An Activation Overhaul That Doubled Activation
Audited the signup and activation flows, cut the branching down to one core value prop, and doubled the activation rate.
- Product
- Youth sports video and AI highlight app
- Model
- Consumer mobile subscription, single premium tier at $9.99/mo or $72/yr
- Timeframe
- 3 months
Results


The situation
The create flow offered three ways to make something at the exact moment the product needed to prove what it did.


What we did
- Audited the signup flow and the first-session activation flow end to end
- Ran user interviews, which surfaced that people wanted it done for them rather than more control
- Cut the branching and fronted one core value prop instead of three entry points
- Moved the paywall later and collapsed the tiers to a single premium plan with an annual anchor




Three ways to create something is a menu, and a menu at the aha moment is a decision the user did not ask to make. Interviews were unambiguous: they wanted the product to do it for them. Cutting the branching to one path doubled activation. The honest footnote is that trial starts fell at the same time, because the paywall moved later and a freemium gate went in, which is the argument for instrumenting activation and monetization as one system rather than two wins measured separately.
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