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Objectives are specific milestones or behaviours that you want to track within a stage. They represent the things you expect customers to do as they progress—the actions that indicate healthy usage and forward momentum.

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What are objectives?

Objectives are the checkpoints along a journey. Each checkpoint answers:
  • “Has this customer done this thing yet?”
  • “How long did it take them compared to others?”
Key distinction: Objectives are observational. They track whether something happened without necessarily triggering an intervention. You’re building a picture of what customers are doing, how quickly, and who is ahead or behind.

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Objectives vs markers

Within stages, Trig distinguishes between two types:
ObjectivesMarkers
Things you want customers to doSignals of healthy usage
Milestones you’ve identified as importantOngoing behaviours that correlate with success
Define the destinationIndicate quality of the journey
Objective examples:
  • Created first project
  • Invited a team member
  • Connected payment gateway
Marker examples:
  • Logged in more than 3 times this week
  • Session duration greater than 10 minutes
  • Returned within 24 hours

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Why objectives matter

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Building a picture of normal

Every objective contributes to understanding what “normal” looks like:
MetricDescription
Average time to completeHow long does the typical customer take?
Completion rateWhat percentage complete this objective?
Completion sequenceIn what order do customers typically complete?
This baseline builds automatically as data accumulates.

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Identifying who needs attention

Once normal is established, every organisation can be measured:
  • Faster than average — Completed more quickly than typical
  • Slower than average — Taking longer, potentially stuck
  • Not completed — Should have completed by now but hasn’t
This comparison is the foundation for Signals.

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Enabling pattern discovery

Objectives create measurement points for analysis:
  • “Customers who complete Objective A within 7 days have 80% higher retention”
  • “Customers who skip Objective C rarely complete Objective D”
  • “The median time to complete all onboarding objectives is 12 days”

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How objectives work

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Relationship to stages

Objectives always live within a stage. They inherit their audience from the stage—if an organisation is in the stage, it’s being tracked against the stage’s objectives. 
Stage: Onboarding
├── Objective 1: Created First Project
├── Objective 2: Invited Team Member
├── Objective 3: Connected Integration
├── Objective 4: Generated First Report
└── Objective 5: Completed Full Week of Usage

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Non-linear completion

Objectives do not need to be completed in order. Unless your business logic requires a specific sequence, customers can complete in any order. This matters because:
  • Different customers have different priorities
  • Forcing linear completion creates artificial friction
  • The insight is often which objectives get completed first
If you need to enforce sequence (Objective B requires Objective A), build that into the completion criteria.

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Completion tracking

When an objective is completed, Trig records:
Data PointDescription
Completion timestampWhen the objective was achieved
Time from stage entryDays since entering the stage
Comparison to averageFaster or slower than typical
This data becomes metadata on the organisation for filtering, targeting, and analysis.

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Configuring objectives

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Anatomy of an objective

FieldDescriptionExample
NameDescriptive name for the milestone”First Invoice Created”
AudienceWho this applies to (usually inherited)All orgs in stage
Completion CriteriaWhat indicates doneinvoices_created >= 1

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Completion criteria options

Attribute-based: 
attribute = specific_value
attribute >= X
attribute has any value
Event-based: 
event_count >= X
event occurred
Combination: 
condition_1 AND condition_2
condition_1 OR condition_2

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Keep objectives simple

Each objective should track one meaningful milestone. Complex objectives with many AND conditions are harder to interpret and optimise.
Too complex: 
invoices_created >= 3 AND
payment_gateway_connected = true AND
team_members >= 2 AND
first_payment_received = true
Better as separate objectives:
  • First 3 Invoices Created
  • Payment Gateway Connected
  • Team Collaboration Started
  • First Payment Received

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Naming conventions

Good objective names are:
  • Descriptive — Clear what the milestone is
  • Action-oriented — Describes what the customer did
  • Threshold-inclusive — Include numbers if relevant
GoodBad
”Created First Invoice""Invoice"
"Using Projects (3+)""Projects"
"Team Member Invited""Has team”

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Threshold objectives

Track not just whether something happened, but how much: 
Objective: Using Manual Journal Entries (First Time)
Completion: manual_journal_entries >= 1

Objective: Using Manual Journal Entries (5+)
Completion: manual_journal_entries >= 5

Objective: Using Manual Journal Entries (20+)
Completion: manual_journal_entries >= 20
This reveals:
  • How many customers use the feature at all
  • How many become moderate users
  • How many become power users

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Objectives and signals

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How signals use objectives

The Signals feature analyses objective performance and identifies organisations that need attention:
  1. Trig calculates average time to complete each objective
  2. For each organisation, Trig compares time-in-stage to the average
  3. Organisations significantly behind are flagged as slow completers
  4. These appear in the Signals panel for review and action
Example:
  • Average time to complete “First Invoice Created”: 7 days
  • Organisation X has been in stage for 14 days, hasn’t completed it
  • Organisation X appears as a slow completer

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From signal to action

  1. Signal surfaces organisations — “47 organisations are overdue on ‘First Invoice’”
  2. You review and decide — Worth intervening? What should we say?
  3. Create job — Target these organisations
  4. Measure impact — Did the intervention improve completion?

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Viewing objective performance

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Stage-level view

Within a stage, see aggregate performance:
  • Total organisations in stage
  • Completion counts per objective
  • Average time to complete
  • Week-over-week trends

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Organisation-level view

For an individual organisation: 
Organisation: Acme Corp (entered Day 0, currently Day 21)

Objective 1: First Invoice Created
├── ✓ Completed (Day 3)
├── △ Average: Day 7
└── Status: AHEAD (4 days faster)

Objective 2: Payment Gateway Connected
├── ✗ Not completed
├── △ Average: Day 14
└── Status: BEHIND (7 days overdue)

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Objectives vs stage completion

Stage completion criteria determine when an organisation exits the stage. Objectives track progress within the stage.

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Options

ApproachDescriptionTrade-off
Objectives match completionStage completes when all objectives doneRisk: orgs can get stuck forever
Time-based completionStage completes after X daysEveryone moves forward, completion rates vary
HybridTime-based OR key objectives completeBalance movement and measurement
Most implementations use time-based or hybrid.

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Best practices

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Start with 4 to 7 objectives per stage

Too few = lack granularity. Too many = noise overwhelms signal.

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Define objectives you can track

Only create objectives where you have data. Confirm:
  • The event or attribute exists
  • It’s flowing into Trig correctly
  • It updates when the customer acts

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Make objectives meaningful

Objectives should represent meaningful milestones, but don’t need to be important enough to email about: Good: “Created 6 or more pages” — Meaningful engagement indicator, worth tracking The intervention decision comes later, informed by patterns across your customer base.

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Use objectives to find bottlenecks

If Objective A has 90% completion and Objective B has 10%, you’ve found a bottleneck. Design objectives to reveal where customers get stuck.

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Review and refine

Once objectives are live and accumulating data:
  • Are any objectives never completed? (Maybe too hard)
  • Are any always completed instantly? (Maybe too easy)
  • Is there an objective that predicts success?
  • Is there an objective that predicts churn?

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Common questions

Yes. Existing organisations will simply have no completion data for new objectives.
Yes, but changing criteria may affect historical interpretation. If you change “invoices >= 1” to “invoices >= 3”, previously completed orgs may now show incomplete.
The organisation shows as incomplete. With time-based stage exit, they still move forward—just with incomplete objectives recorded.
With 50+ completions, averages become meaningful. With 200+, statistically significant.
By default, non-linear. If you need enforced sequence, build dependency into completion criteria.

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Summary

Objectives are the measurement checkpoints within stages:
  1. Observational — Track what happened, not what to do about it
  2. Keep them simple — One clear milestone per objective
  3. Non-linear by default — Customers can complete in any order
  4. Build toward patterns — Value compounds as data accumulates
  5. Feed into Signals — Slow completers become intervention targets
Configure objectives thoughtfully, let data accumulate, and use the patterns to drive intelligent interventions.