Overview
From a given page, where do people go next? What features do they use next? How did they get to this page or feature? With Pendo, you can quickly and easily set up Paths and get the answers you want.
A path is the sequence of actions that users took before or after a target event (i.e an email being sent to a user, a button being clicked). The actions users performed at each step are grouped together and represented with the total percentage of clicks and number of visitors who did that action relative to the previous step.
As user behavior diverges each step includes more and more actions with a smaller share of total actions taken. To help make sense of this diverging behavior, the actions with the highest percentage of clicks are sorted to the top of the step, while staying inline with actions in other steps that they preceded or followed. The most common sequence of user actions is sorted to the top of the path.
Create A Path
1. Select the Paths section.
2. Click "+ Create Path".
3. Build the Path query by selecting the path direction and target Page or Feature.
4. Select if the path is Start from or Leading to the selected action.
- Start from - Shows all actions after the selected action.
- Leading to - Shows all actions before the selection action
5. Select the target Page or Feature. This is the action that you want to measure behavior to or from.
6. Decide if you want to follow paths across apps.
7. Select the Date Range. This restricts the path to events that occurred within the date range.
8. Select a Segment. Search your existing segments, edit a segment, or create a new segment. New segments will be visible for anyone in the subscription. Changes to existing segments will impact any reports or guides using that segment.
9. Configure Advanced Options. Paths collapse repeating steps and use a 10-step limit by default.
- Show Pages or Features - The path only shows select event types and events that aren't selected are ignored
- Collapse Repeating Steps - Combine repeated actions into a single step instead of counting each sequential click as a new step. This can reduce the length and complexity of a path by removing redundant actions or misclicks.
- User behavior: Page A > Page B > Page B > Page C
- Collapsed path: Page A > Page B > Page C
- Remove Duplicate Visitor Paths - If a user performs the exact same sequence of actions multiple times, any duplicates are removed and only a single occurrence is shown on the path.
User behavior
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- Page A > Page B > Page C
- Page A > Page B > Page C
- Page A > Page B > Page D
- Page A > Page B > Page E
Unique paths shown after the duplicate [A>B>C] is removed
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- Page A > Page B > Page C
- Page A > Page B > Page D
- Page A > Page B > Page E
- Maximum Path Length - Limits the number of steps in a path. Longer paths may show more detail but can get unnecessarily complex and increase loading times with large data sets.
10. Save & Run to name the path and save it to Saved Reports.
11. Click Run to rerun a report. If any changes are made to the query, the button will change to Save & Run and changes are saved to the existing report when the report reprocesses.
Use Cases
With segments, it can measure if users are following recommended workflows or if they've diverted to other behavior. If you're thinking about deprecating a page or feature, a path can show all the ways users are accessing it currently. You can place targeted guides in those areas notifying users of the change.
View A Path
The Path chart shows all of the actions starting with or leading to the target action. These actions are grouped into steps and each step is further divided into the groups of actions. The example shows a path starting from the Roadmap page (1) and the steps users took to get there.
Every action in Step 1, Active Sprints (2), occurred before a user viewed the Roadmap page. Every step afterwards adds additional branching until we reach the destination page, "Roadmap" (1). This pattern continues at every step until the maximum number of steps has been reached or there is no user action.
Most Used Path
The actions with the most clicks are always sorted to the top of the path. This sorting method automatically shows the most common path across the top of the chart.
Zoom
Click on an action to zoom in and focus the path onto that action. This shows all of the subsequent steps in greater detail and reveals additional steps and statistics that are not visible in an expanded view.
Click on additional steps to zoom in further or click on the step hidden in the margin to zoom out to that step.
Click on the Zoom Out button in the top-left corner of the Path to zoom out all the way and view the entire path.
Table
The currently displayed table can be downloaded as a CSV. Click into a different action in the path to change the data in the table. The entire path can be downloaded as a CSV from the action bar at the top of the page.
The table shows
- Visitor ID
- Previous step
- Time it took to advance from the previous step to the current step
- Date and time of the event
Delete, Copy, Share, and Save Changes
The action bar at the top of the page provides access to several features used to manage your path. You can delete, duplicate, change visibility or save changes to the current path.
Delete Path
Click the Delete button and confirm in the warning prompt to permanently delete the Path from the subscription for all users.
Copy Path
Click the Copy button to create a new duplicate path, identical to the current path, with the name "Copy of [Path Name]." This can be helpful for editing or experimenting with an existing path without changing the original query, particularly if the path is visible to everyone.
Share
Click the Share button to toggle visibility between Only Me and Everyone. Paths shared with everyone are visible to all users in the Pendo subscription.
Save Changes
Click the Save Changes button to save the current query to the report. This button only appears when there are unsaved changes in the report. The report must be saved to run again and any changes will also change the Run button to Save & Run.
Frequently Asked Questions
How Much Time Can A User Take Between Steps?
A user's path will time out after 60 minutes of inactivity. For example, if you create a path starting from an Add New Account button you may expect to see page and feature usage for the Add New Account form that follows. If a user clicked on the button and entered the path, then worked in a different application, attended a meeting, and went to lunch, before finally returning to finish the form, the new activity would not be tracked as a continuation of the path. In the chart it would appear that that user had dropped off. If they clicked the Add New Account button again, they would restart the path and it would track usage as expected.
This scenario is a normal anomaly when analyzing large amounts of user data. It is unlikely to be noticeable or statistically significant given the large volume of data in most paths. Noticing this behavior typically only occurs when viewing paths with an extremely small sample size.