Funnels are dead. ☠️ Long live the funnel! 🌪️

➡️ 7 Funnels PMs should track... ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ Hey folks, Last year, everyone was writing about how funnels are dead...in [marketing](, in sales, in [product]( - everywhere. Well, before we take sides - let's face it. There is a grain of truth here for *every* funnel: [Image] Users' (or prospects') paths are not linear. There will always be people who color outside the lines, and who (ekhm) convert outside the funnels. Funnels are, by nature, prescriptive. They show you how the world should be, not how it is. [Thumbnail for video]( [Watch my video rant before you kill your funnels...]( But that doesn't mean they aren't useful. If you turn your ideal "[happy path](" into a funnel and then react to drop-offs with the right in-app experiences - you'll increase your chance of leading more users towards their goals. But you need to first understand what those goals are. And that's where a funnel can help you too! What funnels should you track as a PM? Here are the seven main funnels that any respectable product manager should track - I will only focus on the sign-up funnel because otherwise this newsletter will be 10-mile long: - The Sign-up Funnel: Involves the steps necessary for users to access the product, starting from account creation. Let's talk about the trial funnel here (which is a sub-funnel of this funnel, if I may say so 😅) 👉 Now, whatever you're doing, [open this article on trial funnels by Kyle Poyar 👈]( It's the best thing on the internet right now since sliced bread. But continue reading my thing pretty please now 😅 Here are a few thing you should now know about your trial funnel:  - 1) The work on trial funnels is never "done". If I were to ever get a tattoo, that would be it. [Image] - The trial signup page is a precious piece or real estate to reinforce the (top-3) benefits of signing up for your product: [Image] - This is not to be confused with your login page, which also - is a greatly underappreciated piece of real estate, this time for your product's new releases and user webinars: [Image] - Asking the right questions in your signup flow doesn't correlate with higher drop offs and is critical for personalizing the onboarding flow and pushing your users down the activation funnel (read my caveat on funnel blindness at the end though!). My favourite questions relate to their JTBD - you can use them to push your new signups into the activation funnel that is going to take them to their goal in the fastest way, instead of taking them on a round trip. [Image] - The User Activation Funnel: This encompasses the actions users need to complete in order to realize the value of the product. It should be optimized to activate users in the shortest possible time. - The New Feature Adoption Funnel: Focuses on driving discovery and engagement of new features. PMs should ensure users are informed about new features and are guided on how to use them. - The Upgrade Funnel: This funnel details the steps necessary for users to upgrade to a paid or higher plan. PMs should look for relevant & timely opportunities to cross-sell or upsell to increase customer lifetime value. - The Retention Funnel: Focuses on tracking user drop-off at different stages of the journey. Bottlenecks and friction points should be identified and optimized to improve user retention. - The Churn Funnel (Cancellation Funnel): This tracks the steps before users leave the product for good. PMs should make cancellation steps somewhat complicated, offer churn surveys to gain insight on the reason for leaving, and offer final retention efforts. - The Reactivation Funnel: Involves steps to re-activate users who have become inactive or have cancelled their subscription, such as sending them limited-time promotional offers. How to overcome "funnel blindness"? We tend to be biased and think that our way of using our product is the best. Of course. Our kids are the best, our dogs are the best, and our products are surely the bestests?! So we drive our users into what we think is the [happy path]( is (or should be) for them. But that might not be the case. Sometimes, some users might be dropping off your funnel because...they have a better business to get to. So how to prevent this funnel blindness? Build your product funnels, but don't forget to look at user paths as well. And use cohort analysis (we wrote a post about [analysing cohort tables]( recently too!) to see where the users that have taken different paths than your "prescribed funnel" are *really* landing. Maybe they are doing just as well (or even better!) than the folks that took the path you thought should be followed.  Now - spilling the beans here a bit, but heck, why not: We're gonna have paths and funnels and cohorts and more in Userpilot soon ;) [Grab a demo](to see some sneak peeks!  Join our [next LIVE webinar on 7 June to learn more about designing your onboarding funnels! 🌪️Â]( [Image]( See you all there! Meanwhile, see you next week! [Image] Emilia Korczynska, Head of Marketing at Userpilot I'm a marketing manager obsessed with product growth. Wanna talk? Simply respond to this email! To make sure you keep getting these emails, please add emilia@userpilot.co to your address book or whitelist us. Want out of the loop? Don't remember you subscribed at all? We get it. We sometimes don't remember how we got to our office today let alone how we subscribed to this or that email. Sometimes people also get offended by our strong opinions on all matters product, SaaS and UX, but you know what? We won't stop sharing them - and what we believe is the best product practices and the future of SaaS. Anyway, if you ever want to come back you'll know where to find us. Until then! [Unsubscribe](. Our postal address: 1887 Whitney Mesa Dr #9995 Henderson, Nevada 89014 United States