Samuel Hulick

If you’re going to use an Aha moment, make it something other than basic engagement (e.g., not “ log in 7 times”).

Use an early activation survey that presents different options to people so you can understand what you can unlock for them. Benefits:

1. Gives you continuous information from your signups on what they’re looking for

2. Allows you to leverage learnings by showing relevant/personalized information in the user flow (e.g., specific testimonial)

3. Inform everything else you might offer throughout their lifecycle

4. Helps you understand which motivations/outcomes convert and retain the most

If your offering is a subscription service, you want to be as explicit as possible as early as possible about the value you provide to inspire people to invest their time in becoming a customer of yours. That value can not become apparent only after they’ve jumped through hoops.

Orient your workflows within the context of users’ outcomes: frame things in a way that shows that the things they’re doing (e.g., provide email, address, complete profile, etc.) helps them make progress towards what they want. This can be through success states, encouragement, etc.

Be specific about the success state you define when looking into activation. This can vary, but “first revenue” is often the strategic activation milestone.

Pay close attention to the areas before and after your converting-to-paid workflow. Essentially, those relating to Acquisition and Retention.

What you want to identify with user research are patterns in the commonalities of users’ desired states. Understand the users’ points of view: _“If I bring this product into my life, I hope to be better off in X/Y/Z in my life” _(not just in the app/product).

Before thinking about things in terms of screens or experience, look at it like a process with a number of actions that lead to an outcome and desired change. Given the user’s current state, how do you create a sequence of smaller outcomes that compound together so you can get the user to the end outcome.

It’s unlikely that you’re going to be able to tell people what their Aha moment is and that the Aha moment is going to be the same for everybody. The Aha moment might very well be different for everybody.

When we say “Aha moment”, it’s more like a series of realizations than one particular moment where lighting strikes and everything comes together.

Users don’t inherently desire to perform a product behavior. If your Aha moment isn’t something that someone would plausibly and consciously desire, then you’re already on the wrong track.