Map what matters

Workflow steps and user behaviour

A workflow step is a meaningful point in a user’s progress through a workflow.

It should describe behaviour, not just an interface state. The step is not the page, screen, button, or component. It is what the user is doing at that point in the workflow.

For account registration, useful workflow steps might be:

view registration form
enter details
submit form
verify email
access product

These steps describe progress from intent to outcome. They help the team decide what evidence to capture and what metrics to create.

Bad / better workflow steps

Weak step	Better step	Why it is better
Registration page	View registration form	Describes user behaviour, not just a screen
Continue button	Submit registration form	Describes the meaningful action
Error state	See validation error	Describes what happened to the user
Confirmation screen	Verify email	Describes progress in the workflow
Dashboard loaded	Access product	Describes the outcome the user reached

Define the behavioural step first. Then decide which event should capture it.

Why workflow steps matter

A workflow is usually too broad to measure as one thing.

“Register for an account” is useful, but it does not show where users succeed, pause, struggle, or abandon. To understand that, the team needs to break the workflow into meaningful steps.

Register for an account

View form
↓
Enter details
↓
Submit form
↓
Verify email
↓
Access product

If registration completion falls, the team can look at the steps and ask whether users are failing to submit the form, verify their email, or reach the product after verification.

Without steps, the team may only know that registration is underperforming. With steps, they can investigate where the problem is happening.

Steps should describe behaviour

A good workflow step describes something meaningful the user does or achieves.

It should usually be written as a simple verb phrase:

view form
enter details
submit application
upload document
verify email
compare options
confirm payment
access product

Avoid naming steps only after screens or interface elements:

registration page
continue button
confirmation screen
modal opened
tab selected

These may be useful implementation details, but they are not always meaningful workflow steps. A screen might contain several steps, and one step might span several screens.

Steps are not events

Workflow steps and events are related, but they are not the same thing.

A workflow step describes meaningful progress. An event records that something happened.

Workflow step:
Submit registration form

Event:
registration.form_submitted

The step is the behavioural moment the team cares about. The event is the evidence captured by the product.

This distinction keeps measurement from becoming too tied to the interface. Define the behaviour first, then decide which event should capture it.

Good steps create better metrics

Clear workflow steps make it easier to measure progress:

how many users start the workflow
how many reach each step
where users abandon
how long users take between steps
which errors appear at each step
which user groups struggle more than others

For registration, those steps might support metrics such as:

form submission rate
email verification rate
registration completion rate
drop-off between form submission and email verification
time to complete registration

These metrics are useful because they are tied to meaningful behaviour, not just activity.

What makes a good workflow step

A useful workflow step should be clear enough for product, design, engineering, and analytics people to understand in the same way.

A good step usually has:

a clear user action or state of progress
a meaningful role in the workflow
a relationship to the workflow outcome
a possible event that could capture it
a possible metric that could use it

It should not be so broad that it hides important behaviour, or so narrow that it becomes a low-level interaction.

For example, “complete onboarding” is usually too broad. “Click continue” is usually too narrow. “Verify email” is more useful because it describes a meaningful point of progress.

How to apply this

When breaking a workflow into steps, ask:

where does the workflow begin?
what must the user do to make progress?
which moments show meaningful movement?
where can the user pause, fail, abandon, or complete?
what evidence would show that each step happened?

Then test each step against the measurement purpose. If a step would not help the team understand progress, diagnose a problem, or support a decision, it may not need to be part of the measurement model.

Events as evidence
What makes a good event?
Workflow catalogue template

Key takeaway

Workflow steps turn a broad workflow into measurable behaviour.

They help teams see how users move from intent to outcome, where evidence should be captured, and which metrics can show meaningful progress.

Start with behavioural steps before naming events or designing dashboard metrics.