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independence3 unconnected · 1 more author in those circles
standing

contested · 7 claims against 2

applies to

b2b and consumer, no audience needed

mixed results

confidence

high

evidence

9 claims · 5 articles · 4 receipts

window

2022-09-01 → 2023-03-28

3 builders who never spoke to each other · contested

Cut the signup form, or keep the filter

One reading of the evidence is that every field is a way for the form to break and a reason for a willing person to leave, so ask for an address and collect the name, the terms and the qualifying questions during onboarding once the account exists. The other reading is that a self serve product needs users prepared to make an effort, and that lead quality falls as fields come off.

Where this splits

Dry and Bourgoin strip the form to almost nothing, while Poyar argues some friction is worth keeping and Riley warns that lead quality drops as fields are removed.

  1. side 01 · 7 claims

    Strip the signup form to an email address

    Harry Dry · Katelyn Bourgoin

    1. 1Ask for nothing but an email address to create an account: no password, no name fields, no checkboxes.
    2. 2Collect the terms agreement, the full name and every qualifying question after the account exists, once the person is committed.
    3. 3Detect the email provider and send those addresses straight into single-click OAuth, verifying the rest by email.
    4. 4Improve the flow by subtraction: ask what can be removed rather than what can be added, since each extra field adds a new way for the form to break.
    5. 5Split the flow deliberately: signup should be frictionless while onboarding can take its time.

  2. side 02 · 2 claims

    Keep some friction, it filters for serious users

    Dru Riley · Kyle Poyar

    1. 1Expect lead quality to drop as you remove form fields, so track what happens after the signup and not just the signup count.
    2. 2Some signup friction is worth keeping, because a self-serve product needs users willing to put in effort. Spend the effort instead on sharpening the message and showing the product working on the page, an interactive tour if you can.

What it returned

  • Notion's signup, judged the best converting the author had seen in three years of studying landing pages

  • Notion asks all of it during onboarding rather than at signup

  • Gmail addresses go to Google OAuth; other addresses verify by email

  • A failing reCAPTCHA or a date picker broken by an iOS update are given as examples; a one-field form becomes a ten-field form once a committee is involved

Sources

the second source

Three plays a week, for the phase you are in

No roundup of links, no news. Three tactics more than one builder arrived at separately, with the numbers each one returned and the disagreements left in.

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More in landing page

all landing page plays

the second source

Three plays a week, for the phase you are in

No roundup of links, no news. Three tactics more than one builder arrived at separately, with the numbers each one returned and the disagreements left in.

963 corroborated plays to draw from · 3 a week

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