Conversion

The moment attention becomes action: a click, a purchase, a reply. Easy to count, easy to chase past the point of meaning.

A conversion is a threshold crossing, and thresholds are designed: the promise made just before it, the friction at it, the reassurance after. Most conversion problems are trust problems wearing interface costumes; the button was fine, the confidence to press it was missing.

The chase has a cliff. Optimise the number past the point of meaning and you harvest clicks from people the product will disappoint, which retention then reports as churn. A conversion is only worth counting if the state it converts to is worth being in.