progress saves, and that the business sections only matter if your show supports a business. You can skip any section, or skip the whole thing.

And if you leave it half done, a small banner in your workspace says so and takes you straight back to where you stopped.

A concrete example

Say you've had a show for four years. Before, you'd hit the cover step and have to generate a new cover you didn't want, or find a way around it. Then you'd hit a 30-minute questionnaire asking about your ideal client when you don't have clients.

Now: upload your cover, skip what doesn't apply, and you're in your workspace in a few minutes. The AI profile waits for when you have time.

What's next

Next up is the bigger one from the same feedback: if you already have a show, PodGlue should read your feed and fill in your name, description, and cover for you, instead of making you type what's already public. That's in review now.

After that, we're looking at different setup paths for business shows and hobby shows, so nobody gets asked questions that don't fit them.

If you set up PodGlue a while ago and skipped the AI profile, it's worth finishing. It's what makes the show notes and emails sound like you instead of like software.