Fieldnote Product review Q3 · 2026
Q3Product review

Activation doubled in Q3 after we shortened onboarding

New accounts now start with three starter notes and one question, instead of an empty workspace and a settings panel. Week-one activation went from 22% to 41%.

MCJR Mia Chen and Jonas Reyes
Product · 12 October 2026 · 6 min read
41%Activated in week one +19 pts
3:40Time to first note −62%
58%Still writing in week two +11 pts
−34%Onboarding tickets vs Q2

Summary

Until July, a new account opened on an empty workspace with a blinking cursor and a sidebar full of settings. Fifty-nine percent of people left before writing anything. In August we replaced that screen with three starter notes and a single question: “What are you working on?”

The answer seeds the first note. People start by editing a note that already exists, and their first links appear on day one. Before the change, the median account made its first link in week three.

Decision

Keep the new flow for all sign-ups. Remove the old one in the 4.12 release.

What changed

The old flow asked for four decisions before the first keystroke. The new one asks for one, and it is a question people can answer without thinking about our product at all.

Before Sign upemail + password Name a workspace+ pick a theme Empty noteblinking cursor 59% leavebefore writing After Sign upone click "What are you working on?"one question Three starter notesalready linked 41% activatein week one
Fig. 1The old flow asked for four decisions before the first keystroke. The new one asks one question, and its answer becomes the first note.

The evidence

Weekly activation sat between 19 and 23 percent for all of Q2. It moved the week the new flow reached half of sign-ups, and again when it reached everyone. Nothing else we shipped lines up with either jump.

Weekly activation 20262025
Fig. 2Share of new accounts that write and link a note in their first week. The new flow reached half of sign-ups on 10 August and everyone on 24 August.

Retention followed. People who answered the question were still writing in week two at nearly twice the rate of those who skipped it, and the gap held for the six weeks we have measured so far.

“I didn't set anything up. I just started fixing the note it made for me, and an hour later I had a project.”
Interview 14 · freelance researcher · signed up 19 August

What we do next

  1. Write starter notes for the ten most common answers

    Today the starter notes are generic. Tailoring them to the answer is the cheapest next step and the one we expect to move activation most.

  2. Move theme and workspace settings after the first note

    Fewer than 1% of new accounts opened these settings in week one. We will offer them on day three.

  3. Measure week-four retention before calling this done

    Week-four retention is the number that predicts paid conversion. We review it on 9 November.

Appendix

Cohorts by sign-up week. Activation means a note written and linked within seven days.

CohortSign-upsActivatedWeek twoFlow
3 Aug2,14022%46%Old
10 Aug2,31530%51%Half
24 Aug2,60836%55%New
14 Sep2,95139%57%New
28 Sep3,20441%58%New