Growth & Strategy
Personas
SaaS & Startup
Time to ROI
Short-term (< 3 months)
OK so here's a story that might sound completely backwards to you. Last year I was working with a B2B SaaS client who was drowning in signups but starving for actual users. They had this beautiful conversion funnel - aggressive CTAs, minimal friction, paid ads driving signup numbers through the roof.
The marketing team was celebrating. "Look at all these new users!" they said. But I knew something was fundamentally broken when I saw the data: tons of people signing up, most using the product for exactly one day, then vanishing into the digital void.
You know what the real problem was? We were treating user activation like e-commerce conversion. Get them to sign up at any cost, figure out engagement later. Wrong approach entirely.
In this playbook, I'm going to share the counterintuitive approach that actually worked - and why making signup harder sometimes leads to better activation rates. Here's what you'll learn:
Why the "reduce friction at all costs" approach fails for B2B SaaS
The specific changes I made that improved activation (even though signups dropped)
How to identify if you have a trust problem vs a product problem
A practical framework for qualifying users before they enter your funnel
Why traditional onboarding optimization misses the real issue
Industry Wisdom
What every SaaS founder thinks they know about activation
Walk into any SaaS conference and you'll hear the same activation advice repeated like gospel. Most "experts" will tell you to focus on these standard tactics:
The Classic Activation Playbook:
Build an interactive product tour that guides users through key features
Reduce friction in the signup process - remove as many form fields as possible
Send automated email sequences with tips and best practices
Add progress bars and gamification to encourage completion
Optimize your "aha moment" timing and push users toward it faster
This conventional wisdom exists because it works... for consumer apps and simple tools. The problem is that most SaaS founders apply e-commerce conversion tactics to complex B2B software that requires actual commitment and learning.
Here's where this approach falls apart: You end up optimizing for the wrong metric. When you make signup stupidly easy, you attract tire-kickers who were never going to succeed with your product anyway. You're essentially paying to acquire users who will never convert.
The real issue isn't that people don't understand your product - it's that the wrong people are signing up in the first place. But most founders don't realize this because they're measuring signups instead of measuring qualified engagement.
Traditional onboarding treats symptoms, not the disease. And that's exactly what I discovered with my client.
Consider me as your business complice.
7 years of freelance experience working with SaaS and Ecommerce brands.
When this B2B SaaS client came to me, they had what looked like a success story on paper. Their metrics dashboard showed impressive numbers - hundreds of new signups every week, a slick onboarding flow, and a product that genuinely solved real problems.
But when I dug deeper into their user behavior data, I found something troubling. The vast majority of their "activated" users showed a depressingly consistent pattern: they'd sign up, maybe click around for 20-30 minutes on day one, then never come back.
The client's situation was this: They were a workflow automation tool for marketing teams. Complex product, requires training and setup, definitely not something you master in a free trial. Their target customers were busy marketing managers who needed to see real value before committing time to learn a new system.
But their acquisition strategy was completely misaligned. They were running broad Facebook ads, optimizing landing pages for maximum signups, and celebrating every new trial user. The problem? Most of these users came from cold traffic with zero context about what they were signing up for.
When I analyzed where their few engaged users actually came from, I discovered something interesting: the users who stuck around almost exclusively came from warm sources - referrals, content marketing, or direct searches for their specific solution.
So we had a classic mismatch: We were optimizing our funnel to attract the wrong people, then wondering why our activation rates sucked. The marketing team loved their conversion rates, but they were converting people who were never going to become real users.
I proposed something that made my client uncomfortable: What if we made signup harder instead of easier?
Here's my playbook
What I ended up doing and the results.
Instead of following the "reduce friction" playbook, I convinced my client to run an experiment that went completely against conventional wisdom. We were going to add MORE friction to the signup process, not less.
Here's exactly what we implemented:
Step 1: Added Qualifying Questions
Instead of just asking for email and password, we added a short qualification form:
Company size (to filter out solopreneurs who weren't a fit)
Current tools they're using (to understand their sophistication level)
Specific use case they wanted to solve (to segment onboarding)
Timeline for implementation (to identify tire-kickers)
Step 2: Implemented Credit Card Requirements
We moved from "no credit card required" to requiring payment info upfront. Not to charge immediately, but as a commitment mechanism. People who won't put down a credit card usually aren't serious about actually using your product.
Step 3: Lengthened the Onboarding Flow
Instead of rushing people to the "aha moment," we built a more comprehensive setup process that required actual effort:
Required them to connect at least one integration
Made them complete a sample workflow
Asked them to invite a team member
Step 4: Created Expectation-Setting Content
We replaced the generic "welcome" messaging with specific guidance about time investment: "This setup will take 15-20 minutes, but you'll save hours every week once it's done."
The results? Total signups dropped by about 40%. My client almost fired me. But something magical happened to the users who did make it through: they actually used the product.
The longer onboarding flow meant that only people who were genuinely committed would complete it. The qualifying questions let us segment users and provide relevant guidance. The credit card requirement filtered out people who were just browsing.
Most importantly, we shifted from optimizing for signup volume to optimizing for user quality. And that made all the difference in activation rates.
Quality Filter
We turned the signup process into a natural filter that only let committed users through
Trust Signals
Added elements that built confidence before asking for commitment (testimonials, case studies)
Segmented Onboarding
Used qualifying questions to create personalized experiences based on user type and use case
Commitment Mechanics
Required small investments of time and information to increase psychological ownership
The results of this "more friction" approach were pretty dramatic, even though they took a few weeks to become clear:
Activation Rate Improvements:
7-day active users increased from 23% to 67%
Users completing core workflow setup jumped from 12% to 45%
Trial-to-paid conversion rate nearly doubled (18% to 34%)
Unexpected Outcomes:
Something interesting happened that we didn't anticipate - our support tickets actually increased, but in a good way. Instead of getting complaints and confusion, we started getting meaningful questions about advanced features and integration possibilities. Users were engaging deeply enough to hit real workflow challenges.
The timeline for seeing these results was about 3-4 weeks. The first week showed the drop in signups (which scared everyone), but by week 3, the quality indicators started trending upward dramatically.
The best unexpected outcome? Our customer success team reported that new users were coming in much more prepared and committed to actually implementing the tool, which reduced churn and increased expansion revenue.
What I've learned and the mistakes I've made.
Sharing so you don't make them.
This experiment taught me some fundamental truths about B2B SaaS activation that most people get backwards:
Volume vs Quality Trade-off: Sometimes the best onboarding strategy is preventing the wrong people from signing up in the first place. Better to have 100 engaged users than 500 who bounce.
Friction as a Feature: Strategic friction can actually improve user experience by setting proper expectations and filtering for commitment level.
Credit Cards Create Commitment: Even when you're not charging immediately, requiring payment info separates browsers from buyers psychologically.
Segment Early, Segment Often: The more you know about users before they start, the better you can guide their onboarding experience.
Time Investment = Ownership: Users who invest effort in setup are more likely to stick around to see results.
Context Matters More Than Features: Understanding why someone signed up is more valuable than showing them what your product can do.
Activation Starts Before Signup: The best user activation strategies begin with your marketing and positioning, not your product tour.
What I'd do differently: I would have tested this approach earlier and more aggressively. The initial drop in signups made everyone nervous, but the long-term benefits were so clear that we should have committed fully from the start.
This approach works best for complex B2B tools that require learning and commitment. It doesn't work for simple consumer apps or tools with network effects where you need scale quickly.
How you can adapt this to your Business
My playbook, condensed for your use case.
For your SaaS / Startup
For SaaS startups looking to improve activation rates:
Add qualifying questions to your signup flow
Require credit card for free trials
Segment users based on use case and company size
Focus on engagement depth over signup volume
For your Ecommerce store
For ecommerce businesses adapted to subscription models:
Use quiz flows to qualify customers before checkout
Implement account creation requirements for returns
Create expectation-setting content about delivery times
Build loyalty through education rather than discounts