Funnels assume a straight line. But Activation in SaaS is anything but.

Funnels are tidy. They expect people to go from A to B to C in sequence. That works great for checkout flows.

But in product-led SaaS? New accounts rarely follow a single path. Some users dive into one feature. Others explore slowly. A few invite their team early, others don’t. It’s not a funnel. It’s a web.

That’s why measuring Activation like a funnel leads to false assumptions, and missed opportunities.

The better way: Measure Activation by milestones, not order

Instead of assuming every account walks the same path, define a list of key actions (activation milestones) that signal product value. Then track how many of those actions each account completes.

If an account needs to do five things to reach Activation and they’ve done two, they’re 40% activated. Doesn’t matter what order. Doesn’t matter how fast.

This approach reflects real user behavior. It gives you a more honest picture of how far along each account really is.

Note: You can track Activation at two levels. User-level activation measures how many actions individual users complete. Those individual user actions then roll up to create a picture of account-level activation. Both are important for a B2B Saas product.

Let’s take an example

Say you run a project management tool. A fully activated account might:

• Create a project

• Invite teammates

• Upload files

• Set deadlines

• Complete a task

Those actions might happen in any sequence. So instead of forcing a funnel, track how many of those actions are complete per account. Now you know which accounts are close to value, and which ones are stuck.

What this unlocks for your team

When you track Activation this way, your entire go-to-market team gets smarter:

• Sales sees which accounts are almost there and ready for a push

• Customer Success knows who needs help getting to value

• Product can spot patterns in where users stall

It’s a simple shift. But it makes your GTM motion more precise and more personal.

How Accoil helps you do this

Accoil lets you define what Activation looks like for your product at both the user and account level. Then it tracks that behavior in the background and gives you a clear Activation score.

You can segment by score, see how teams are progressing, and push that data into tools like Intercom or HubSpot to trigger the right customer comms at the right time.

And because the path isn’t fixed, your team stays flexible—meeting users where they are instead of guessing where they should be.

Activation is a journey. Stop forcing it into a funnel.

It’s time we measured onboarding the way it actually happens: action by action, not stage by stage.

Accoil shows you the path users are taking, and how close they are to getting real value. So you can help the right ones move forward.