Activation metrics: one to steer onboarding, one to check retention
Members of the Growth work group pair a fast early action that onboarding can move with a slower check that users returned, then test both with experiments.
Updated
Steer onboarding with an early action the team can move and that gives users a first experience of value, and use a later repeat action to check that those users came back when the need recurred.
- Write it as an action, a count and a window. Hila Qu starts from the moment a new user gets value: X action, Y times, within Z days. She would compare a few candidate actions against retention in later cohorts, with the retention window starting after the activation window, and check the result by channel and user type, since one channel sending better-fit users can make an action look predictive.
- Separate first value from the habit. Casey Winters would separate the first experience of value from the repeat behavior that shows a habit. Pinterest had to show relevant content in the first session because a second one wasn't guaranteed, while a weekly save later was a higher bar. He would choose the early action onboarding can improve, then check whether more people reach the habit.
- Use one measure to steer and one to validate. Brian Balfour would make the early action the team's operating metric if onboarding can change it and it gives users a first experience of value, and the later repeat action the validation metric. A stronger link to retention doesn't make a later event a useful target if it arrives too late to guide the team. At HubSpot, importing contacts and creating lists were steps on a journey that could take months before regular use.
- Randomize before trusting the correlation. Albert Cheng notes that at Chess.com, motivated players may finish a first game and review a move without any help from onboarding. He would randomize a change that makes the action easier to reach and measure both completion and later play; if completion rises and play stays flat, he'd keep looking.
- Break a team metric into its steps. Lauryn Motamedi says Airtable's week-four multi-user activity hid several paths, so the team split it into signing up as a team, inviting teammates, teammates being active and more than one person active in week four. Individual week-two and week-four retention and a measure of workflow depth sat beside it, because a change could help someone build and return while teammate activity stayed flat.
- Look at the retained users the metric misses. If they later take the same meaningful action and the timing fits the use case, Lauryn would lengthen the window. If they keep getting value through a different behavior, she would track that path separately. She'd also watch a few of them get started, because in Airtable onboarding how someone learned and built said more about the help they needed than their job function did.
Ask a follow-up
Growth
Frequently Asked Questions
How do you choose a startup's first growth channel?
Pick a channel the product can feed, test it with one narrow segment on a set budget and date, and judge it by how many users reach value and come back.
What should a founder check first when growth stalls?
That the data is right, then cohort retention split by segment and channel. If curves trend toward zero in every slice, fix the product before spending more on acquisition.
How do you tell a growth problem from a product problem?
Bring in a small batch of users from one clean channel and read their cohorts. If they activate and return but there aren't many, it's distribution. If they leave within the first week, product owns the fix.
What moves activation in a new user's first few days?
Find where users drop, then match the lever: pre-answer setup for users who stall, make the first action an earned win for users who feel nothing, and bring back users who got value.
Who should own acquisition and retention, growth or marketing?
Most members would split near signup, with marketing on channels and the promise and growth on the path to first value. The line still has to follow the growth model, and both teams judge channels by the cohorts that stay.
Should a growth team report to product or marketing?
Wherever the biggest lever is. For most product-led companies that is product, next to core rather than inside it, and once paid spend matters too, one growth leader owns acquisition and activation.
Which lifecycle emails should a team build first?
The ones aimed at the steepest drop on the retention curve, usually the activation email. Depth and renewal emails come next, and win-back to fully churned users comes last.
How do you bring back signups who went quiet?
Watch a few try the next step and fix where they stall, then test the message with and without the fix against a holdout, and count retained use rather than opens.
When should a product-led company add sales?
A founder can start working accounts where usage is spreading and retaining. A sales team follows once deals need security reviews and procurement that self-serve can't handle.
Which self-serve accounts should a sales rep call?
Ones big enough to pay for a rep's time, with use spreading inside the company and a need self-serve can't meet. Hold some flagged accounts back to check that sales added value.
What makes a good north star metric for an early product?
A retention measure built from how often the problem occurs, the action that solves it and the user it describes, with activation as an input. Drop it if the team can raise it without users getting more value.
Should a new marketplace build supply or demand first?
Whichever side gets a buyer to a completed transaction while giving the supplier a reason to stay. Start in one narrow market and track matches, supplier earnings and repeat buyers.
When can a marketplace copy its first city?
When service holds after subsidies come down, a new manager can run the launch playbook without the founders, and the team knows whether the channel behind market one's demand starts warm or cold in the next market.
How should you test a landing page?
Show visitors what they searched for before the ask, start with the page's first clear funnel drop, and count activated users per visitor alongside signups.
Should a startup with a few dozen users stop acquisition?
Stop broad acquisition but keep a small hand-picked flow from one segment, onboard those users live, and count only return visits nobody prompted.
How does a B2B startup find its first paying customers?
Have founders sell by hand to one narrow buyer, starting with warm intros and asking for payment early. Then check who actually paid, and at what price, before choosing a channel to scale.
