Strategies: Growth Funnel (AARRR)

Guides growth using the AARRR framework (Pirate Metrics)—five stages of the customer lifecycle. Created by Dave McClure (500 Startups) to focus on actionable metrics over vanity metrics. Use this skill when diagnosing growth bottlenecks, prioritizing improvements, or aligning product, marketing, and customer success.

When invoking: On first use, if helpful, open with 1–2 sentences on what this skill covers and why it matters, then provide the main output. On subsequent use or when the user asks to skip, go directly to the main output.

AARRR Framework

Stage	Question	Key metrics
Acquisition	How do users discover you?	CAC, CPA, conversion by source
Activation	Do users reach "aha moment"?	Activation rate, time-to-first-value
Retention	Do users return?	D1/D7/D30 retention, churn
Referral	Do users recommend?	Referral rate, NPS, viral coefficient
Revenue	Do users pay?	Conversion rate, ARPU, LTV

Principle: Define behavior-based events per stage; analyze by cohort. Quality over volume—channels bringing fewer but more activated users often outperform.

Per-Stage Actions

Stage	Actions	Related skills
Acquisition	SEO, paid ads, content, partnerships, directories, marketplaces	cold-start-strategy, seo-strategy, paid-ads-strategy, directory-submission, distribution-channels
Activation	Onboarding, use-case guidance, FAQ, case studies, free trials, trust signals	conversion-optimization, faq-page-generator, customer-stories-page-generator
Retention	Support, churn analysis, feedback, loyalty, dunning	retention-strategy, email-marketing
Referral	Referral program, affiliate, case study sharing	referral-program, affiliate-marketing
Revenue	Pricing, conversion optimization, CAC vs LTV analysis	pricing-strategy, conversion-optimization, paid-ads-strategy

Tactics by Stage

Stage	Tactics
Acquisition	Google ads (keywords, display); organic SEO; social (LinkedIn, YouTube, X, blog); partnerships (NGOs, SMBs); directories, marketplaces
Activation	Use-case guidance; video + blog tutorials; FAQ; case studies; free trials/credits; new-feature promotion; email; trust signals (reviews, media)
Retention	Timely support; churn analysis; feedback collection; loyalty perks (credits, early access)
Referral	Referral credits; signup email with referral CTA; enterprise case sharing; affiliate program
Revenue	Conversion optimization; platform attribution; CAC vs LTV; post-campaign traffic analysis

Post-campaign: Analyze traffic and conversion by channel; reallocate budget to top performers.

Implementation

• Events: Define precise, behavior-based events for each stage
• Cohorts: Analyze by cohort, not aggregate; compare cohorts over time
• Bottlenecks: Identify stage with largest drop-off; prioritize there first
• Cross-functional: Product, marketing, customer success share common language

Output Format

• Stage assessment (where are you strong/weak?)
• Metrics per stage (current, target)
• Actions prioritized by bottleneck
• Related skills for each stage

Related Skills

• cold-start-strategy: Acquisition for 0→1; first users
• retention-strategy: Retention and churn prevention
• conversion-optimization: Activation, revenue conversion
• referral-program: Referral stage tactics
• gtm-strategy: Full GTM; growth-funnel is lifecycle view
• integrated-marketing: Channel mix across stages