Signal Playbook
Capture product, journey, and traffic signals in one place, score them, and route the next test or fix — so CRO is driven by intent, not guesswork.
Tools used
How it works
01
Define what a signal should do
Decide the job of each signal before you capture it. Otherwise the stack is noise.
- Awareness: where the account or user sits in the journey.
- Automated tests: fire an experiment when a leak repeats.
- Manual review: ping the team on high-intent drop-offs.
- Expansion: product signals that point to an upsell or plan change.
- Acquisition: lists for ads and landing tests, not more spend for the same funnel.
02
Capture first-party signals
Start with data you already own inside the product.
- Product usage: Mixpanel, Amplitude, PostHog.
- Web analytics: GA4, Plausible, server events.
- Session evidence: FullStory, Hotjar, Clarity.
- Checkout and forms: native events plus GTM.
- Support and chat: Intercom, Crisp — where users stall.
03
Capture second-party signals
Add partner and channel data that explains the visit.
- Ads and UTM quality: what actually lands in the funnel.
- CRM stage: HubSpot, Pipedrive, Attio.
- Email and lifecycle: Customer.io, Braze, Iterable.
- Review and referral sources that change intent.
04
Capture third-party context
Firmographics and market context only where they change the test.
- Traffic quality: Similarweb, Ahrefs, Search Console.
- Device and performance: CrUX, web vitals.
- Segment traits that change copy, pricing, or flow.
05
Centralize and score
One place, one awareness stage, no competing dashboards.
- Pipe events into a warehouse or CDP (Segment, BigQuery).
- Enrich the user or account behind the event.
- Score stages: identified, aware, interested, considering, converting.
06
Route to a live change
Every scored signal needs an owner and a next ship.
- High-intent leaks become the next CRO test.
- Tier-1 sessions go to research, not a slide.
- Winners sync back as the new baseline in analytics.
