Also called: Cohort retention
TL;DR
Grouping users by sign-up period and tracking each group's behavior over time to spot trends invisible in aggregate metrics.
Cohort analysis groups users by a shared starting attribute, usually sign-up month, and tracks their behavior across subsequent periods. By viewing each cohort as its own line, teams can see whether retention, monetization, and engagement are improving or degrading over time.
Cohort tables (the famous triangular grid) are the standard format. Reading them well is a senior skill: you're looking at three things at once, within-cohort decay, cross-cohort trends, and seasonality.
A SaaS cuts retention by acquisition month: the March cohort retains 78% at month 6, but the August cohort only 54%. Investigation reveals August coincided with a price hike and weakened onboarding, pricing rolls back and August cohort recovers to 71% by month 9.
Investor-grade Traction slides include a cohort retention chart or table, not just total user growth.
A chart showing what fraction of a cohort is still active week-by-week or month-by-month after sign-up.
The single metric that best captures the core value the product delivers and the long-term success of the business.
The percentage of customers (logos) who cancel in a given period, regardless of how much revenue they represented.
The percentage of recurring revenue retained from a cohort after one year, including expansion, contraction, and churn.
The point at which a product satisfies a market well enough that demand pulls the company forward instead of the team pushing it.
Long-form deep dives on the slides Cohort Analysis most often shows up on.
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