Value-Moment KPIs and the Win-Back Loop
Tie each milestone to a compound usage metric, then use it to catch people when they fall.
- Difficulty
- Advanced
- Time to result
- ~months to results
- Steps
- 6
- Confidence
- 91%
Every milestone on the journey map needs a measure of success, and the in-product ones are where most teams fail. Laudi's method is to associate what customers said gave them the most value with the specific product features that deliver it, then define the KPI as a combination of usage of those features — not a single vanity event. Because the milestone is measurable, you get a dual-track system: proactive experiences that push people forward, and reactive win-back experiences triggered when someone fails to reach a milestone.
Origin
Georgiana Laudi and Claire Suellentrop's measurement layer inside the Forget The Funnel process; the compound-metric definition of activation was worked out in practice at SparkToro, Autobooks and others.
Core principles
- 01The KPI must be tied to meaningful product usage of the parts customers said they valued most.
- 02Activation is usually a combination of actions, not one event — a single search means nothing; five searches plus a list means something.
- 03You cannot pull someone toward the next milestone until they've reached the current value moment.
- 04You can only catch people when they fall if you are measuring something meaningful along the way.
- 05Channel follows state: if they aren't logging in, an in-app nudge is useless — email or one-to-one outreach is the only route back.
How to run it
- 1
Set the easy struggle-phase KPIs
Problem milestone = new unique website visitors. Interest milestone = conversion rate on your primary CTA (start trial, request demo). These are marketing's bread and butter.
Watch out Don't spend a year optimizing website conversion rate — the struggle-phase KPIs are the easy half.
- 2
Map value themes to product attributes
Take what research said brought the most value and associate each with the specific feature or product attribute that delivers it. This is the bridge from voice-of-customer to instrumentation.
- 3
Define first value as a compound usage threshold
Combine the core feature with the value-carrying feature and set a threshold. At SparkToro: five-plus searches plus at least one list created.
Pro tip Set the search-count threshold above one deliberately — first attempts are experiments; results usually get better on the second and third try.
- 4
Define value realization as a higher compound threshold
Add the next value-carrying feature and a time window. At SparkToro: a minimum number of searches in a period, plus a number of lists, plus discovering export at least once.
- 5
Build the proactive push for each milestone
Design onboarding emails, in-app checklists and prompts whose only job is to get the customer to the specific value moment for their current milestone.
Pro tip A product onboarding checklist plus onboarding emails is the highest-leverage first build — it's what SparkToro's own team shipped.
Watch out Don't just fire off generic emails hoping people jump back in. If they haven't hit the value moment, nothing else will land.
- 6
Build the reactive win-back for each milestone
When the milestone KPI shows someone has fallen out, trigger a win-back experience in a channel they'll actually see — email or personal outreach, not in-app.
Pro tip Maintain two maps: the forward experience to reach the value moment, and the win-back experience to bring them back if they drop.
Watch out Roughly 70% of people log into a product once and never come back; having no re-engagement mechanism at all is the default state of most companies.
In the wild
Research said lists (organizing and sharing findings with clients and stakeholders) and export were the value-carrying features, yet neither was front-and-centre in the product. Forget The Funnel tied KPIs to search paired with lists, then search + lists + export.
→ Onboarding was reordered to push search first, then lists, with re-engagement when lists went unused. Trial-to-paid conversion doubled.
After identifying the North Star product usage tied to the value moment, Autobooks rolled out email onboarding designed specifically to support that product experience.
→ North Star product usage jumped by roughly 300% in a short period.
Common mistakes
Having no KPI at the milestone at all
Laudi says it still surprises her how often a team admits they don't measure anything at a given milestone. Without the metric there is no signal to act on and no way to detect drop-off.
Measuring logins instead of value
A generic engagement metric doesn't tell you whether the customer reached the moment that makes your product worth paying for, so it can't drive either the push or the win-back.
Chasing people who are happy where they are
If someone is getting what they need at an earlier stage, let them hang out there. Focus effort on the customers who actually want the full tool.
Is it for you?
Best for
Product-led SaaS growth teams with analytics in place and an activation or trial-to-paid problem they can't explain from dashboards alone.
Not ideal for
Products with no meaningful in-app instrumentation, or sales-led enterprise motions where the value moment happens in a meeting rather than in the product.
From the transcript
“so that first value kpi is I think it was five plus surges Plus at least one list so it's the combination of those two…”
“so it's like proactive and pushing them forward but then also catching them if they fall and the only way to catch them if they…”
“I think it's like 70 of people log into an App log into a product once and never come back”
From the episode
Customer-led growth
Georgiana Laudi (Forget The Funnel)