Measuring onboarding when the app has two entry paths

Product analytics often draws one onboarding funnel. Reality is messier. A person who taps “Browse first” and a person who taps “Create account” do not share the same early screens, even when they later meet on the home feed.

When we open a measurement window for Proxy Vertex Grid studies, we ask teams to name the two most common entry paths before observation begins. We then tag each first install to a path. Drop-off notes stay attached to the path that produced them.

This matters for readout conversations. A team that hears “forty percent leave at account creation” may try to shorten the form, when half of those people never intended to create an account on first open. They came through a guest path that later forced a wall after a favourite or a cart action.

Our flagship study can cover two paths when they share screens. When the paths diverge early and stay divergent, we still measure both, but we write them as separate sequences in the report. Mixing them into one chart is how first-session truth gets lost.

Before you enquire about dates, list the buttons on your first interactive screen. If there are two clear doors, plan the study as two paths from the start.