Field notes
When a long conversion path is honest
Not every extra screen is a leak. A marketplace that asks a seller to confirm a pickup point before a paid push is doing something the buyer later depends on. A health-adjacent utility that explains a permission in plain language is not “friction” in the way a second welcome carousel is.
Conversion path analytics gets sloppy when it treats step count as a moral score. We would rather write which screens are load-bearing and which are leftovers from an earlier launch. A leftover carousel can go. A permission explanation that recordings show people actually reading should stay, even if it adds a tap.
In GB we also see paths lengthened by store review notes, age gates, and copy that legal required after a complaint. Those screens belong in the written path with their origin, not in a pile labelled “reduce.” An audit that cannot tell a leftover from a requirement will recommend the wrong cut.
If your team is arguing about length, bring the recordings of people who completed the long path as well as the ones who left. Completers are evidence too.