Definition
Activation is the point in a user journey where they complete a key action or sequence of actions that strongly correlates with long-term success.
Examples of activation
Examples include: sending a first message, connecting a data source, creating a first project, or deploying a first integration.
How to define activation for your product
A good activation definition should be observable in your data, happen early in the journey, and strongly predict long-term retention or revenue.
You can start by looking at what your best customers did in their first days or weeks and identify the common milestones they reached.
Activation and Skene
Skene uses milestones inferred from your codebase to suggest potential activation points, then tracks completion and time-to-value for those milestones.
This makes it easier to refine your activation definition over time and see how changes to onboarding affect activation rates.