After launch
Why do people sign up but not use your product?
Published . Updated
People have registered, but few seem to get much further. Before changing the product or doing more marketing, look at what is happening.
Check what the numbers show
First, make sure your records capture the action you care about. Have people had a real chance to use the product? Are you measuring the step that gives them its main benefit?
For an expense sharing app, creating an account is different from recording an expense and sharing it with someone.
Look at each step separately
Finding the product, trying it, getting a useful result, returning and paying are different steps. A problem at one step does not explain every other step.
| What you notice | What to check |
|---|---|
| No useful actions are recorded | Whether the records work and whether people had a reason to use the product |
| People stop during setup | A confusing step, a technical problem or too much information to enter |
| People expected something else | What they understood from the page or message that brought them there |
| Some people use it while others leave | Differences in their needs and in how they found the product |
| People try it but do not return | Whether the need came up again and whether they chose another solution |
Speak with people who stopped
Ask what they wanted to do, what happened and what they did next. Find out whether they still needed help with the task.
When possible, watch someone try the task. What they do may reveal something they did not mention in an interview.
Use what you learn to choose one change to test. Decide how long to watch and what result would make the change worth keeping.
Avoid drawing a conclusion too soon
A few conversations can suggest an explanation. They do not prove it caused the problem.
Simpler setup will not fix a product people do not need. More visitors may lead to more accounts without more use. Someone trying it once does not show they will return.
- Related article: Are your possible customers in this community?
- How I use research
Sources
These are the public posts and pages behind the original research. A source link may show the writer's name even though this page does not.
Posts by founders
“70 users tried my product. Not one stuck around.”
About repeat use: people tried a product and did not come back. The figures are the founder's own report.
A founder's account of people leaving a setup form before finishing it
About product use: people stopping during setup. The figures in the post are the founder's own.
“Users: zero. Revenue: zero”
About finding users: a founder with a working app has no users yet. This concerns visitors and registrations, not use after signing up.
“SaaS after SaaS that nobody asked for, nobody bought”
About sales: a founder describes products nobody bought. It does not describe how people used them.
“79 notifications in one morning and zero of them are sales”
About sales: a founder describes plenty of activity but no purchases.