The bug that killed every signup for 4 days

Source: Dev.to

Problem

The signup flow required users to pick a paid plan before they had seen the product.

• Users landed on the signup page and were immediately shown a “pick your plan” screen with Free, Pro (£12/month), and Enterprise options.
• They had no context, no analysis run, and no information about the value they would receive.
• The forced choice caused most new visitors to close the tab, resulting in a conversion rate that rounded to zero.

Solution

1. Removed the plan‑picker route from the signup flow.

2. Auto‑granted 10 free tokens to every new user at signup.

3. Updated the dashboard to surface the trial wallet immediately after the first login:

   “You have 10 free tokens. One full analysis = 3 tokens. No card on file.”

4. Deployed the changes via Vercel (≈90 seconds).

Results

• April 28 (~11 pm) – fix shipped.
• April 30 – signups rose to 13.
• May 4 – signups reached 47.

The conversion curve changed instantly once the plan picker was removed.

Lessons Learned

• Any “pick your plan”, “what brings you here”, “select your role”, or “team info” screen is a friction point if presented before the user experiences value.
• The right time to ask for preferences or payment information is after the product has delivered something useful.
• Test the onboarding flow as a stranger (incognito, fresh email) and ask: “Could a person who has never seen this product answer this question with confidence?”
• Use analytics (Vercel Analytics, Plausible, etc.) to identify the page‑by‑page drop‑off after a signup‑button click; the biggest drop is likely the bug.
• Default answers wherever possible and only ask for explicit input after the user has earned context.
• Regularly audit the cold‑start signup flow (day 1, day 7, day 30) to catch invisible bugs before they cost revenue.

Takeaway: A small, 12‑minute fix can triple your signups. Don’t assume the problem lies in headline copy or hero animation—walk the entire user flow first.