Define GitLab's new customer activation metric
Context
We don't have a clear definition for GitLab's new customers' activation metric, these metrics are especially helpful in defining a clear goal where we should drive new customers towards.
In this issue, I want to discuss qualitatively, what we know about GitLab's new customers' activation metric? What is their Aha moment & habit moment? Are there differences between different customers (free, trial, paid)? Are there differences between different instances (SaaS vs Self-managed)?
Ideas & Thoughts
- Due to our freemium/free trial model, GitLab might have 2 "activation metric": First activation is prior to purchase, it is when new customers experience the value of the platform; Second activation is after purchase, it is when new customers feel they get what they pay for
- We might have a "user activation" vs "team activation" as well
- The most critical activation moment will be prior to purchase & usage based. My guess is that it will be like this - % of newly created namespace with at least 2 main stage/feature used (create, verify) + with at least 5 team members added within first 30 days
- We should consider narrowing down to eligible namespace - registered with work email, indicate for company use, tried a group trial etc.
- For the feature usage - we can define to more granular feature usage, for example, % of namespaces with at least 1 MR & issue created & 1 pipeline ran within first 30 days
- I think first 30 day is the "new user activation period", and first 90 day is the "new user habit formation & continuous activation period"
Data we have
- We found that CI builds, MRs, and Push events are highly correlated with retention and engagement in the first 3-4 months is critical because divergence increases more significantly after then.
https://app.periscopedata.com/app/gitlab/683823/Mike-%3C%3E-Mathieu-:-retention-curve
- SaaS New Account 1st Month Stage adoption:
Paid: Create = 58%, Verify = 33%
Free: Create = 62%, Verify = 11%
If we narrow to account with both create & verify adoption, it will be even lower. It is a good metric to focus on
https://app.periscopedata.com/app/gitlab/621735/WIP:-SMAU-Retention-and-Adoption
- Team invitation We observe that team size plays a critical role in paid conversion - this has 2 parts, company/team are more likely to convert to paid accounts, and if we can enable team growth via invitation, it increases the chance for the team to see GitLab value.
This is very similar to Slack - they've done a tons of work in invitation flow.