All stages
📈Stage 06
Growth & Retention
Turn visitors into high-LTV advocates.
8 lessons16 operating guides
Lessons
Expand any topic for concept, action steps, and pro tips.
Concept
Product Analytics & Telemetry: growth is a system of acquisition, activation, retention, revenue, and referral. Leaks in retention make acquisition spend toxic.
Why it matters
Scaling a leaky bucket burns cash and confuses product priorities.
Action steps
- 1Define the activation event that predicts retention.
- 2Map the funnel with counts at each step for one ICP segment.
- 3Fix the largest drop-off before buying more traffic.
- 4Instrument events with clear naming; avoid vanity dashboards.
- 5Run one experiment per week with a written hypothesis.
- 6Interview 5 churned users monthly.
Done when
Your core cohort retention is measured and improving for the beachhead segment.
Metrics
- · Activation rate
- · D7/D30 retention
- · Net revenue retention
- · Experiment velocity
Anti-patterns
- · Growth hacks without activation
- · A/B testing noise with tiny samples
Operator tip
Retention is the growth team. Acquisition is optional until retention is non-embarrassing.
Tools
PostHogMixpanelCustomer.ioNotion
Stage quiz
growth readiness (fundamentals baseline)
5 questions · pass at 70%
1.A startup is best described as:
2.The best early focus is usually:
3.Co-founder equity should typically include:
4.An MVP primarily tests:
5.A strong PMF signal is:
Answer all questions to score.