# Every Click Costs Half Your Users Additional steps in flows slash conversion rates by half. - **Source:** [Andrew Chen](https://andrewchen.com) - **Published:** 2024-02-05 - **Topic:** [Product Management](https://brifing.si/c/product) - **Original article:** - **On Brifing:** https://brifing.si/s/0b4d7d9b-f69d-46aa-9184-cca2b8e7eb02 ## The Click Trap 80% bounce on app download pages. 90% hit back when seeing signup forms. 99% decline subscription prompts from search traffic. Each additional interaction request means losing half your audience - a brutal reality of digital product growth. ## Uber's Lesson Early Uber required credit cards during signup. Switching to phone-only registration boosted conversions by 50%. This proves the importance of questioning every field in critical flows - what's truly essential versus nice-to-have? ## Design Pitfalls Ornate onboarding flows and lengthy tutorials may limit your beta to hundreds instead of thousands. For startups, this can jeopardize fundraising by failing to demonstrate traction. Friction in early access often proves fatal to growth trajectories. ## Simplification Strategy Interrogate every step: Is this field mandatory? Must this happen now? Can explanatory steps be removed? Place signup on first screens. Use blocking modals or nothing at all. The goal is immediate product access, not process completion. ## Friction Paradox Ironically, zero friction also backfires. Without any commitment, bounced users are lost forever. Easier signups attract lower-quality users - doubling registrations rarely doubles paying customers. Intent quality matters as much as quantity. ## Optimal Balance The hardest part of growth is knowing when to add or remove friction. Your product's magic lies in usage, not setup. Remember the cost of each click - you hemorrhage half your audience per interaction. Spend user intent wisely, like scarce currency. ## Sources covering this story - https://andrewchen.com/every-time-you-ask-the-user-click-you-lose-half/ — --- _Summary written by Brifing from the original reporting. Copyright in the original article belongs to its publisher; read the full piece at the link above._