ActivationPublished 2024-06-20 · founder reported
Learn manually before making everything self-service
How PostHog approached activation.
What they did
Hawkins described onboarding early users personally, checking repeat usage and discussing willingness to pay. The team then moved toward transparent pricing and a cloud service without a card requirement at signup.
Reported outcome
The founder reported reaching 1,000 users in May 2020 after the cloud launch; the account emphasizes repeat usage over signup volume.
An idea to test, from Afterlaunch
Manual onboarding can reveal what to automate; removing friction too early can also remove learning opportunities.
Small experiment: Personally onboard five users, record their recurring blockers, then automate the most common step.
A company’s reported outcome doesn’t prove one tactic caused it. Treat this as a hypothesis.
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