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3 resources from Amplitude we point founders to, and the questions each answers.

📄 Article
✓ Link checked Free Beginner

Why we picked it The biggest tracking mistake in an MVP is measuring everything and learning nothing. This Amplitude piece walks you through picking one metric that maps to real customer value and finding the early aha moment that predicts whether people stick around, which tells you the few events actually worth tracking. Treat it as a starting point for focus, not a rule: a small product is still learning what matters, so revisit your metric as you go.

Every Product Needs a North Star Metric: Here's How to Find Yours

From Amplitude by Julia Sholtz

  • A good North Star Metric is a leading indicator of value delivered, not a lagging number like monthly revenue.
  • Find the early aha action that predicts retention (the classic example is Facebook users adding seven friends in ten days) and instrument that first.
  • Choosing one metric and a few inputs keeps your tracking small and honest instead of a dashboard nobody reads.
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Answers How do I set up analytics and feedback in my MVP so I actually learn something, without over-engineering tracking? How do I know when something we shipped is actually working versus just launched? How do I calculate my North Star metric when I have both free and paid users?
🛠️ Tool
✓ Link checked Freemium Intermediate

Why we picked it You cannot cut the right step until you know which step is the real cliff, and a funnel chart shows you exactly that. Amplitude lets you lay out your onboarding as a sequence of events and see the percentage who fall off at each one, so you fix the actual drop rather than the step that merely annoys you. The free tier is enough for an early-stage product to instrument this.

Funnel Analysis: Find Drop-offs and Boost Conversion

From Amplitude by Amplitude Product guide plus free tier

  • Map onboarding as ordered events and read the drop-off percentage at each step to find the true cliff
  • The biggest drop is rarely where you assume, measure before you redesign
  • Segment the users who drop off to dig into why, not just where
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Answers My onboarding has too many steps and people drop off before they see value. How do I cut it down? Should I optimize my conversion funnel or my retention first when both look weak?
📄 Article
✓ Link checked Free Beginner

Why we picked it This gives you the mental picture and the evidence in one place: a bucket full of holes barely fills no matter how fast you pour, which is exactly what a weak funnel plus weak retention feels like. It is backed by a benchmark study of 2,600 plus companies showing acquisition skill and retention skill do not correlate, so being good at one tells you nothing about the other. That is the honest diagnostic for deciding where your real leak is before you spend on either side.

The Leaky Bucket Problem: More Users Don't Mean More Long-Term Growth

From Amplitude by Noorisingh Saini

  • Pouring more users in through acquisition does nothing if retention leaks them out, so measure the hole before you widen the tap.
  • Across 2,600 plus companies, how well you acquire and how well you keep users show no meaningful correlation, so treat them as separate problems.
  • Fast time to value in onboarding is the strongest predictor: 69 percent of top week-one activation performers were also top three-month retention performers.
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Answers Should I optimize my conversion funnel or my retention first when both look weak?