Cohort Analysis

Also called Cohort

Grouping users by when they started (their cohort) and tracking how each group behaves over time: how many stay, how much they spend, how usage evolves.

Why it matters

Cohorts separate the health of your product from the noise of growth. A retention curve that flattens across cohorts is the clearest evidence of product-market fit, and improving cohorts prove your changes are working.

For example

The team charts each monthly signup cohort and sees the January cohort still 40 percent active after six months, while March flattens at 55, proof the product is improving.

Worth your time

New Data Shows Losing 80% of Mobile Users is Normal Andrew Chen · article A data-rich look at reading retention by cohort, and what the curves of the best products look like versus the rest. Open andrewchen.com →

Related terms

Go deeper

See how founders actually handle this on Money, pricing and metrics, part of the Starting Up hub.

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