How do I design a sequence step?

Overview

A sequence is the ordered set of steps between someone applying and someone being ready to start. Every step is designed by you, and no two have to work the same way.

This article is for administrators building an onboarding sequence.

1. What is a step for?

One of two jobs, or both.

It supplies information to the person, through its title, its description and any attachments you add.
It collects information from them, and what it collects is decided by the step type you choose.

2. What can a step collect?

That depends on the step type you pick.

File upload: a document. The step completes itself the moment the file arrives.
Fillable PDF: your own document, marked up with fields, filled in and signed. Their signed copy comes back to you.
Fillable form: any form you have built, including one carrying a shift calendar so they can book a session inside the step.
Video: confirmation that they watched it.
Checklist: items ticked off, for the parts of onboarding that happen away from the screen.
Course: one of your courses, taken as a step.
Background check: held pending until the result is in.
Interview, Training and Orientation: nothing. Description only, for a session you run and confirm yourself.
Custom: supply and collect in one step. Attach the document you want them to have, and receive the one they send back.

3. What are the two switches on every step?

Two independent settings that together decide who drives the step forward.

User can mark themselves as complete.
User can move themselves to the next step.

4. What does each combination do?

Both on: the person drives it. They finish the task, the step marks itself complete, and they carry straight on. Nothing waits on you, so a whole sequence can run overnight without an admin opening it. Right for anything you do not need to inspect: a video watched, a code of conduct read, a form submitted.

Both off: you drive it. The step is yours to complete and yours to move forward. It appears on your My Tasks, and it never nags the person, because there is nothing for them to do. Right for an interview you conduct, a reference you chase, or a check you confirm off-platform.

The middle setting, and the one most organizations actually want: leave "mark themselves as complete" on and "move to the next step" off. The person finishes the task on their own, but waits for you to review it before they advance.

Use that middle setting wherever you genuinely need to look at what they sent, and not one step more. Every step set this way is a step that stops until an admin gets to it.

5. Does anyone have to chase anyone?

No, and that is the point of running onboarding here rather than over email.

Every action notifies the other side. When someone completes a step, it lands on your My Tasks. When you move them forward, they are notified. A sequence waiting on them carries a marker in their navigation and on their dashboard until they act. Neither side has to write to ask where things stand.

6. Can people complete steps out of order?

Your choice. One sequence-wide setting sits above everything else on this page.

Either people must be on a step to complete it, so onboarding runs strictly in order, or they can complete any step at any time. Strict order suits a process with real dependencies. Any order suits a checklist of things that simply all have to happen.

Summary

A step supplies information, collects it, or both.
The step type decides what gets collected, from a file or a signed PDF to a course, a background check or nothing at all.
Two independent switches control each step: mark themselves complete, and move themselves to the next step.
Both on is self-serve, both off is yours to drive, and complete-on with move-off is the review setting most organizations want.
Every completion and every move notifies the other side, so nobody has to chase.
One sequence-wide setting decides whether steps run strictly in order or in any order.

How to design a sequence step on Vome