Activation is a crucial metric for product teams, reflecting whether users derive value from a product, yet it is often mismeasured by merely tracking visits or logins. The document highlights the limitations of using traditional metrics like visits, which may indicate activity but not genuine engagement or satisfaction with a product. Instead, it advocates for a behavioral approach to measuring activation, focusing on specific user actions and their correlation with perceived value, retention, and conversion. By leveraging behavioral data, product teams can identify key actions that indicate activation and test hypotheses to improve user engagement. The five-step framework proposed includes tracking user behavior, defining activation metrics, validating these metrics through data analysis, experimenting to enhance activation, and periodically revisiting the metrics as the product and user base evolve. This approach allows teams to move beyond assumptions and legacy metrics, fostering a data-driven strategy to enhance user experience and product value.