10 Activation Mistakes That Are Killing Your Retention

And in turn, your business.💀

At Miro, I was looking after Activation and Retention, and as a Growth Advisor, Activation is where I look first. This is exactly why, in this article, I dive into the 10 biggest Activation mistakes to avoid ❌. Mistakes that are responsible for 80% of your Activation bleeding.

1. 𝐍𝐨𝐭 𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐟𝐫𝐨𝐦 𝐑𝐞𝐭𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧

To ensure Activation predicts Retention, you start with Retention and go backward. Not the other way around. If you don’t have the Retention defined, you can’t define Activation. As simple as that.

2. 𝐁𝐮𝐢𝐥𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐡𝐚𝐛𝐢𝐭 𝐚𝐫𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐰𝐫𝐨𝐧𝐠 𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐢𝐭𝐲

The core activity around which you want to create a habit around, should not only correlate with retention. It should also be aligned with users' natural behavior and the business model and be simple enough for you to impact.

3. 𝐄𝐱𝐚𝐠𝐠𝐞𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐧𝐚𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐚𝐥 𝐟𝐫𝐞𝐪𝐮𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐲

Driving a habit requires a repetitive action. The repetition frequency must be aligned to the natural frequency of using your product. Be careful; don’t exaggerate; it’s not what you want the natural frequency to be, but what it naturally is. Most products, including Miro, don’t have a daily frequency (X times per day, every day).

4. 𝐏𝐥𝐚𝐲𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐟𝐢𝐫𝐬𝐭 𝐬𝐞𝐬𝐬𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐠𝐚𝐦𝐞

Activation happens when the habit is established; in most cases, it doesn’t happen during the first session. The onboarding experience should be looked at in the context of habits rather than sessions. Capping the onboarding thinking at the first session kills your Activation. It can take weeks and more.

5. 𝐏𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐨𝐧𝐚𝐥𝐢𝐳𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐧𝐨𝐧𝐞 𝐨𝐫 𝐚𝐥𝐥

Personalizing Activation works; don’t skip it. However, personalize only for your ICP segments. If it’s not your ICP, generic experience is sufficient. If you are unsure during the onboarding if it’s your ICP, ask. The statement 'the fewer questions during the onboarding, the higher the conversion' is BS.

6. 𝐈𝐠𝐧𝐨𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐠 ‘𝐓𝐞𝐚𝐦’ 𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧

SaaS B2B products that serve teams ( = scale value beyond individual users) must play both the individual user and team activation game. It’s insufficient to activate individual users while disregarding team activation. Why? Because you sell to teams now, you better ensure your Product’s team experience delivers the promise.

7. 𝐒𝐤𝐢𝐩𝐩𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐡𝐞 ‘𝐄𝐧𝐠𝐚𝐠𝐞𝐝’ 𝐛𝐮𝐜𝐤𝐞𝐭

All Activation does is predict Retention. But for a user to actually be ‘Retained,’ they must engage with the Product beyond Activation. Hence, the ‘Activated’ user is Retained only if, as we predict, they will continue engaging with the Product following Activation.

❌ Activation → Retention

✅ Activation → Engagement → Retention

8. 𝐏𝐨𝐥𝐥𝐮𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐑𝐞𝐭𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐧𝐨𝐧-𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐝 𝐈𝐂𝐏𝐬

This one is straightforward. When you measure Retention, make sure that you look at only your ‘Activated ICP’ segment. Why ICP? Because non-ICP is not your business or priority. Why Activated? Because if the segment is not activated, those users are too early for the Retention game.

9. 𝐓𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐀𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐚𝐬 𝐞𝐢𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫 𝐆𝐫𝐨𝐰𝐭𝐡 𝐖𝐨𝐫𝐤 𝐨𝐫 𝐏𝐫𝐨𝐝𝐮𝐜𝐭 𝐖𝐨𝐫𝐤

You need both. Growth work validates and unlocks opportunities, while Core work scales those opportunities and ensures its PMF. Let’s take Miro Templates as an example. At Miro, the Growth Activation team validated Templates as a set of experiments; nevertheless, at a certain point, to scale the Template experience and build it as a strong PMF offering, Core teams joined the party. 🥳

10. 𝐏𝐮𝐬𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐒𝐞𝐥𝐟-𝐒𝐞𝐫𝐯𝐞 𝐀𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐚𝐭 𝐚𝐧𝐲 𝐜𝐨𝐬𝐭

Great Activation doesn’t necessarily mean Self-Serve Activation. There is no one-size-fits-all. Your Product might not have the high frequency or simplicity required to create a habit. Or maybe your potential customers expect a high touch, especially if those are high ACV Enterprise customers. For example, Pleo ($100M+ ARR B2B SaaS) is doing a kick-ass job with a hybrid product-led / high-touch activation experience. Hence, do what suits your business, Product, and customers. Not what’s buzzing on Linkedin.

I hope you enjoyed this write-up.

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