Activation & onboarding review

To: Onboarding squad Subject: Prioritize getting users to a useful first chart

Our biggest leak is before data connection: 59% of signups—7,316 people—never connect a source. Another 8 percentage points disappear before the first chart. Only 9% invite a teammate, but collaboration should come after users see value.

First-chart users have 62% week-2 retention versus 11% for everyone else. That makes time-to-first-chart our priority, although this correlation does not prove that creating a chart causes retention.

Fixes, in priority order

1. Remove the database-credentials gate. Offer a prominent sample-data path and a clearly explained CSV path. Let users request access from a data owner without abandoning onboarding. For database connections, replace the 14-page guide with source-specific instructions, inline examples, and actionable error messages.

Why first: Our audience is mostly PMs and marketers, yet onboarding assumes database expertise and access. “I don’t have the credentials” accounts for 41% of onboarding tickets. Sample data can demonstrate value immediately, but we should separately measure whether those users eventually connect their own data.

2. Make syncing resilient and asynchronous. Run syncs server-side so leaving the page does not cancel them. Show status, provide completion notifications, and support retries with clear failure explanations. Where technically feasible, sync a useful subset first rather than requiring a full load.

Why second: A wait of up to 20 minutes is already costly; requiring an open tab makes it fragile. Sync failures account for another 18% of tickets and block users who have overcome the access hurdle.

3. Deliver a chart, not another blank canvas. Recommend relevant tables rather than listing everything. Reduce twelve templates to a few guided choices, then populate a starter chart that users can edit.

Why third: Choosing a template and then seeing an empty builder breaks the promise of guidance. About 20% of connected users fail to reach a first chart. Focus on a useful result, not merely recording a chart-creation event.

4. Shorten the route to value. Move role and team-size questions until after the first chart, unless they directly personalize onboarding. Allow users to explore before email verification where security requirements permit.

Why fourth: These steps add friction before any payoff, but we lack screen-level evidence that they explain the largest losses.

5. Make invitations contextual. Prompt users to share a useful chart after success; keep invitations optional. Distinguish “ask a data owner for access” from “invite a collaborator.”

Why fifth: Low invitation rates may reflect weak activation, not a broken invitation screen.

Instrument every screen, connection method, and sync failure. Evaluate changes on useful first-chart completion, time to value, own-data activation, and week-2 retention—not just step clicks.

Onboarding: where we lose people and what to fix first

Sep 25, 2026 · @Martin Slaney

To: Onboarding squad

Bottom line

Onboarding works for people who reach a first chart: 62% of them are still here in week 2, against 11% of everyone else. Two-thirds of signups never get there, and most of those stop at "Connect your data", where we ask product managers and marketers for database credentials they don't have.

Where we lose people (last 90 days, 12,400 signups)

• Signup → connect data: 59% lost (\~7,300 people). The biggest leak by far. The top support ticket (41%) is "I don't have the database credentials."
• Connect → first chart: \~990 more lost, a fifth of those who connected. Syncs take up to 20 minutes, die if you leave the page, and "my sync failed" is the second-biggest ticket (18%).
• First chart → invite: 33% → 9%. Real, but downstream of the first two.

Caveat: we have no step-level data for screens 2–8, so we can't split the 59% between verification, the two questions and the connection form. The ticket data points hard at the form.

What to fix, in order

1. Let people reach a first chart without their own data. Add a sample dataset and a skip on screen 5, and land them on a ready-made chart. Why: it goes around the step that loses most people, and the first chart is the moment that predicts retention.
2. Let them hand off the credentials step. "Ask a teammate to connect" sends an engineer a secure link to fill in the connection form. Why: it answers the 41% ticket directly and turns the blocker into an invite.
3. Make syncing forgiving. Run it in the background, keep it going when they leave, email them when it's ready, and load a small sample of rows first so a chart appears in minutes. Show plain-language errors with a retry. Why: a 20-minute wait that punishes leaving the page is where connected users die, and it's the 18% ticket.
4. Don't start from an empty canvas. Use the role answer from screen 3 to suggest two or three templates instead of twelve, and draw the first chart automatically. Why: we already ask the role and do nothing with it; a blank builder is hard for non-analysts.
5. Trim the steps before connecting. Let people in before they verify their email (verify within a day), and drop or defer the team-size question. Why: cheap to do, but unmeasured, so instrument first rather than assume it's a big win.
6. Move the invite prompt to after value is shown, such as when someone saves or shares a chart. Why: people invite colleagues to something useful, not to a setup screen.

How we'll know it worked

• Instrument every screen, 1 to 11, before shipping anything.¹
• Judge fix 1 by how many sample-data users go on to connect real data and are retained in week 2, not by first-chart rate. A chart of sample data can lift that metric without anyone sticking around, so don't assume the 62% carries over.

To: Onboarding squad Re: Where we lose people and what to fix, in order

Summary: Reaching a first chart is what predicts retention (62% at week 2 versus 11% otherwise). Only 33% of signups get there, and the biggest loss, 59% of signups, happens before they connect data. Most of our users are PMs and marketers who can't complete a database connection alone.

Fixes, in priority order

1. Add sample data and a skip option on the "Connect your data" screen. The most common ticket (41%) is "I don't have the database credentials." We ask non-engineers for host, port and SSL mode before they've seen any value. Sample data lets them reach a chart in minutes, and they can connect real data later. Caveat: sample-data users may retain worse than the 62% figure, which likely reflects real data. Track them as a separate cohort and prompt them to connect real data after their first chart.

2. Make it easy to get credentials from someone else. Add a "Send this to your engineer" option: a shareable link or prefilled email containing the connection form and a short setup checklist. Replace the 14-page guide with inline, per-field help. Promote CSV upload as the no-engineer path, since it's currently one of four equal options.

3. Fix the sync experience and its failures. Syncs run up to 20 minutes and cancel if the user leaves. Run them in the background, send an email when they finish, and let users start exploring once the first tables land. Then look at the 18% of tickets that say "my sync failed" and surface specific error messages. In the table-selection step, preselect a sensible default instead of listing every table.

4. Get people to a first chart without an empty canvas. We show twelve templates, then a blank chart builder. Cut the choice to two or three based on role, and auto-generate a first chart from the synced data (or sample data) that the user can edit. This targets the 41% → 33% drop and shortens time to value.

5. Remove friction at the front. Let users into the product before email verification, and enforce it later (e.g., before inviting teammates). Move the role question ahead of template selection, where it drives the default, and drop or defer team size unless something uses it. These are cheap fixes, but I'm ranking them below the others because I can't yet show they're a big loss.

6. Move the invite prompt to after the first chart. The 9% invite rate is 27% of users who reach a chart, so it's mostly a downstream symptom. Fix activation first. Then trigger the invite prompt right after a first chart is created, with a message like "Share this chart," rather than as a generic final step.

Measure first The funnel jumps from signup straight to data connection, so we can't see how many people drop at email verification, role, team size, or the connection form. Add per-screen events this sprint, before changing anything, so we can confirm the ordering above and measure each fix.

Success metrics: signup → first chart (33% today), share of users who connect real data within 7 days, sync failure rate, and week-2 retention split by sample-data versus real-data users.