A Scheduling Tool's Broken Password Field Tanked 93% of Signups This Week

The Pattern: Users Never Even Get to Try the Product

This week's 12 test runs across 3 distinct products averaged a 39/100 friction score, but one scheduling tool hit a wall so hard it bottomed out at 7% completion. Simulated AI users, not real people, attempted the signup flow and logged exactly where they stopped. The data tells a brutal story: no one made it through.

The problem wasn't positioning or pricing clarity, though both had minor issues. It was plumbing. The product's core signup form became impassable.

Where Every User Quit

Of the 12 runs, nearly all AI users hit the same concrete blocker at the password field. They typed. Nothing appeared. They tried again. Still nothing. By attempt three, every simulated user had already invoked their abandonment rule, the threshold real founders would hit before escalating to support or switching tools entirely.

The password field failed to accept input across multiple browsers and approaches. When a basic form field doesn't work, users don't debug it; they leave.

Secondary friction stacked on top. The site claims "no account needed" in places, yet forces account creation elsewhere. The navigation offers no clear entry point to sign up. One user clicked the most obvious button twice and ended up at an entirely different tool, a URL roasting service instead of the expected flow.

Minor issues compounded the damage: "core flow" remained undefined until deep in the site. Pricing discounts had no clear expiration. A sample report screenshot wasn't accessible to screen readers. The hero copy never explained the business outcome, why you should care, what you'd actually gain.

What to Do About It

First: test your password field in staging before pushing live. Run it through a form test bot. Type in it. Paste into it. Use a password manager. If it fails at step one, users won't debug; they'll leave.

Second: make account creation obvious and consistent. Choose a model and stick with it. "No account needed" contradicts a broken signup flow.

Third: define jargon. "Core flow" means nothing to a new visitor. Plain language converts; unexplained terminology kills momentum.

The good news: these are fixable problems. The bad news: they stopped 93% of test runs cold.

See where real users get stuck in your signup flow: https://indiecru.sh/roast