<b>The funnel step nobody had named</b>

<b>The funnel step nobody had named</b>

A fintech app tracked signups and funded accounts and nothing in between, so the long gap between them was a black box they kept guessing at.

The clue arrived once they instrumented the silent middle: a single 'identity verification started' event. 71% of signups reached it; only 40% finished it. The leak wasn't acquisition or funding, it was a step that didn't exist in any report.

They added a progress indicator and a 'resume verification' email triggered off the new event.

Verification completion rose from 40% to 63%, and funded accounts climbed without a single extra signup.

The lesson: an untracked step is an unfixable step. The biggest funnel leaks often hide in the stretch you forgot to measure between the two events you do.