# The onboarding conversation

How Steward learns about your organisation in a guided conversation, which phases he covers, and what to do when he is finished.

Source: https://sted.digital/docs/product/onboarding · Last reviewed 17 October 2026 · Strand Product

Onboarding is a conversation with Steward, Sted's AI assistant, about what your organisation does, where it works and what it handles. Your answers decide which standards apply to you. When you're done, Framework, Standards and Audit readiness open, and you can generate your whole framework in one step or pick standards one by one.

## What this is

Sted needs to know about your organisation before it can say which [standards and regulations apply](/docs/product/classification-and-applicability) to you. Instead of a 40-page form, Steward asks for those facts in a conversation, phase by phase.

Steward is an AI assistant. He never pretends to be a person, and he talks like a wry colleague who drops the humour for anything serious. You can read more about him on [Steward's own page](/docs/product/steward).

Answer once and the work goes further than picking standards. Your answers also fill in your [organisation summary](/docs/product/organisation-summary), which everyone in the organisation can read, and first drafts of your [management-system registers](/docs/product/management-system-registers) for scope, interested parties and compliance obligations.

## Where to find it

A new organisation lands on **Home**, where the task "Tell us about your organisation" opens the conversation. While onboarding is unfinished, it is also under your organisation's name in the sidebar as **Onboarding**. That row disappears once you finish.

After that, reopen it from **Summary** under your organisation's name, with **Review your onboarding answers**.

On a phone, the sidebar sits behind the **Menu** button.

## How it works

### A conversation, not a questionnaire

Steward speaks first. If he doesn't have your name, he asks for it, then works through up to seven phases.

Always asked: your organisation, what it does, and your goals and customer requirements.

Asked only when an earlier answer says they apply: products and systems, personal data, AI, and payments and financial services. So a pure software company is never asked about medical devices.

Home shows the phase Steward is on as your onboarding task, so you can see how far you have come.

### Answer, close, come back

Onboarding takes under an hour, and you do not have to finish it in one sitting.

1. Open the onboarding task on **Home**.
2. Answer Steward's questions as you go.
3. Select the X, labelled **Close and continue later**, whenever you need to stop.

Steward picks up where you left off the next time you open the conversation.

At the end of a phase, a card in the conversation shows how many standards now apply to you and says when some still wait on more information.

### When Steward is finished

The conversation ends with "That's onboarding done." and two choices.

Take the recommendations: select **Apply all and generate framework**, then confirm with **Apply and generate**. Sted adopts every recommended standard and drafts the documents for them in about a minute.

Choose for yourself: select **Select standards individually** to open Standards, pick the ones you want, then select **Update and generate framework**.

Finishing onboarding opens Framework, Standards and Audit readiness. If you make a medical device, Home then asks you to classify each product in a short follow-up conversation, covered in [how Sted decides what applies to you](/docs/product/classification-and-applicability).

## Permissions

| Action | Administrator | Policy and Process Owner | Reviewer | Personnel |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Take part in the onboarding conversation | Yes | Yes | No | No |
| Reopen the onboarding answers | Yes | Yes | No | No |
| Apply all standards and generate the framework | Yes | Yes | No | No |
| Read the organisation summary the answers feed | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |

Reviewers and Personnel do not see the Onboarding row in the sidebar. A locked page shows them "Finish onboarding first" and tells them to ask an administrator, though a Policy and Process Owner can finish it too.

## Limits and plan features

On Preview, you get one free generation of your whole framework and can open one generated document in full. Reading the rest, generating again and exporting to PDF need a paid plan.

The conversation, like Sted's knowledge base and the rest of the product, is in British English only.

## Related guides

- [How Sted decides what applies to you](/docs/product/classification-and-applicability): how your answers become recommendations and device classifications.
- [Standards](/docs/product/standards): choosing standards one by one instead of applying them all.
- [Generating your framework](/docs/product/generating-your-framework): what happens in the minute after you select generate.
- [Organisation summary](/docs/product/organisation-summary): where your answers end up, and where to review them.
- [Applicability](/docs/glossary/applicability): what it means for a standard to apply to you.
- [Sign up and sign in](/docs/product/sign-up-and-sign-in): how a new account reaches Home and the onboarding task.

## Frequently asked questions

Q: How long does onboarding take?
A: Under an hour. You can close the conversation at any point and Steward picks up where you left off.

Q: Can I stop onboarding halfway and come back later?
A: Yes. Close the conversation with the X marked Close and continue later, and Steward picks up where you stopped when you return from Home or the sidebar. Framework, Standards and Audit readiness stay locked until you finish.

Q: Can I change an answer after onboarding is finished?
A: Yes. Open Summary under your organisation's name in the sidebar and select Review your onboarding answers to reopen the conversation. Administrators also see Update links on the Summary cards that go to the phase where each fact was captured.

Q: Does generating my framework on the Preview plan cost anything?
A: No. Preview includes one free generation of your whole framework. You can then open one generated document in full; reading the rest, a second generation and PDF export need a paid plan.

Q: Who in my team can do the onboarding?
A: Administrators and Policy and Process Owners. Reviewers and Personnel do not see the Onboarding row. A locked page tells them to ask an administrator, though a Policy and Process Owner can finish it too.