Adding Steps to Signup Can Get More People to Finish It
Anthropic's growth chief says well-designed friction helps users see the product is for them.
Lenny's Podcast: Product | Career | Growth · Head of Growth (Anthropic): “Claude is growing itself at this point” | Amol AvasareAmol Avasare, the head of growth at Anthropic, was explaining what actually gets new users to stick with a product when he offered a counterintuitive rule. "Adding more friction usually works if you do it the right way," he said.
By friction, he does not mean annoying paperwork. He means asking new users who they are, what their interests are, and what they came for, then using the answers to point them to the most relevant starting place. If those questions help someone see a personal fit, he argues, more people finish signup, not fewer.
At Anthropic, that means asking users about their identity and interest areas, then recommending different products and features. Avasare said outsiders often tell him the flow looks too long and too friction heavy. His answer is that the team has the data, and is happy with how it performs.
He learned the pattern at earlier jobs. At Masterclass, where he previously worked in growth, the purchase flow puts buyers through a quiz about their goals before they pay. It was tested and was a significant revenue driver, he said, because it helped users feel the product was for them by matching them to relevant classes. One of the growth PMs on his team later left to join Calm, the meditation app, he said, and Calm's purchase and login flows include a quiz.
At Mercury, the banking company where he also worked on growth, the team spent a quarter only on improving the quality of the onboarding flow, and saw a significant lift from starting to completion. Splitting a crowded screen with five or six fields into two screens also performed well because it reduced mental effort, he said. It was the single most impactful quarter he had had as a growth PM before joining Anthropic, he said.
His rule, he said, is to cut friction that does not add to "helping a user understand why the product is for them," but to test extra steps that do. Avasare said that "especially if you have high volume," teams should test whether the added questions help.
Questions people ask
If longer signup works, why do so many companies still try to make it as short as possible?
Shorter often wins in simple tests because each extra click loses some people. The effect Avasare describes shows up when the questions change motivation, not just effort. In his view, companies focused only on time to value can miss that matching users to a relevant starting point can raise completion and later use.
What makes a signup question good friction instead of bad friction?
Good questions have a visible payoff, like a recommendation, a personalized template, or a clearer starting point. Bad questions ask for information the user cannot see being used. A useful test is whether the user could explain why you asked.
Does asking more questions help small startups too, or only large companies?
It can help small startups, but it is harder to prove because they have less traffic for testing. Avasare specifically recommends testing when you have high volume. Smaller teams often do better with user interviews and session recordings before they run formal experiments.