Conversion Funnel
The staged path users take toward a goal — visit, sign up, activate, pay — where measuring drop-off at each step reveals where to improve.
A conversion funnel models a goal as a sequence of stages — say, landing → signup → activation → purchase — and measures how many users survive each transition. The shape of the funnel shows exactly where people fall away, turning a vague "we need more customers" into a specific "we lose 60% at signup."
Funnels are the diagnostic layer under CRO and growth design. The biggest leverage is usually the leakiest step with the most traffic above it — fixing that beats optimizing a stage almost no one reaches.
Related terms
Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO)The systematic practice of increasing the share of users who take a desired action, through testing and iterative improvement of the experience.ActivationThe point at which a new user first experiences the core value of a product — the 'aha moment' that predicts whether they'll stick around.User FlowA map of the sequence of steps and decisions a user moves through to complete a task, from entry point to goal.ChurnThe rate at which users or customers stop using a product or cancel over a given period — the inverse of retention.