3 builders who never spoke to each other

Set the growth target on activation, not signups

Define the first meaningful action inside your own product, instrument it, and make that the number you chase, because it sits below the accidental accounts and still reports back immediately. Judge it inside the first hour, since people who have not activated by then almost never do, which also fixes how long onboarding is allowed to be. Fit shows up as growth plus retention plus repeated meaningful use, not as a survey.

The method

1. 01

   Define activation as the first meaningful action in your own product, which differs for every product, and instrument that.

2. 02

   Judge activation within an hour of signup, because across multiple software companies people who have not activated in that first hour almost never do - which also means onboarding has to be completable inside an hour.

3. 03

   Set your growth target on activations rather than signups: it sits one step further down the funnel, filters out accidental accounts, and still reports back almost immediately.

4. 04

   Judge fit on three metrics instead of a survey: top-line growth, retention, and repeated meaningful usage, where growth tells you about the market and the other two about the product.

5. 05

   Treat conversion as the short game: painless trial signup, a strong first session, and an obvious path to upgrade.

What it returned

• 10

  Netlify counted deploying a site once by any method, Scalyr counted installing the agent and receiving data, Twilio counted adding a payment method, Pinecone counted at least 10 API calls.

• One hour after signup.

• Justin takes the three-metric framing from Brian Balfour.

Sources

• Play the long gameJustin Jackson · justinjackson.ca · What this means for marketers · undated
• Is the Product-Market Fit survey accurate?Justin Jackson · justinjackson.ca · Business metrics · undated
• Signups ShmainupsGreg Kogan · gkogan.co · Count activations, not signups · 2022-01-29
• Product-led marketing - by Kyle Poyar - Lenny's NewsletterKyle Poyar · lennysnewsletter.com · Final words of advice · 2023-03-28