Track your user journey through Acquisition, Activation, Retention, Referral, and Revenue to identify which stage constrains growth most.
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Pirate Metrics is a practical framework that slices the customer journey into five clear checkpoints: acquisition, activation, retention, referral and revenue. By measuring each stage separately you can see exactly where prospects leak out, then design focused experiments to plug the gaps.
By logging these numbers weekly you spot bottlenecks fast: perhaps activation lags in the SaaS trial, or retention dips in the fitness app. Fix one stage at a time, stack 10% lifts and results compound across the funnel.
Pirate Metrics matter because they reveal the difference between symptom and cause in growth problems. Revenue might be flat, tempting you to increase acquisition spending, but AARRR analysis might show that Retention is collapsing you're acquiring users fine but losing them before they pay, meaning more acquisition just pours water into a leaky bucket. The framework systematically prevents this waste by ensuring you identify and fix the actual constraint. For product-led growth businesses especially, AARRR provides the diagnostic structure: if Activation is weak (users sign up but never experience value), no amount of Acquisition improvement will help, and Retention is impossible when users never activate. The sequential nature also highlights that optimising later stages amplifies earlier efforts: improving Retention from 30% to 40% means every acquisition pound now generates 33% more lifetime value, instantly making all acquisition channels more profitable. The framework also surfaces natural optimisation priority: if you convert 50% at each stage, improving the earliest weak stage helps all subsequent stages benefit, whilst improving the final stage helps only that stage. Referral particularly deserves focus because it's the only stage that compounds successful referral mechanisms reduce acquisition costs toward zero whilst accelerating growth. Organisations implementing AARRR frameworks typically discover they've been optimising the wrong stage: acquisition teams might be hitting targets whilst activation is terrible, or retention might be excellent whilst acquisition receives all attention and investment. The framework also creates shared language across product, marketing, and growth functions, enabling evidence-based prioritisation discussions rather than political debates about which team's agenda matters most.
Get a grip on what's actually working and what needs course correction. Use data and experiments to make decisions instead of opinions. See how changes in one part of the system affect everything else. Random tactics don't compound, coordinated ones do.
Plan your week with intention. Manage tasks with a system you trust. Stay out of inbox traps. Protect deep work time. Run better meetings. Close your week with a firebreak.
Select tools across your growth stack using clear evaluation criteria. Avoid common pitfalls, ensure integrations work, and build a system that scales with your business.
Build a reporting dashboard that tracks the 12 growth metrics across all four engines. Choose the right tool, structure views correctly, and make data actionable weekly.
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Run quarterly business reviews that assess current state, set ambitious but realistic goals, build actionable roadmaps, and define key results that keep everyone aligned.
Sean Ellis
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A practical framework for experiments and insights. Build loops, run tests and adopt a cadence that ships learning every week.
Gino Wickman
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A practical operating system for small teams. Install a cadence, set priorities and create accountability that sticks.
Eric Ries
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A disciplined approach to experiments. Define hypotheses, design MVPs and learn before you scale.
Alistair Croll
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Pick the One Metric that Matters for your stage. Build lean dashboards and use data to decide the next best move.
Focus on metrics that drive decisions and reveal bottlenecks. Avoid vanity metrics that look good but don't help you grow.
Track what matters for growth decisions. Map key conversions, name events with clear conventions, and document tracking specifications.
Plan how you'll reach customers and generate revenue by choosing channels, pricing, and sales models that match your product and market reality.
Clear mental clutter by transferring all thoughts, tasks, and ideas onto paper or screen, creating space for focused work.
Assign credit to marketing touchpoints that influence conversions to understand which channels work together and deserve budget in multi-touch journeys.
Define pipeline progression steps to standardise how reps advance opportunities and give managers visibility into where deals stall or convert unexpectedly.
Design experiments that answer specific questions with minimum time and resources to maximise learning velocity without over-investing in unproven ideas.
Build self-reinforcing systems across demand generation, funnel conversion, sales pipeline, and customer value that create continuous momentum.
Store information in browsers to track user behaviour across visits and enable personalised experiences without requiring login for every interaction.
Send a series of scheduled emails that educate prospects over time to stay top-of-mind without overwhelming them with aggressive sales pitches.
Assemble tools that manage pipeline, automate outreach, and track performance to help reps sell more efficiently and managers forecast accurately.
Track predictable monthly subscription revenue to monitor short-term growth trends and make faster decisions than waiting for annual revenue reports.
Group customers by acquisition period to compare behaviour patterns and identify which acquisition channels and time periods produce the best long-term value.
Diagnose and break through stagnation by identifying which business mechanisms have reached capacity and require new approaches.
Connect tools so data flows automatically between systems to eliminate manual entry, keep records current, and enable sophisticated workflows across platforms.
Cultivate belief that skills and results improve through deliberate effort, treating setbacks as learning opportunities rather than fixed limitations.
Log emails, calls, and meetings automatically to understand what drives deals forward and coach reps based on actual behaviour rather than guesswork.
Turn satisfied customers into active promoters who systematically bring qualified prospects into your pipeline at near-zero acquisition cost.
Win customers through direct sales conversations where reps guide prospects from discovery to close with personalised solutions and relationship building.
Automate multi-touch email campaigns that adapt based on recipient behaviour to nurture leads consistently without manual follow-up from reps or marketers.
Measure which marketing activities drive desired outcomes to allocate budget toward channels that actually generate revenue instead of vanity metrics.
Determine whether experiment results reflect real differences or random chance to avoid making expensive decisions based on noise instead of signal.