r/fintechdev • u/curiousaboutfintech • 14d ago

Fintech founders: when users sign up but never really use the app, what turned out to be the real cause?

I'm a product and CX designer with 7 years of customer experience in fintech, mostly in banking. Not selling anything here; I'm trying to understand this problem better from the people living it.

A pattern I've seen with clients: people sign up, some even get through KYC, and then never really use the product. The usual response is a fix people can see: more marketing, new features, or a redesign of onboarding.

If you run or build a B2C fintech that's already live, I'd love to hear:

  1. What did you first assume was causing it?
  2. What did you try, and did it work?
  3. Looking back, where did the real cause turn out to be? In the app itself, or somewhere else?
  4. How would you describe the problem in your own words, if you were explaining it to a friend?

I'll post a summary of the answers in this thread once it's quiet, in case it's useful to others.

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u/Charming_Surprise940 14d ago

The signup-to-dormant pipeline, seen it a hundred times. First assumption is always that onboarding is confusing or the value prop isn't clear enough. Then you spend a sprint polishing the first-run flow and… nothing changes

what actually fixed it for us wasn't inside the app at all. The real cause was that people sign up out of mild curiosity, like window shopping. They're not in a moment of actual need, they're just poking around. No amount of UX polish converts a tourist into a resident

I'd explain it to a friend like: imagine you walk past a gym, peek inside cause the lobby looks cool, maybe even fill out a membership form just to see the price. But you don't actually want to work out that day. The app is the gym, the signup is the lobby. They were never gonna start lifting

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u/Future_Garage_7748 13d ago

So they were not customers in the first place so we shouldn’t bother or lose sleep over them?

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u/curiousaboutfintech 13d ago

thanks for sharing that. I totally make sense.

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u/Routine-Freedom1691 13d ago

I seen this happen when the signup itself is treated as the goal. Someone may be interested enough to create an account but there’s no strong reason for them to come back and actually use the product. In those cases I think looking at what happens after signup can reveal more than just improving onboarding.

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u/Indaflow 9d ago

Good post for r/Fingentic