To gain the most value out of Amplitude, we suggest you follow this workflow. This sequence of steps, adopted by our most successful customers, lays the groundwork on some of the most important metrics and also demonstrates how specific charts are connected. Whether you are just starting out or revisiting the platform after a hiatus (we're glad you're back!) follow these steps to really dig into the power of product analytics.
- Step 1: Identify your product's critical event.
- Step 2: Determine your product usage interval.
- Step 3: Create retention graphs.
- Step 4: Plot a user lifecycle graph.
- Step 5: Map your user personas.
- Step 6: Compare engagement across personas.
- Ongoing work: Create cohorts, compare, run A/B tests, make changes.
Step 1: Identify your product's critical event.
A critical event is an action that users take within your app that aligns closely with your core value proposition. Chances are you probably already know what your critical event is—it’s the action that you want to drive your users towards and get them to perform.
| Type of Product | Critical Event |
| Self-guided meditation | Completing a meditation session |
| Find and book nearby fitness classes | Booking a class |
| Multiplayer mobile game | Playing a game |
| Buy and sell used things near you | Completing a purchase |
| On-demand grocery delivery | Completing a delivery |
| Share songs on various social media platforms | Sharing a song |
Use these questions to help determine your product's critical event:
- Does your app have different product offerings? If so, what are they? What are your success metrics for each?
- Does your app have distinct groups of users? If so, how do they differ in the way they use your product? What value does each group get?
- What is the one action that you want a user to do every time they open your app?
- What metric(s) do you care about as a company? What are you ultimately trying to drive up? Which user actions can be tied to that metric
Step 2: Determine your product's usage interval.
Just as important as defining your critical event is determining how often people take that action. The product usage interval is the frequency (daily, weekly, monthly, etc.) with which you expect people to naturally use your product.
Some apps are built to be used daily—think social networking, media, casual gaming, or productivity apps. Other apps, like on-demand, e-commerce, and expense reporting apps, would be used much less frequently.
You cannot calculate user retention without first having an understanding of your product’s usage interval and critical event.
Step 3: Create retention graphs to understand your user retention rates.
- Create custom brackets using Usage Interval
- Reengage with the users that dropped off and have not returned
Watch this video to learn about using Retention graphs.
Step 4: Plot a user Lifecycle graph.
- Plug in critical event in the left hand module. This allows us to focus on your active user base that understands the value of your product.
- Insert the Usage Interval (that you found in Step 2) in the bottom module and hit enter. This will change the X-axis buckets to more accurately measure your user base according to how often people are coming back. The largest opportunity is with the Resurrected Users (blue bucket) because they are users that became dormant, then decided to come back to your product. If you dig deeper into why they returned, you can replicate this strategy with your other churned users.
- Click on one of the Resurrected user buckets to open Microscope (link).
- Create a cohort so that we can use this group of Resurrected users in Step 5.
- Additionally, you have the option to create a cohort of a Current user bucket to use in Step 5.
This video highlights how to plot a user Lifecycle graph.
Step 5: Map your user personas.
- Plug in resurrected users cohort that you saved in Step 3 into the left module to understand the different behaviors this group exhibits and uncover why they came back to your product.
- Alternatively, you can use the current users cohort to analyze the different ways in which users are engaging with your product.
- Look at the events table to determine what types of users are in each cluster. We see below that Cluster 2 is made up of our users that perform a lot of searches.
- Write a short description for each user group and click "Save All Clusters" in left section of the cluster cards (screenshot). This will save these clusters as cohorts in the Behavioral Cohorts tab. Use one of these saved cohorts in Step 6.
This video shows how to develop personas in Amplitude.
Step 6: Compare engagement across personas with the Engagement Matrix.
- Plug in the Power Users cohort that we saved from Personas in Step 5
- Create new chart and plug in Unengaged cluster cohort
- Compare the differences in engagement
Ongoing Work: Create cohorts, Compare, A/B test, Improve
Try to create cohorts throughout various charts and compare how those different groups of users are engaging with your product.
- Are they taking different flows in Pathfinder?
- Are they converting more quickly in Funnels?
Drill down into the differences and develop hypotheses on what product changes can encourage all users to become power users. Test these hypotheses by AB testing.
Once you determine a specific variant is successful, make a product change and repeat!