Time to first hello world
tym tuh first heh-LOH wurld
The time it takes a developer to go from first visiting your site to getting their first working result with your product.
Time to first hello world measures how long it takes a developer to go from zero to their first successful interaction with your product. It is the developer tool equivalent of time to value. For an API, it is the time to a successful API call. For a deployment platform, it is the time to a live deployment.
This metric matters because developers are impatient. If your product takes 45 minutes to get working, a competitor that takes 5 minutes will win. Developers make technology decisions during evaluation, and evaluation happens in the first few minutes.
The best developer tools measure TTFHW in single-digit minutes. Stripe: under 10 minutes to process a test payment. Vercel: under 2 minutes to deploy. Supabase: under 5 minutes to a working database with API. Every minute you shave off TTFHW increases your activation rate.
Examples
A company measures TTFHW.
Using session recordings and analytics, the team finds the median TTFHW is 38 minutes. 60% of that time is spent on account setup and configuration, not actual coding. They streamline setup to reduce TTFHW to 12 minutes.
A competitor comparison based on TTFHW.
The marketing team records videos of setting up three competing products from scratch. Their product: 8 minutes. Competitor A: 25 minutes. Competitor B: requires a sales call before you can try. The comparison becomes a powerful marketing asset.
A quickstart guide optimizes TTFHW.
The old quickstart had 15 steps. The new one has 4: install the CLI, authenticate, deploy the sample app, see it live. TTFHW drops from 20 minutes to 4 minutes. Activation rate increases from 25% to 45%.
In practice
Read more on the blog
Frequently asked questions
What is a good time to first hello world?
Under 10 minutes for developer tools. Under 5 minutes is excellent. The benchmark is set by companies like Stripe, Vercel, and Supabase. If your TTFHW is over 30 minutes, you are losing developers to competitors who made it easier.
How do you reduce time to first hello world?
Remove every step that is not essential for the first success. Pre-configure defaults. Provide copy-paste code samples. Defer account verification. Auto-generate API keys. Each removed step saves minutes and increases the chance the developer reaches their first success.
Related terms
How easy, productive, and enjoyable it is for developers to use a product, from documentation to API design to error messages.
A concise, step-by-step guide that gets a developer from zero to a working implementation in the shortest time possible.
The process of guiding a developer from first discovery through to productively using a product in their workflow.
The moment when a new user experiences the core value of a product for the first time, making them likely to return.
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