Growth & Strategy
Personas
SaaS & Startup
Time to ROI
Short-term (< 3 months)
Last year, I had a client call me in a panic. Their B2B SaaS was drowning in signups but starving for paying customers. Lots of new users daily, most using the product for exactly one day, then vanishing. Almost no conversions after the free trial.
The marketing team was celebrating their "success" - popups, aggressive CTAs, and paid ads were driving signup numbers up. But I knew we were optimizing for the wrong thing. They had confused quantity with quality, and it was killing their conversion rates.
What I'm about to share goes against everything you've heard about SaaS growth and user activation. Instead of making signup easier, I made it deliberately harder. The result? Their trial-to-paid conversion rate more than doubled.
Here's exactly what you'll learn:
Why traditional activation strategies fail for B2B products
The counterintuitive friction strategy that actually works
How to filter for quality users before they even sign up
Real metrics from implementing this approach
When to use friction vs. when to remove it
Industry Reality
What everyone gets wrong about user activation
Open any growth blog, and you'll see the same advice repeated endlessly: reduce friction, simplify onboarding, make signup as easy as possible. The conventional wisdom says that every extra step or field you add will kill your conversion rates.
Here's what the industry typically recommends for user activation:
Remove all barriers: Single-click signups, social login, no credit card required
Minimize form fields: Just name and email, nothing more
Instant gratification: Get users to their "aha moment" in 30 seconds
Progressive onboarding: Reveal features gradually to avoid overwhelming
Gamification: Progress bars, checklists, and achievement badges
This advice exists because it works for consumer products. When someone's browsing Instagram or trying a new food delivery app, friction kills conversion. Every extra tap is a chance for them to bounce.
But here's where it falls short: B2B SaaS isn't impulse shopping. You're not selling a quick dopamine hit. You're asking someone to integrate your solution into their daily workflow, convince their team to adopt it, and potentially pay hundreds or thousands per month.
The problem with treating B2B activation like B2C? You end up with users who never intended to seriously evaluate your product. They're just tire-kickers attracted by your "easy signup" promise, and they'll abandon your product the moment it requires any real commitment.
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, their metrics told a frustrating story. High signup numbers that looked great in board meetings, but terrible activation and conversion rates that were bleeding money on customer acquisition.
They were a project management tool targeting small business owners - think somewhere between Asana and a simple task manager. Good product, decent market fit, but something was fundamentally broken in their funnel.
Like most product consultants, I started with the obvious solution: improve the post-signup experience. We built an interactive product tour, simplified the UX, reduced friction points. The engagement improved marginally, but nothing dramatic. The core problem remained untouched.
That's when I realized we were treating symptoms, not the disease. The real issue wasn't what happened after signup - it was who was signing up in the first place.
Most users came from cold traffic - paid ads and SEO. They had no context about what they were signing up for. The aggressive conversion tactics meant anyone with a pulse and an email address could get in. We were optimizing for quantity when we should have been optimizing for intent.
I spent a week analyzing user behavior data and discovered a critical pattern: users who signed up through our "friction-free" process typically used the service only on their first day, then abandoned it. Meanwhile, users who came through referrals or had longer consideration periods showed much stronger engagement patterns.
This clicked for me: we were treating SaaS like an e-commerce product when it's actually a trust-based service. You're not selling a one-time purchase; you're asking someone to change their workflow and stick around long enough to experience real value.
Here's my playbook
What I ended up doing and the results.
What I proposed next made my client uncomfortable: instead of making signup easier, we were going to make it deliberately harder. We were going to add friction as a qualification mechanism.
Here's exactly what we implemented:
Step 1: Credit Card Upfront
We added a credit card requirement during signup, even for the free trial. This wasn't about immediate payment - it was about separating serious prospects from casual browsers. If someone won't put their payment info down for a free trial, they're probably not your ideal customer anyway.
Step 2: Qualifying Questions
Instead of just name and email, we added a multi-step form with questions like:
What's your current project management solution?
How many team members would use this?
What's your biggest project management challenge?
Timeline for implementing a new solution?
Step 3: Value-First Onboarding
Rather than rushing users to their "aha moment," we created a longer onboarding that actually taught them project management best practices. Users who weren't serious would drop off. Users who were serious would appreciate the education.
Step 4: Progressive Access
Instead of giving full access immediately, we unlocked features based on meaningful actions. Want to invite team members? First complete your project setup. Want advanced reporting? First track time for a week.
The psychology here is crucial: people value what they work for. When signup is effortless, the product feels cheap. When users have to invest time and effort upfront, they're more committed to making it work.
We also shifted our messaging from "Try it free" to "Apply for early access" and "Get qualified for our startup program." This positioned the product as selective rather than desperate for signups.
Qualification Gate
Self-selecting users based on commitment level and actual need, not just curiosity
Credit Card Filter
Requiring payment info upfront to separate serious prospects from tire-kickers
Progressive Unlock
Earning access to advanced features through meaningful product usage and engagement
Education First
Teaching best practices during onboarding instead of rushing to feature adoption
The results challenged everything I thought I knew about user activation. Yes, our signup numbers dropped significantly - my client almost fired me during week two. But the quality transformation was remarkable.
Here's what actually happened:
Trial signups dropped by 60% (the client panicked)
But trial-to-paid conversion increased by 140%
Customer lifetime value increased by 85%
Support tickets per user decreased by 45%
Monthly churn dropped from 12% to 6%
The users who made it through our "harder" signup process were genuinely engaged. They completed onboarding, invited team members, and actually integrated the tool into their workflows. We finally had the quality user base we needed instead of a revolving door of casual browsers.
Six months later, their monthly recurring revenue had increased by 90% despite having fewer total users. The math was simple: fewer users, but each one worth significantly more.
What I've learned and the mistakes I've made.
Sharing so you don't make them.
This experience taught me that the biggest mistakes in user activation often come from optimizing the wrong metrics. Here are the key lessons:
Signups are a vanity metric. What matters is qualified signups from people who actually intend to use your product.
Friction can be a feature, not a bug. The right kind of friction filters for intent and commitment.
B2B requires different psychology than B2C. Business users expect more thorough evaluation processes.
Don't optimize for departmental KPIs. Marketing optimizing for signups while product optimizes for activation creates misaligned incentives.
Time investment creates commitment. Users who invest effort upfront are more likely to stick around.
Quality compounds over time. Engaged users become advocates, reduce support costs, and provide better feedback.
Test counterintuitive approaches. Sometimes the best strategy is the opposite of conventional wisdom.
The biggest thing I'd do differently? Communicate the strategy better upfront. The initial drop in signups caused unnecessary panic. Now I always set expectations about short-term metric decreases when implementing quality-focused changes.
How you can adapt this to your Business
My playbook, condensed for your use case.
For your SaaS / Startup
For SaaS startups implementing this approach:
Start with qualifying questions during signup to understand user intent
Consider requiring credit card for trials if your LTV supports it
Focus on trial-to-paid conversion, not total signups
Use progressive feature unlocking based on meaningful actions
For your Ecommerce store
For ecommerce stores adapting this strategy:
Use email signup requirements for premium content or early access
Create VIP or exclusive customer programs with qualification criteria
Focus on repeat purchase rate over one-time conversions
Implement loyalty programs that require engagement, not just purchases