For most SDK companies, the journey from interest to adoption still relies on an old mental model: A developer signs up, reads the documentation, integrates the SDK, and goes live.

This idea has shaped how SDKs are marketed, supported, and architected. It’s why product teams obsess over quickstart guides, solution engineers build demo kits, and DevEx metrics focus on time-to-install.

But here’s the problem: this funnel no longer reflects how adoption actually happens.

Today, your buyer is often not the person writing the integration.

Your champion may be a product manager trying to unlock a specific use case.

Your activation timeline might hinge on a sprint planning meeting three weeks out.

In other s a funnel problem.

The Traditional Funnel Bottleneck

The Traditional Funnel is built around an assumption that no longer holds. Let’s break it down.

The classic SDK adoption journey looks something like this:

Signup → Explore Docs → Install → Integrate → Test → Deploy

It assumes the user is a developer.

It assumes integration happens as soon as interest is shown.

And most importantly, it assumes bandwidth.

But the teams you’re selling to today are moving faster, across more functions, and with fewer dedicated engineers than before. The result?

• Product managers show interest, but can’t go live without writing tickets.
• Solution engineers run demos that never make it into production.
• Customers sign contracts, but onboarding stalls before the first feature ships.
• And when adoption is gated by availability, SDK usage becomes conditional on sprint cycles.
  

This isn’t just inefficient. It’s a systemic bottleneck. This hurts retention, slows expansion, and creates downstream support load.

The New Funnel

AI-native tooling is shifting the center of gravity away from “docs and devs” toward “intent and outcome.”

Where the old funnel began with installation, the new one begins with a prompt. That input doesn’t require a spec doc, a backlog item, or an onboarding call. It’s instantly actionable.

In this new model, integration doesn’t rely on engineering cycles. It becomes a product surface that can be driven by PMs, onboarding teams, and even customer success. Your SDK, instead of waiting for developer implementation, is deployed by whoever needs it.

Prompt → Scaffold → Preview → Go Live.

That’s the new funnel.

Impact on SDK Players

This shift isn’t just about removing steps. It’s about removing friction for the people most responsible for driving product outcomes.

Because when integration becomes something that anyone can execute:

• Time-to-first-feature collapses
• Solutioning becomes scalable
• Expansion becomes self-serve
• Developer teams are no longer the bottleneck to value realization
  

And that’s the opportunity.

If your SDK still depends on code to move forward, it will continue to be deprioritized.

Not because it isn’t valuable but because it simply doesn’t align with how modern teams build.

At Likeminds, we’re building for this new reality. Through Feature Prompting, we help SDK companies shift from static onboarding journeys to AI-native integration s team can deploy, customize, and evolve your SDK through natural language, in minutes.

Want to see how this works in your context? Let’s talk.