You can use Mixpanel's Funnels report with the Exclusion Steps feature to learn if doing or not doing a specific event in the middle affects conversion from the first to the last event.
The Exclusion Steps feature allows you to create a funnel where you can exclude users who performed a particular event between steps. This helps you understand how a specific action (or lack thereof) impacts your overall conversion.
Here's how to set it up:
1. Create a funnel with your first and last events (and any other required steps)
2. Go to the "Conversion Criteria" section
3. Click on "Advanced" and then "Exclude users who did..."
4. Select the event you want to exclude and choose whether to exclude it between all steps or specific steps
For example, if you're running an e-commerce site and want to know if browsing additional products between adding to cart and purchasing affects conversion, you could create a funnel with:
- Event 1: Browse product
- Event 2: Add to Cart
- Event 3: Purchase
Then exclude users who did another "Browse product" event between Events 2 and 3 to see how that affects your conversion rate.
This approach lets you evaluate whether a certain step done (or not done) is beneficial to your conversion flow.
Funnels: Measure conversions through a series of events
Note that exclusion steps have the same two-second grace period as other steps in the funnel, and you can have multiple exclusion events between steps if needed.
