Objectives

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.

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.

Objectives vs markers

Within stages, Trig distinguishes between two types:

Objectives	Markers
Things you want customers to do	Signals of healthy usage
Milestones you’ve identified as important	Ongoing behaviours that correlate with success
Define the destination	Indicate 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

Why objectives matter

Building a picture of normal

Every objective contributes to understanding what “normal” looks like:

Metric	Description
Average time to complete	How long does the typical customer take?
Completion rate	What percentage complete this objective?
Completion sequence	In what order do customers typically complete?

This baseline builds automatically as data accumulates.

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.

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”

How objectives work

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

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.

Completion tracking

When an objective is completed, Trig records:

Data Point	Description
Completion timestamp	When the objective was achieved
Time from stage entry	Days since entering the stage
Comparison to average	Faster or slower than typical

This data becomes metadata on the organisation for filtering, targeting, and analysis.

Configuring objectives

Anatomy of an objective

Field	Description	Example
Name	Descriptive name for the milestone	”First Invoice Created”
Audience	Who this applies to (usually inherited)	All orgs in stage
Completion Criteria	What indicates done	`invoices_created >= 1`

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

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

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

Good	Bad
”Created First Invoice"	"Invoice"
"Using Projects (3+)"	"Projects"
"Team Member Invited"	"Has team”

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

Objectives and signals

How signals use objectives

The Signals feature analyses objective performance and identifies organisations that need attention:

Trig calculates average time to complete each objective
For each organisation, Trig compares time-in-stage to the average
Organisations significantly behind are flagged as slow completers
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

From signal to action

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

Viewing objective performance

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

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)

Objectives vs stage completion

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

Options

Approach	Description	Trade-off
Objectives match completion	Stage completes when all objectives done	Risk: orgs can get stuck forever
Time-based completion	Stage completes after X days	Everyone moves forward, completion rates vary
Hybrid	Time-based OR key objectives complete	Balance movement and measurement

Most implementations use time-based or hybrid.

Best practices

Start with 4 to 7 objectives per stage

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

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

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.

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.

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?

Common questions

Can I add objectives after the stage is live?

Yes. Existing organisations will simply have no completion data for new objectives.

Can I modify completion criteria after it's live?

Yes, but changing criteria may affect historical interpretation. If you change “invoices >= 1” to “invoices >= 3”, previously completed orgs may now show incomplete.

What happens if an objective is never completed?

The organisation shows as incomplete. With time-based stage exit, they still move forward—just with incomplete objectives recorded.

How long before averages are reliable?

With 50+ completions, averages become meaningful. With 200+, statistically significant.

Should objectives be linear?

By default, non-linear. If you need enforced sequence, build dependency into completion criteria.

Summary

Objectives are the measurement checkpoints within stages:

Observational — Track what happened, not what to do about it
Keep them simple — One clear milestone per objective
Non-linear by default — Customers can complete in any order
Build toward patterns — Value compounds as data accumulates
Feed into Signals — Slow completers become intervention targets

Configure objectives thoughtfully, let data accumulate, and use the patterns to drive intelligent interventions.

Getting Started

Core Concepts

Integrations

Guides

Use Cases

Resources

What are objectives?

Objectives vs markers

Why objectives matter

Building a picture of normal

Identifying who needs attention

Enabling pattern discovery

How objectives work

Relationship to stages

Non-linear completion

Completion tracking

Configuring objectives

Anatomy of an objective

Completion criteria options

Keep objectives simple

Naming conventions

Threshold objectives

Objectives and signals

How signals use objectives

From signal to action

Viewing objective performance

Stage-level view

Organisation-level view

Objectives vs stage completion

Options

Best practices

Start with 4 to 7 objectives per stage

Define objectives you can track

Make objectives meaningful

Use objectives to find bottlenecks

Review and refine

Common questions

Summary

​What are objectives?

​Objectives vs markers

​Why objectives matter

​Building a picture of normal

​Identifying who needs attention

​Enabling pattern discovery

​How objectives work

​Relationship to stages

​Non-linear completion

​Completion tracking

​Configuring objectives

​Anatomy of an objective

​Completion criteria options

​Keep objectives simple

​Naming conventions

​Threshold objectives

​Objectives and signals

​How signals use objectives

​From signal to action

​Viewing objective performance

​Stage-level view

​Organisation-level view

​Objectives vs stage completion

​Options

​Best practices

​Start with 4 to 7 objectives per stage

​Define objectives you can track

​Make objectives meaningful

​Use objectives to find bottlenecks

​Review and refine

​Common questions

​Summary

What are objectives?

Objectives vs markers

Why objectives matter

Building a picture of normal

Identifying who needs attention

Enabling pattern discovery

How objectives work

Relationship to stages

Non-linear completion

Completion tracking

Configuring objectives

Anatomy of an objective

Completion criteria options

Keep objectives simple

Naming conventions

Threshold objectives

Objectives and signals

How signals use objectives

From signal to action

Viewing objective performance

Stage-level view

Organisation-level view

Objectives vs stage completion

Options

Best practices

Start with 4 to 7 objectives per stage

Define objectives you can track

Make objectives meaningful

Use objectives to find bottlenecks

Review and refine

Common questions

Summary