Field notes

Event names that cannot reconstruct a conversion path

3 April 2026

A Conversion Path Audit depends on being able to tell a fresh open from a restore. If both fire session_start with no property for the previous state, the path cannot be reconstructed from events. Recordings may still show the difference. The export will not.

We keep finding three names that look precise and are not:

• onboarding_complete fired when the last onboarding screen is viewed, not when the core action happens.
• trial_started fired again after a restore, with no flag that the clock was reset.
• paywall_view fired for both the yearly plan sheet and a soft prompt that is not a paywall.

Event Mapping for Conversion Steps is the quieter engagement we book before an audit when the dictionary cannot currently tell those cases apart. The output is one path, not a company-wide taxonomy. Engineers keep the implementation. We only write which split would let a later review read the same sequence the screens show.

If your pair already knows the names are messy, say so on the briefing. An audit that pretends the events reconstruct the path will spend its second week apologising.