Launching the free tier before instrumentation is ready

Early cohorts churn before you learn from them. No data to optimise against — just intuition.

CRITICAL

Defining activation as setup, not as a value event

Activation rate looks healthy (80%+). Actual value delivery is under 20%. The dashboard lies.

CRITICAL

Activating sales before PQL scoring is validated

Reps call unscored free users. Conversion is low. Sales blames product. Product blames sales.

HIGH

Free tier too wide — users never hit an upgrade trigger

Large engaged free base. Near-zero conversion. Zombie users who will never pay.

HIGH

Ignoring the buyer-user gap in the upgrade flow

Individual users activate. The budget holder sees no business case. Deals stall at procurement.

MEDIUM