Killing email & pass signup

01 / The Problem

Despite downloads, many never reached the Aha moment.

Before users could see a single list, they had to work their way through a long onboarding process. Security requirements, verification steps, and mandatory setup screens stood between users and the reason they downloaded the app in the first place.

1. SMS verification frequently failed.
2. Mandatory setup steps delayed access.
3. Introductory screens provided little value.
4. Users did not know how much onboarding remained.
5. Too much time passed before users reached product value.

03 / The Hypothesis

A Theory Worth Testing

My hypothesis was that users weren’t rejecting the platform. They simply weren’t reaching the moment where its value became clear. If we could reduce the path to first value, more users would continue into the experience.

The Aha moment happened when users discovered a list that resonated with them or realized they could start building their own. Unfortunately, onboarding was asking users to solve problems they didn’t come for (verification, setup, and configuration) before they could experience the reason they downloaded the app in the first place.

04 / The Decision

The Simplest Solution

Instead of optimizing individual screens, I redesigned the entire activation path around one principle: reduce the time between install and the first moment users could actually see and understand the product.

Strategy

• Reduce the number of steps from 8 → 3
• Remove SMS verification and rely on Google / Apple verification
• Keep email / password only for existing accounts
• Ask only for a username, then defer everything else until users experience value

06 / Guardrails

What Needed to Happen

Success would be if:

• More users complete onboarding and reach the homepage for the first time.
• The gap between installs and new users reaching the homepage shrinks by at least 20% in the first month.
• Active users go up after the change, even though we knew the post-signup flow still had issues to fix.

Success metrics were set by comparing against results from our marketing campaigns.

Flop would be if:

• The gap between downloads and new users reaching the homepage improves by less than 10%. The gap was big, and we knew it could be smaller.
• Users keep abandoning before reaching the homepage. In that case, the root cause is likely elsewhere, and we would run more live user testing.

07 / The Outcome

Success!

New users increased

Month over month, new users who saw the homepage increased by almost 36%.

Almost double the 20% target.

Active users increase

Active users increased by 13.0%.

Compact onboarding

The onboarding journey was reduced from approximately 8 screens to 3. The results supported the original hypothesis: reducing activation friction helped more users reach the product experience.