What is Time to Value (TTV)?

Time to Value (TTV) measures how long it takes for a new user to experience their first meaningful success with your product (also known as Aha Moment). It begins the moment they sign up and ends when they reach an action or outcome that demonstrates clear value.

In SaaS and product-led companies, shortening TTV is essential. The faster users reach value, the more likely they are to activate, adopt the product, and stick around long-term.

Why it matters

Users today have almost no patience for slow or confusing onboarding. If they can’t quickly understand how your product helps them, they leave.

A shorter TTV leads to:

• Higher activation and product adoption
• Lower churn
• Higher customer satisfaction
• Faster time to revenue and upgrades

TTV is one of the strongest predictors of whether a new user will convert into a long-term, engaged customer.

How to measure Time to Value

TTV is measured as the time between a user’s signup and their “value moment” (the action or milestone that indicates they’ve achieved initial success).

For example:

TTV = Time when value event occurs − Time of signup

Your value moment might be:

• Sending the first message
• Completing the first task
• Installing a critical integration
• Publishing a project
• Importing data

Some products track multiple TTVs to get a fuller view of the user journey. For example time to basic value, time to advanced value, and time to recurring value.

Examples

Different products define value moments differently:

• For an analytics tool: connecting the first data source
• For a design tool: creating and saving the first design
• For a CRM: importing contacts or adding the first pipeline
• For a SaaS developer tool: making the first successful API call

Each of these actions signals that the user has reached a point where the product is doing something useful for them.

Best practices

• Identify the key action that represents meaningful value for your product.
• Remove friction from onboarding to help users reach that value faster.
• Use checklists, product tours, and contextual in-app guides to steer users toward the most important actions.
• Provide templates, sample data, or starter content to help users succeed immediately.
• Continuously analyze onboarding drop-offs and optimize steps that slow users down.

FAQs

What is a "good" Time to Value?

A “good” TTV depends on the complexity of your product. Some tools can deliver value within minutes, while others (especially products requiring configuration or integrations) may naturally take longer. Regardless, your goal is always to make TTV as short as possible without sacrificing clarity or quality.

How do you improve time to value?

You can shorten TTV by simplifying onboarding, removing unnecessary steps, guiding users to the most important actions, and giving them the resources they need to succeed quickly. In-app guides, checklists, tutorials, templates, and contextual messaging are all proven techniques.

Tip: Tools like Flows help you create in-app onboarding experiences that guide users to their value moment faster.

How is TTV related to product adoption?

TTV measures how quickly users reach their first moment of value. Product adoption measures whether they continue using the product meaningfully. A short TTV improves adoption because users who find value quickly are far more likely to keep coming back.