Most B2B companies treat activation and retention as metrics to track. We treat them as the entire point.
Look at our GTM roadmap from the previous chapter - Priority #1 is Product, Priority #2 is Activation, Priority #3 is Retention. Everything else comes after.
Why? Because if users don't activate quickly and stay long, no amount of marketing will save you. You'll just burn money acquiring users who churn.
Making users happy isn't a nice-to-have. It's the foundation everything else builds on.
The happiness flywheel
Here's how all the pieces work together:
Reduce information asymmetry → Interactive demos show product before signup
Activate in minutes → 60-second onboarding + simple 5-tab UI
Support without interrupting → 4 non-invasive layers when users need help
Listen to feedback → Public roadmap, users vote on features
Ship what they need → We build based on actual requests, not guessing
Users are impressed → They see we listen, they recommend us
New users enter → More users = more feedback = faster shipping
Cycle speeds up → Each loop moves faster than the last
This isn't linear. It's a flywheel that compounds.
Early users give feedback. We ship it. They tell colleagues. Colleagues sign up, give more feedback. We ship faster. They're impressed we shipped so fast. They tell more people. More people means more feedback. We get better at prioritizing. Shipping gets faster. Users notice. Engagement increases.
Each cycle reinforces the others. Speed compounds happiness.
Show, don't tell: Interactive demos
Before users even sign up, they can explore the product.
Not a video. Not a slide deck. Actual clickable product experience.
Before trial: Prospects explore features without registration. No commitment. Just click around and see if it fits. They evaluate whether it solves their problem before giving us their email.
During sales: Enterprise buyers test functionality before talking to sales. Finance sees the ROI calculator. Security reviews data handling. End users try the workflow. Everyone evaluates based on reality, not promises.
After signup: New users watch product tours showing exact workflows - "Here's how to set up your first ICP."
Why this matters: Information asymmetry kills happiness.
Traditional B2B: Marketing promises X → Sales demos Y → Product delivers Z → User feels misled → Churn
Our approach: Show exactly what product does → User knows what they're getting → Reality matches expectations → User is happy
Interactive demos aren't just marketing. They're the first step in making users happy - by being honest about what we actually do.
Activate in minutes: Onboarding that doesn't waste time
Most B2B tools take 30 minutes to set up. We get you to value in 60 seconds.
The onboarding flow:
Step 1: Enter email + company website
Our platform analyzes your website in real-time. Reverse engineers your business model. Auto-generates your first ICP draft.
Is it perfect? No. Does it cut 80% of the work? Yes.
You have a working ICP in 5 minutes instead of spending an hour manually configuring dozens of attributes.
Step 2: Review auto-generated ICP and Persona
Check what we detected. Adjust if needed. Or click "looks good" and move on.
Step 3: Turn on your first signal source
One click. Signals start flowing immediately.
Step 4: Invite teammates (optional)
Add your team or skip.
Done. Product is live.
Total time: 60 seconds if you skip adjustments. 5 minutes if you customize.
Most users see their first scored leads within 30 minutes because signals start tracking immediately after setup.
Simple by design: Five tabs, zero confusion
We built the product UI with one principle: make it impossible to get lost.
Five tabs:
- Dashboard - What's happening right now
- ICPs & Personas - Configure your scoring models
- Signals - Turn sources on/off
- Records - See your scored leads
- Audiences - Route leads to different plays
No nested menus. No 47 features hidden in dropdowns. No "where did I see that setting?"
We could have built complexity. We chose simplicity.
When users figure out the product in 5 minutes without reading docs, they activate faster. When they activate faster, they see value faster. When they see value faster, they stay.
Simple UI isn't about dumbing things down. It's about removing friction between "I signed up" and "I'm getting value."
Support without interrupting: Four non-invasive layers
We care about making users happy, but we also know interruption kills happiness.
So we built support layers users can access when THEY need help - not when we think they should.
1. Help Center: Complete documentation
Every feature, workflow, edge case - documented at learn.unstuckengine.com.
Most users never read it. That's fine. It exists for when they need it.
2. Scout AI: Help Center in chat
Don't want to search docs? Ask Scout AI directly in the product.
Scout is trained on every Help Center article. Ask "How do I set up my first ICP?" - get an answer in seconds, with links to dive deeper.
No leaving the product. No searching. Just ask.
3. Talk to our team
Scout AI can't solve everything. Sometimes you need a human.
Message our team directly. Response time: hours, not days.
Scout can route you: "This seems complex, let me connect you with the team."
4. Community: Learn from other users
Sometimes the best answer comes from someone who already solved your problem.
Our Slack community connects users with each other. Someone asks "How do you handle multiple ICPs for different products?" - another user shares their setup.
This does two things:
Attracts users before they trial. They see how others use it, ask questions, get comfortable.
Reduces support load. When users help each other, we don't answer the same question 50 times.
Community isn't just support. It's distribution AND retention.
The philosophy: Support should be available when needed, invisible when not.
No forced onboarding calls. No "let me show you around" emails. No account manager check-ins unless you ask.
Just four layers, always available, never pushy.
Listen and ship fast: Public roadmap
We don't guess what users need. We ask them, then we ship it.
Our public roadmap lets users:
- See what we're building
- Vote on features they want most
- Suggest new ideas
- Track progress on requested features
When enough users vote for something, we prioritize it. When we ship it, they see we listened.
Early example: Users said "ICP scoring is great, but I need persona-level tracking too." We shipped it. They told their colleagues. Colleagues signed up, voted for "engagement stages." We shipped it. They told more people.
Each cycle moves faster because:
- Users trust we'll actually build what they need
- We get specific feedback, not generic "make it better"
- We ship features multiple customers want, not one-off requests
- Happy users recruit more users who give better feedback
The more we listen, the faster users give feedback. The faster we ship, the more impressed they are. The more impressed they are, the more they recommend us. The more they recommend, the more users we have giving feedback.
This is the flywheel in action.
Making users happy isn't altruism. It's how we build a better product, faster.
Why this compounds: Activation predicts retention
We track five milestones that predict long-term retention:
First 5 minutes: User sets up their first ICP (auto-generated during onboarding)
First 30 minutes: User configures their first signal source
First hour: User sees their first scored leads matching their ICP
First day: User exports or routes leads to their workflow
Second day: User adds a second ICP or invites teammates
User who completes all 5 milestones within 48 hours? 87% still active after 6 months.
User who completes zero in first week? 12% still active.
Every piece of the flywheel exists to accelerate these milestones:
Interactive demos reduce signup friction (users know what they're getting)
60-second onboarding gets first ICP live in 5 minutes
Simple UI makes finding features effortless
Non-invasive support answers questions without slowing users down
Public roadmap shows we ship what they need
The faster users hit these milestones, the happier they are. The happier they are, the longer they stay. The longer they stay, the more they expand.
Retention starts with activation. Activation starts with removing every unnecessary step between "I signed up" and "I'm getting value."
Why both sides winning starts here
Our mission is to build a world where every GTM interaction matters to both sides. That philosophy shapes how we keep users happy.
Buyers win when:
- They know exactly what they're getting before purchase (interactive demos)
- They activate in minutes, not days (60-second onboarding, auto-generated ICP)
- The product is simple to use without training (5 tabs, intuitive UI)
- Support is available but never pushy (4 non-invasive layers)
- Their feedback actually shapes the product (public roadmap, we ship what they vote for)
Traditional B2B: Acquire users → hope they figure it out → blame churn on "not the right fit"
Our approach: Show exactly what product does → activate in minutes → support without interrupting → listen to feedback → ship what they need → repeat
Sellers win because happy users expand and recommend. Buyers win because they get a product that solves their problem, with support that doesn't waste their time.
When users activate in under an hour instead of under a week, both sides win. When users can vote on features instead of submitting tickets that disappear into a void, both sides win. When product improvements come from actual feedback instead of product manager guesses, both sides win.
This isn't just good customer service. It's the business model.
Happy users are the flywheel that powers everything else.
Next: How we make money - The business model that makes both quality and growth possible
Deep dive: Our culture - Why Fail Fast enables this speed of shipping based on user feedback
Context: How we get users - Why activation and retention are Priorities #2 and #3
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