Activation, if done correctly, strongly correlate with long term retention and are very useful for experimentation where you don't want to wait 30 days for a result.
Activation rates make sense when you look at them as what does a user have to do to get value out of the product? It might be connect a bank account for an accounting tool or complete a social post for a tool like hootsuite.
Choosing the right one is important as you will start shaping your entire funnel to get users to complete that action and if it is only correlation and not causation you may find it leading the product in the wrong direction
> activation rate = [users who hit your activation milestone] / [users who completed your signup flow].
…
> Why such variance in activation rates?
> Mostly due to the milestone definition, and how much effort it takes to get there.
Yup.
If you invent an arbitrary metric and call it “activation rate” and then make a song and dance about how your arbitrary metric compares to the arbitrary metrics from some other company…
…well, you clearly wouldn’t be the only one doing it, but it’s also totally meaningless.
Internal metrics are good for presentations and for internal year-on-year comparisons.
Activation rate is a loaded term that means different things to different people, for the obviously stated reasons in the article.
Don’t use that term for your metrics; be precise and unambiguous.
(Imagine if you just invented some random crap related to your incoming/outgoing and called it “revenue”. Yeah.)
Activation rates make sense when you look at them as what does a user have to do to get value out of the product? It might be connect a bank account for an accounting tool or complete a social post for a tool like hootsuite.
Choosing the right one is important as you will start shaping your entire funnel to get users to complete that action and if it is only correlation and not causation you may find it leading the product in the wrong direction