Activation
Activation is product-specific and should be tied to behavior that predicts future retention or success. It may be completing setup, inviting a teammate, creating a first report, or making a first purchase. Defining activation gives product teams a concrete target for onboarding improvements and helps distinguish users who merely sign up from users who begin receiving value.
What is Activation?
Activation is the point at which a new user experiences enough initial value to become meaningfully engaged with a product.
Why it matters
Activation is product-specific and should be tied to behavior that predicts future retention or success. It may be completing setup, inviting a teammate, creating a first report, or making a first purchase. Defining activation gives product teams a concrete target for onboarding improvements and helps distinguish users who merely sign up from users who begin receiving value.
Example
For an analytics platform, activation might be reached when a customer installs an SDK, receives live events, and opens a first dashboard.