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13 Comments

Tips on Day 1 App Retention?

Hi IH community...

Would love to hear any stories of good strategies to help with Day 1 and Day 3 retention for mobile apps. Please let me know, would be great to hear from fellow hackers.

thank you!

  1. 2

    Push notifications

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    Hi Anish!

    There is no silver bullet advice, but in general try using some other products or similar apps.
    It helps when you pay attention to the "aha" moment when you realize what is this app for and how you may apply the value it provides to your routine.

    For instance, social media apps get you to connect with people you know first, so you may start seeing their posts and message them immediately. This is the "aha" moment. From now on, you have a clear understanding that if you need to reach Peter or learn what's he up to, you need to use this app.

    Try to find the same moment in your app and route the newly registered user to it asap, with the lowest number of steps possible.

    1. 1

      Hi Ishay, thanks for the reply!

      Have had a hard time pinpointing the 'aha' moment for our app. Its an individual and team productivity app that doesn't necessarily have an open marketplace to start following people.

      Is there any advice you may have experience with determining what 'aha' moment may be for a new tool that helps people be more organized. Have you done any sort of gamification before with success?

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        "A tool that helps people be more organized" is quite a broad distinction.

        From what I know, most people rely on notifications, reminders, etc. if they are using something that helps them to become better. They kinda expect the app to do the heavy lifting for them, or at least to push them and cheer them.

        One thing for sure, everyone hates to have to remember to do something specific in a specific app.

        Hope this helps!

  3. 2

    What are your numbers for D3, D7, D30 retention?

    Do you have power users right now (using the app 20+ days of the month)? What features are they using? Is it a common feature set?

    What is your current onboarding like? What have users accomplished on D1?

    1. 1

      D1 = 20%
      D3 = 10%
      D30 = 7%

      We have had good feedback on the on-boarding from a UX and design perspective. Just to give you some context our tool is an organization app for individuals and teams to collaborate with chat, tasks and notes, so we really focus on first creating a project workspace and adding team members right away. A lot of people do end up adding tasks and kicking the tires a bit, but then fall off. The feedback we get is that either they are too busy to try something new, or once they add stuff, they feel overwhelmed.

      In terms of 20+ days users a month, yeah we do have some great users that use it quite a bit. I wouldn't say there is anything special they do except use it as a way to create lists and notes and stay organized.

      Would love any suggestions or further idea generation of how we can create a good habit for people to start using. We know that the product is solid and can really help people make positive change in their life if they were able to integrate into their work and life process.

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        " In terms of 20+ days users a month, yeah we do have some great users that use it quite a bit. I wouldn't say there is anything special they do except use it as a way to create lists and notes and stay organized."

        I would find a better way to answer this question. Your goal is to

        [1] understand what makes a power user
        [2] understand how to funnel people into becoming power users from an early stage

        Some things to consider:

        • a longer on-boarding. Sometimes letting the user get to the app right away can hurt your D1 retention a lot.

        • more interactive onboarding (get them to create a task) vs just telling the user what they can do in your app.

        Push notifications can help, but only if the user has already created a task or something similar

        What would the ideal first usage of your app be? When are people installing your app? If they're on a closed beta, it's a little different than if I am going to the app store to download the app -- maybe that's causing retention issues?

        ---

        I'm working on a similar project, so unfortunately can't give more concrete advice right now.

  4. 2

    From what I've read, get them to make something. Like get them to create a basic item in your product. For me, people who make events (the core user interaction) are more likely to stay.

    1. 1

      Thanks for the feedback. I found it very hard to increase Day 1 above a certain threshold. I am curious, what is the main metric you look at to see if you created an engaging product for your app?

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        I've been working on that today, actually. Currently, I'm looking at "monthly active users" minus "monthly sign ups".

        The idea is, the MAU who didnt sign up this month were retained.

        I'm looking at this right now: https://medium.com/tradecraft-traction/the-founders-guide-to-startup-growth-796f6ea2629e

        I'm using Mixpanel to do this stuff.

        1. 1

          Great article, thanks for sending. Let me know how your calculations go. DM me if you want to trade stats and/or ideas.

  5. 1

    Hi, everyone thanks for feedback. Will be trying a few of these suggestions in next sprint. Will post again with updates for those interested.

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