# Write an onboarding guide for someone joining my project midstream

A concise guide that gets a new team member productive fast: context, decisions made, people, tools, and first-week tasks.

- Topic: Writing & Editing
- Framework: RTF
- Level: Standard
- Tags: HR & Hiring, Write, Plan, Fill-in Template
- Source: https://www.thinkwithprompt.com/prompts/write-an-onboarding-guide-for-someone-joining-my-project-midstream

## Prompt

```text
Help me write an onboarding guide for someone joining my project partway through.

**Project:** [GOAL, current phase, key dates]
**New person's role:** [ROLE and what they will own]
**Key documents and where they live:** [charter, plan, RAID log, designs, decision log - with links or locations]
**Major decisions already made:** [DECISIONS and the reasons, briefly]
**People they need to know:** [NAMES or roles, and why each matters]
**Tools and access needed:** [systems, channels, repositories]
**Team rituals:** [meetings, cadence, how status is reported]
**Current challenges:** [risks, sensitive topics, open debates]

Write a guide with these sections:
1. **The project in 5 sentences** - why it exists, what done looks like, where we are now.
2. **History that matters** - key decisions and why we made them, so they are not re-opened without reason.
3. **Your role** - what you own, who you work with most, what success looks like in 30 days.
4. **People map** - who to go to for what.
5. **How we work** - meetings, tools, communication norms, decision-making, escalation.
6. **Current priorities and hot topics** - written tactfully.
7. **Glossary** of project terms and acronyms.
8. **First-week checklist** - access, reading, introductions, and a first small task.

Keep it under 2 pages, scannable, and friendly. Use [ADD LINK] or [CONFIRM] where I have not given details. Also suggest 3 questions I should ask them at the end of their first week.
```

## What to fill in

- GOAL, current phase, key dates
- ROLE and what they will own
- DECISIONS and the reasons, briefly
- NAMES or roles, and why each matters
- systems, channels, repositories
- meetings, cadence, how status is reported
- risks, sensitive topics, open debates
- ADD LINK
- CONFIRM

Free to copy and use. From ThinkWithPrompt (https://www.thinkwithprompt.com/), a library of 2,663 curated AI prompts.