Pillar I — Bottleneck Identification

Every funnel has a single rate-limiting step. The Friction Protocol identifies it through structured event-flow analysis.

Map the canonical conversion event chain

Enumerate every action from arrival to revenue. Most teams underestimate this count by 40%.

Quantify drop-off at each transition

The largest absolute drop is rarely the highest-leverage fix.

Isolate the rate-limiting transition

Fix nothing else until this is solved.

Pillar II — Workflow Simplification

Every required field, every confirmation step, every cognitive decision is a friction unit. The Friction Protocol enforces a strict additive-cost model.

Audit form fields against revenue contribution

Each field must demonstrate measurable lift in downstream conversion quality or be removed.

Collapse multi-step flows where possible

Multi-step forms outperform single-step only when chunking reduces perceived load.

Eliminate forced authentication before value

Require the minimum credential set. Defer everything else to post-activation.

Pillar III — Data-Driven Remediation

The Friction Protocol prohibits optimization without measurement. Every remediation includes a pre/post measurement plan with a defined success threshold.

Define the minimum detectable effect

Below this threshold the change is noise. Above it, it is shippable signal.

Instrument before deploying

If the event chain is not measurable, the optimization is not falsifiable.

Decommission underperforming changes

Explicit rollback is a first-class workflow.