# Growth funnel Human Guide

## What This Is For
Guides growth using the AARRR framework (Pirate Metrics)—five stages of the customer lifecycle. It gives the agent a clearer input/output frame for growth marketing: what context to ask for, what decisions to make, and what usable artifact to return.

Use this as a human-readable version of the Growth funnel agent skill. It is meant for marketers, operators, founders, and other non-coders who want the workflow without reading agent-specific implementation instructions.

## When To Use This
- Use this when you need a repeatable process for growth funnel.
- Use this when the task needs judgment, examples, constraints, or a clear output format rather than a one-off prompt.
- Use this when you want to hand an AI assistant enough context to produce a usable marketing artifact.

## When Not To Use This
- Do not use this when you only need a quick factual answer.
- Do not use this when the work depends on private data you cannot share with the assistant.
- Do not use this as a replacement for legal, compliance, financial, or medical review.

## What You Need Before Starting
- The goal or business outcome you want.
- The audience, customer segment, or market context.
- Any source material the assistant should respect, such as notes, briefs, examples, URLs, or brand guidance.
- Constraints such as tone, length, channel, deadline, region, or approval requirements.
- A clear definition of what a good final answer should look like.

## Step-By-Step Workflow
1. State the job clearly: "Use the Growth funnel guide to help me with..."
2. Add context: audience, goal, offer, channel, source material, and constraints.
3. Ask the assistant to identify missing inputs before producing the final output.
4. Have the assistant follow the skill-specific guidance below.
5. Review the result against the final checklist and ask for revisions where needed.

## Skill-Specific Guidance
- **Events**: Define precise, behavior-based events for each stage
- **Cohorts**: Analyze by cohort, not aggregate; compare cohorts over time
- **Bottlenecks**: Identify stage with largest drop-off; prioritize there first
- **Cross-functional**: Product, marketing, customer success share common language
- **Stage** assessment (where are you strong/weak?)
- **Metrics** per stage (current, target)
- **Actions** prioritized by bottleneck
- **Related** skills for each stage
- **cold-start-strategy**: Acquisition for 0→1; first users
- **retention-strategy**: Retention and churn prevention
- **conversion-optimization**: Activation, revenue conversion
- **referral-program**: Referral stage tactics

## Decision Points And Nuance
The original skill emphasizes: AARRR Framework, Per-Stage Actions, Tactics by Stage, Implementation, Output Format, Related Skills.

Use these questions to steer the work:
- What is the intended audience or buyer?
- What source material must be preserved?
- What should the assistant optimize for: clarity, persuasion, accuracy, speed, creativity, or conversion?
- What examples represent the desired quality bar?
- What should the assistant avoid?

## Common Mistakes
- Starting without a clear audience or goal.
- Asking for a final artifact before sharing examples or constraints.
- Accepting a generic first draft without checking it against the intended use.

## Copy-And-Paste Prompt
```text
Use the Growth funnel human guide.

My goal:
[Describe the business outcome]

Audience:
[Describe who this is for]

Context and source material:
[Paste notes, examples, links, or existing copy]

Constraints:
[Tone, length, channel, timeline, must-include items, must-avoid items]

Before producing the final output, ask me for any missing information that would materially improve the result.
```

## Final Checklist
- [ ] The output matches the original goal.
- [ ] The audience and context are reflected in the answer.
- [ ] Important constraints and source material were preserved.
- [ ] The assistant made the relevant decisions explicit.
- [ ] The final artifact is ready to use, review, or hand to the next person.

## Source
This guide was generated from the kostja94/marketing-skills skill entry for `growth-funnel`.

## Source Skill Notes
These notes preserve the nuance from the original skill. Use them as supporting reference when the workflow above feels too generic.

# Strategies: Growth Funnel (AARRR)

Guides growth using the AARRR framework (Pirate Metrics)—five stages of the customer lifecycle. Created by Dave McClure (500 Startups) to focus on actionable metrics over vanity metrics. Use this skill when diagnosing growth bottlenecks, prioritizing improvements, or aligning product, marketing, and customer success.

**When invoking**: On **first use**, if helpful, open with 1–2 sentences on what this skill covers and why it matters, then provide the main output. On **subsequent use** or when the user asks to skip, go directly to the main output.

## AARRR Framework

| Stage | Question | Key metrics |
|-------|----------|-------------|
| **Acquisition** | How do users discover you? | CAC, CPA, conversion by source |
| **Activation** | Do users reach "aha moment"? | Activation rate, time-to-first-value |
| **Retention** | Do users return? | D1/D7/D30 retention, churn |
| **Referral** | Do users recommend? | Referral rate, NPS, viral coefficient |
| **Revenue** | Do users pay? | Conversion rate, ARPU, LTV |

**Principle**: Define behavior-based events per stage; analyze by cohort. Quality over volume—channels bringing fewer but more activated users often outperform.

## Per-Stage Actions

| Stage | Actions | Related skills |
|-------|---------|----------------|
| **Acquisition** | SEO, paid ads, content, partnerships, directories, marketplaces | cold-start-strategy, seo-strategy, paid-ads-strategy, directory-submission, distribution-channels |
| **Activation** | Onboarding, use-case guidance, FAQ, case studies, free trials, trust signals | conversion-optimization, faq-page-generator, customer-stories-page-generator |
| **Retention** | Support, churn analysis, feedback, loyalty, dunning | retention-strategy, email-marketing |
| **Referral** | Referral program, affiliate, case study sharing | referral-program, affiliate-marketing |
| **Revenue** | Pricing, conversion optimization, CAC vs LTV analysis | pricing-strategy, conversion-optimization, paid-ads-strategy |

## Tactics by Stage

| Stage | Tactics |
|-------|---------|
| **Acquisition** | Google ads (keywords, display); organic SEO; social (LinkedIn, YouTube, X, blog); partnerships (NGOs, SMBs); directories, marketplaces |
| **Activation** | Use-case guidance; video + blog tutorials; FAQ; case studies; free trials/credits; new-feature promotion; email; trust signals (reviews, media) |
| **Retention** | Timely support; churn analysis; feedback collection; loyalty perks (credits, early access) |
| **Referral** | Referral credits; signup email with referral CTA; enterprise case sharing; affiliate program |
| **Revenue** | Conversion optimization; platform attribution; CAC vs LTV; post-campaign traffic analysis |

**Post-campaign**: Analyze traffic and conversion by channel; reallocate budget to top performers.

## Implementation

- **Events**: Define precise, behavior-based events for each stage
- **Cohorts**: Analyze by cohort, not aggregate; compare cohorts over time
- **Bottlenecks**: Identify stage with largest drop-off; prioritize there first
- **Cross-functional**: Product, marketing, customer success share common language

## Output Format

- **Stage** assessment (where are you strong/weak?)
- **Metrics** per stage (current, target)
- **Actions** prioritized by bottleneck
- **Related** skills for each stage

## Related Skills

- **cold-start-strategy**: Acquisition for 0→1; first users
- **retention-strategy**: Retention and churn prevention
- **conversion-optimization**: Activation, revenue conversion
- **referral-program**: Referral stage tactics
- **gtm-strategy**: Full GTM; growth-funnel is lifecycle view
- **integrated-marketing**: Channel mix across stages