One Metric to Align the Org: How AppsFlyer Turned Product Adoption into Retention - Product Builder Podcast episode with Eyal David
00:05:19

One Metric to Align the Org: How AppsFlyer Turned Product Adoption into Retention

Host: · Guest: Rachel Frenkel BenHanoch

In this episode

  • Every organizational move has to start with a small group that acts as your design partner — first you prove it works on the process and on the results, and only then do you expand to the rest of the groups.
  • Real adoption is measured by depth of usage — not how many times they log in, but which features they activate, what configuration they use, and which persona is using it — and not by logins alone.
  • Building a weighted Compound KPI (value 0–1) for a series of actions in the account turns complex behavior into a single number you can track over time.
  • Splitting into buckets (low / medium / high adoption) simplifies the picture and enables decision-making, instead of getting stuck on small fluctuations that are hard to interpret (0.4 to 0.42).
  • Connecting the adoption range to the chance of retention is the game changer: you look historically at who stayed and renewed, and project that range forward as a target.
  • A shared metric aligns the wheels — CS, marketing, and product — around the same goal, and lets CS prioritize their time according to where the customer sits in the bucket.

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Episode Description

Rachel Frenkel BenHanoch breaks down a case study from AppsFlyer on how to build impact across the entire organization through a single metric of Product Adoption. She describes how they started with a small group as a design partner, built a weighted Compound KPI around depth of usage, split customers into buckets, and found the adoption range that predicts retention. From there the value flowed to CS and to marketing: prioritizing customers, targeted campaigns, and a result of 68% of medium customers moving up to the high bucket within three months.

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Full transcript with speakers and timestamps

Selected quotes

“We have to look at the same goal and have all the wheels pointed forward”
— Rachel Frenkel BenHanoch
“Every move inside an organization has to start with a small group that's your design partner — for the process, for the results, and to show that it works”
— Rachel Frenkel BenHanoch
“After a few such meetings over a span of three months, sixty-eight percent of the customers who were approached with these precise marketing materials moved up to the high bucket”
— Rachel Frenkel BenHanoch

Questions & answers

What is the Compound KPI that was built, and how does it work?

A weighted metric composed of a series of actions the account performs inside the product, returning a value between 0 and 1 (for example, 0.2). It's built to reflect depth of usage and the value the customer extracts, not just login frequency.

Why did they split customers into buckets instead of looking at the continuous value?

Because it was hard to derive meaning from the small fluctuations in the continuous value — if a customer went from 0.4 to 0.42, it's unclear whether that's significant. Splitting into three buckets (low, medium, highly adopted) gives a top-down picture that enables decisions and action.

What is the adoption range, and how is it related to retention?

Each product had a different adoption range defined (for example, 74–100 in one product, 89–100 in another) that was correlated to the chance of retention. They looked at historical data: customers who were in that range over time stayed and renewed — and that's how the range became a working target.

How did CS use the metric to prioritize?

According to where the customer sits: those who are high get handled once a quarter, those on the threshold get pushed to move up, and those who are low get reinforcement because they have a higher chance of churn. That's how CS knew how to divide their time among customers.

What were the results of the campaign on the medium bucket?

They took the medium cohort, prepared targeted marketing material, and CS sat down with them and explained the value. After a few meetings over a span of three months, 68% of the customers who were approached with these precise materials moved up to the high bucket.

Product Adoption Customer Success Retention Product-Led Growth KPI AppsFlyer SaaS Product Management

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