What 7 makers on MakerMap learned about it, in their own words: their best posts on X, filed under Product & design.
Dont measure activations by a login.
Buyers (RevOps, PMMs, GTM teams etc...) don't want a demo-they want to test.
We didn't count an activation until a user reached their first working agent. Clicks don't pay the bills. Value does.
Here's the PLG case study👇
this is how I’ve been spending my evenings lately 😅
going through every single step of the MakerMap onboarding flow
every click. every screen. every little detail
trying to make it easier for new makers to join, while designing the system so the community keeps growing
AND that people who contribute the most get rewarded the most
11 flows. 17 steps each
the details matter
hermes desktop shipping with a free trial model is a bigger deal than it looks
the api key step is where most normal people quit. remove that and suddenly your non dev friends can actually try an agent
curious how many new users this brings in
onboarding rule of thumb: never ask for setup before the user sees the payoff. moved the 'connect your data' step from field 1 to after the first value moment. signup's shorter now.
It's a great insight, I have tried to use it in YourBrain.
It hooks you with your existing behaviour of bookmarking, but that is just the mere start, I'm not trying to force user with every feature atp, but trying to let them be part of ecosystem, where they can then explore how the spaces work and How this platfrom can become a part of their workflow, rather than bombarding with everything at once, letting the user figure out their way of using the same product which can be slightly different based on individual needs and the way they work.
signs your demo is a product tour, not discovery:
you click every menu before asking what broke
you explain features they didnt bring up
they say "cool" a lot and ask nothing
you end with "any questions?"
ask what theyre fixing in the first 2 minutes, then only show that
i would rather build a small mac app that does one thing well than a big app that asks for an account first. the first run should give value before it asks for anything.