AARRR Pirate Metrics

Apply Dave McClure's AARRR framework to measure and optimize growth through the five stages: Acquisition, Activation, Retention, Revenue, and Referral.

When to Use This Skill

• Building growth dashboards

• Identifying funnel bottlenecks

• Prioritizing growth experiments

• Reporting to investors

• Diagnosing growth problems

Methodology Foundation

Based on Dave McClure's AARRR framework (500 Startups), providing:

• Stage-specific metrics definition

• Funnel conversion analysis

• Prioritization framework

• Experiment design guidance

What Claude Does vs What You Decide

Claude Does You Decide

Defines metrics per stage Specific definitions for your product

Identifies bottlenecks Experiment priorities

Suggests experiments Resource allocation

Creates dashboards Tool selection

Benchmarks performance Acceptable thresholds

Instructions

Step 1: Define Each Stage

AARRR Stages:

Stage Question Focus

Acquisition How do users find you? Traffic, channels

Activation Do they have a great first experience? Onboarding, aha moment

Retention Do they come back? Engagement, habit

Revenue Do they pay? Conversion, monetization

Referral Do they tell others? Virality, NPS

Step 2: Set Stage-Specific Metrics

Metrics Framework:

Stage Primary Metric Supporting Metrics

Acquisition CAC, Unique visitors Channel mix, CTR, CPM

Activation Activation rate Time to activate, drop-off points

Retention D7/D30 retention DAU/MAU, churn rate

Revenue LTV, ARPU Conversion rate, ACV

Referral Viral coefficient NPS, referral rate

Step 3: Map Your Funnel

Funnel Template:

Acquisition → Activation → Retention → Revenue → Referral 100% → 30% → 15% → 5% → 1%

Calculate conversion rates between each stage.

Step 4: Identify Bottlenecks

Bottleneck Analysis:

Drop-off Diagnosis

Acquisition → Activation Poor onboarding or wrong traffic

Activation → Retention Not finding core value

Retention → Revenue Pricing or value misalignment

Revenue → Referral Not delighting paying users

Step 5: Prioritize Experiments

ICE Framework:

• Impact: How much will it move the metric?

• Confidence: How sure are we?

• Ease: How easy to implement?

Examples

Example 1: Complete AARRR Dashboard

Input:

Build an AARRR dashboard for a B2B SaaS product. Monthly visitors: 50,000 Signups: 3,000 Activated users: 900 Paying customers: 150 Referrals generating signups: 45

Output:

AARRR Dashboard: B2B SaaS

Funnel Overview

┌──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │ AARRR FUNNEL │ ├──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤ │ │ │ ACQUISITION ACTIVATION RETENTION REVENUE REF │ │ 50,000 3,000 900 150 45 │ │ 100% 6% 30% 17% 30% │ │ │ │ ████████████ ████████ ████ ██ █ │ │ │ │ Visitors → Signups → Activated → Paid → Referral │ │ (-94%) (-70%) (-83%) (-70%) │ │ ⚠️ ⚠️ ✅ ⚠️ │ │ │ └──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

Stage-by-Stage Analysis

1. ACQUISITION

Metrics:

Channel Breakdown:

Analysis: Acquisition is healthy. Organic performing best. Paid social has high CAC—consider reallocating.

2. ACTIVATION ⚠️ BOTTLENECK

Metrics:

Activation Definition: "Activated" = Created first project + invited 1 team member

Drop-off Analysis:

Primary Bottleneck: "Invite team member" step losing 40%

Experiment Ideas:

3. RETENTION

Metrics:

Retention Curve:

Day 1: 100% ████████████████████ Day 7: 65% █████████████ Day 14: 52% ██████████ Day 30: 45% █████████ Day 60: 38% ████████ Day 90: 32% ██████

Analysis: Retention is solid. Users who activate tend to stick. This confirms activation is the primary bottleneck.

4. REVENUE

Metrics:

Revenue Breakdown:

Analysis: Strong conversion and healthy LTV:CAC. Not a bottleneck—maintain current approach.

5. REFERRAL ⚠️ OPPORTUNITY

Metrics:

Calculation:

• 150 paying customers
• 30% refer (45 referrals)
• Each referral generates 1 signup
• Viral coefficient = 45/150 × (6% activation) = 0.018
• Not organic virality, but healthy referral base

Experiment Ideas:

Priority Recommendations

90-Day Goal: If activation improves 30% → 45%:

• +450 more activated users
• At 17% conversion = +76 new customers
• At $89 ARPU = +$6,800 MRR

Dashboard Template

┌────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │ AARRR MONTHLY DASHBOARD January 2026 │ ├────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤ │ │ │ ACQUISITION ACTIVATION RETENTION │ │ Visitors: 50K Activated: 900 D30: 45% │ │ Signups: 3K Rate: 30% ⚠️ Churn: 5% │ │ CAC: $45 Time: 3.2d DAU/MAU: 28% │ │ │ │ REVENUE REFERRAL OVERALL │ │ Customers: 150 Referrals: 45 MRR: $12.2K │ │ Conv: 17% Rate: 30% LTV:CAC: 24:1 │ │ ARPU: $89 NPS: +32 Health: 🟢 │ │ │ │ BOTTLENECK: Activation (30% vs 45% target) │ │ EXPERIMENT: Skip team invite onboarding │ │ │ └────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

Example 2: Quick Bottleneck Diagnosis

Input:

Diagnose this funnel:

• 100K visitors, 5K signups (5%)
• 4K activated (80%)
• 1K retained at D30 (25%)
• 200 paid (20%)

Output:

Quick AARRR Diagnosis

Funnel

Bottleneck: RETENTION

Problem: Only 25% retained at D30 (should be 40%+)

What this means:

• Great at attracting and activating
• Users try it, find value initially
• But don't form a habit / come back
• Losing 3,000 activated users monthly

Likely Causes:

1. Single-use case (solved problem, left)
2. Not enough ongoing value
3. Poor re-engagement
4. Competitor switching

Recommended Experiments:

1. User interviews with churned users
2. Email re-engagement sequence
3. Weekly value summary email
4. Add recurring use case

Impact if fixed: If retention → 40%: 1,600 retained → 320 paid That's +120 customers/month (+60%)

Skill Boundaries

What This Skill Does Well

• Structuring growth metrics

• Identifying funnel bottlenecks

• Prioritizing experiments

• Creating dashboards

What This Skill Cannot Do

• Access your actual data

• Know your specific definitions

• Run experiments

• Guarantee results

Iteration Guide

Follow-up Prompts:

• "Design activation experiments for [problem]"

• "What metrics matter for [stage]?"

• "Create a retention analysis framework"

• "How do we improve [specific conversion]?"

References

• Dave McClure - Pirate Metrics (500 Startups)

• Reforge Growth Series

• Amplitude Product Analytics

• Mixpanel Growth Framework

Related Skills

• product-led-growth

• PLG motions

• growth-loops

• Sustainable growth

• startup-metrics

• Investor metrics

Skill Metadata

• Domain: Growth

• Complexity: Intermediate

• Mode: cyborg

• Time to Value: 2-3 hours for full setup

• Prerequisites: Analytics access, metric definitions