With this Swantide Workflow, set the required fields on Onboarding Cycle Creation, in addition. If you want to also have Onboarding Cycles to start at the first Stage, then you would want to deploy the following workflow, "Start Onboarding Cycle Records in the First Stage" which you can read here.

For this example, we want our Reps to enter the Kickoff Date of the Onboarding Cycle record, the Stage, and link the Opportunity in Scope. Therefore, in the Swantide App, your Variable Inputs will be:

In Salesforce, the Validation Rule will look like this once triggered if Kickoff Date of the Onboarding Cycle, Stage, and Opportunity are not filled out.

Optionally, if you want Onboarding Cycles to start at the first Stage, you can deploy the following workflow "Start Onboarding Cycle Records in the First Stage" which you can read here.