Metrics & Strategy

Dave McClure's funnel: Acquisition, Activation, Retention, Referral, Revenue. Maps the user lifecycle from first touch to monetization and advocacy.

The moment a new user first experiences the product's core value — the 'aha moment.' Measured as the percent of new users reaching a defined key action early in their lifecycle.

The single metric that best captures the core value a product delivers to customers and predicts long-term growth. Example: nights booked (Airbnb), weekly active users sending messages (Slack).

Daily Active Users divided by Monthly Active Users, expressed as a percentage. A higher ratio means users return more frequently; it is a common proxy for engagement/stickiness.

Retention is the percent of users who remain active over a period; churn is the percent who stop. They are complementary: retention + churn ≈ 100% for the same cohort and window.

Grouping users by a shared start characteristic (e.g. signup week) and tracking their behavior over time. Isolates how product changes affect different vintages of users and reveals retention curves.