While the goal is often a frictionless experience, some friction can be a positive filter. Descript found that users willing to download a desktop app were more invested and more likely to stick around. Don't be afraid of early steps that test a user's commitment.

Contrary to the 'minimize steps to value' mantra, adding friction like user questionnaires to onboarding often boosts conversion. By asking users about their goals, you can personalize their experience, make them feel the product is for them, and guide them to the right features, improving funnel completion.

Free offers attract high volume but often low quality. Counter this by adding strategic friction—like multi-step forms or forced video consumption—to weed out uncommitted prospects. The goal is finding the sweet spot that maximizes qualified leads without losing high-value but lazy prospects.

Retro's emotional onboarding video caused a 20-30% signup drop-off. While seemingly a failure, this friction can act as a valuable filter, weeding out low-intent users and attracting those who resonate deeply with the product's core mission from the very beginning.

By maintaining a one-to-one chat relationship with subscribers, The Continent can message users in specific countries when news breaks. This transforms their distribution list from a passive audience into an active network of on-the-ground sources, enriching their journalism.

When your sales team is overwhelmed with unqualified leads, the solution is not to generate fewer leads, but to make it harder for bad-fit prospects to book a call. Add qualifying questions to your opt-in form and use the answers to conditionally show your booking calendar only to high-quality leads. This saves countless sales hours.

Instead of mass broadcasting, The Continent initially sent its PDF individually via WhatsApp. This manual, personal approach fostered an entirely organic network built on reader trust and sharing, proving more resilient and powerful than algorithmic growth strategies.

The startup Tour requires users to enter a phone number and a texted code to unlock full video tours. This small amount of friction effectively weeds out competitors, scammers, and casual browsers, ensuring the sales team only engages with high-intent prospects.

Contrary to a 'frictionless' growth mindset, legal tech unicorn Clio deliberately added hurdles like a 30-minute webinar to its beta program. This strategy filtered out casual users, ensuring they worked with a small, highly engaged customer cohort to truly validate the product's value before focusing on growth.