Published teardowns

Real products, scored.

Each teardown applies the ActivateFirst methodology to a real product — landing pages scored on Clarity, Friction, Trust, and Performance; onboarding flows scored on the path from signup to first value.

Onboarding flow

Canva - Onboarding Flow

plg · desktop · Jun 2026

56
Elevated

Email OTP verification (screens 5–15) forces users out of the Canva tab into their email client, creating a multi-minute P-Gap interruption before the user has seen a single pixel of product value — the highest abandonment point in the flow.

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Landing page

Canva - Landing Page

plg · desktop · Jun 2026

65
Elevated

The headline 'What will you design today?' is engaging but assumes the visitor already knows Canva — it skips the 'why Canva over anything else' entirely, leaving differentiation to the sub-headline alone.

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Onboarding flow

Airtable - Onboarding Flow

plg · desktop · Jun 2026

50
Elevated

Premature paid trial upsell modal (14-day Team plan) fires before the user has built or seen anything inside the product — triggered by typing 'I am not sure I want to explore the product' into the Omni prompt, meaning uncertain users are punished with a sales pitch at the exact moment they need reassurance

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Landing page

Airtable - Landing Page

plg · desktop · Jun 2026

57
Elevated

The headline 'All your teams, all their workflows—connected in one workspace' is category-generic: it could describe a dozen competing tools and gives no hint of Airtable's core differentiator (structured relational data + flexible views + automation).

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Landing page

HubSpot - Landing Page

plg · desktop · Jun 2026

57
Elevated

The cookie consent banner still covers the hero on mobile load — the headline 'Where go-to-market teams go to retain.' is invisible behind the full-screen consent overlay, destroying the 5-second test for the majority of first-time mobile visitors.

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Onboarding flow

HubSpot - Onboarding Flow

plg · desktop · Jun 2026

50
Elevated

Email OTP verification forces users to leave the HubSpot tab entirely and open their email client, creating a P-Gap context-switch mid-signup that is the single highest drop-off point in the entire flow — users who don't immediately see the email or are on shared inboxes will abandon.

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Onboarding flow

Mailchimp - Onboarding Flow

b2c · desktop · Jun 2026

43
Critical

Email verification (OTP) forces the user to leave the app entirely to a separate inbox tab, creating a hard P-Gap interruption mid-signup that is a primary abandonment point before the user has seen any product value.

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Landing page

Mailchimp - Landing Page

b2c · desktop · Jun 2026

51
Elevated

The desktop experience opens with a blocking modal asking visitors to select their industry and top 3 goals before they have seen the hero headline, any product proof, or a single reason to trust Mailchimp — this is a high-friction, zero-context ask that will cause significant early abandonment.

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Onboarding flow

Slack - Onboarding Flow

plg · desktop · Jun 2026

48
Critical

The reCAPTCHA image challenge (select all images with cars) fires mid-signup and forces a multi-click visual puzzle that breaks momentum at the highest-intent moment in the funnel — before any value has been delivered.

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Landing page

Slack - Landing Page

plg · desktop · Jun 2026

65
Elevated

The headline 'All your people and AI agents working together' is punchy and current but leans into AI positioning without explaining what that means in practice — the hero product screenshot showing Slackbot surfacing a contract renewal does the heavy lifting, but only for visitors who look closely.

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Onboarding flow

Notion - Onboarding Flow

plg · desktop · Jun 2026

51
Elevated

Credit card form appears before first value delivery: On the 'Try Business for Free' screen (screen 16), Notion surfaces a full billing form with card number, expiry, CVC, and country fields immediately after plan selection — before the user has touched a single Notion page or experienced any product value. This is a high-intent abandonment point for free-plan users and a trust-eroding forced upsell.

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Landing page

Notion - Landing Page

plg · desktop · Jun 2026

59
Elevated

The headline 'Meet the night shift.' prioritizes campaign cleverness over clarity — it does not name the product category, the user benefit, or who it is for, forcing visitors to read the sub-headline before they understand what is being offered.

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Onboarding flow

Figma - Onboarding Flow

plg · desktop · Jun 2026

45
Critical

Email verification forces users out of the app entirely before they reach the product: users see a 'Check your inbox' screen, must switch to their email client, find the Figma verification email, click 'Verify email,' and then return — a hard P-Gap that will cause significant abandonment at the point of highest motivation.

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Landing page

Figma - Landing Page

plg · desktop · Jun 2026

52
Elevated

The headline 'Make anything possible,' is generic aspiration-speak — it could belong to Adobe, Canva, Notion, or a motivational poster. It does not name the category (design tool, prototyping, UI/UX) or the primary user (designers, product teams), costing critical 5-second clarity.

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