Evaluate My App

The 8-question rubric

1. Problem clarity — can a stranger describe the problem you solve in one sentence after seeing your landing page?
2. Activation rate — of users who sign up, what percent complete the core action in their first session?
3. Week-2 retention — of users who activated, what percent open the app again 8–14 days later?
4. Unprompted referrals — has any user told a friend about the app without you asking?
5. Shipping cadence — how many meaningful improvements have shipped in the last 30 days?
6. Competitor differentiation — can you name the one thing you do that the market leader does not?
7. Monetization signal — has anyone tried to pay you, or asked how much it costs?
8. Support-load sanity — is the support inbox teaching you something new each week, or repeating the same 3 complaints?

Scoring it honestly

Six or more strong yeses: keep going, invest in distribution.

Four to five: something's working, but positioning or activation is leaking. Fix before spending on growth.

Three or fewer: don't market harder — rebuild the offer. More traffic on a broken funnel just accelerates the churn.

The retention gut-check

Retention is the single most predictive metric at this stage. A tiny cohort that returns weekly for 8 weeks in a row is a stronger signal than 10,000 signups that vanish.

If any cohort — however small — retains past week 4, you have a real thing. Zoom in on what that cohort has in common. That's your beachhead.

FAQ

How do I evaluate my app?

Score it on eight axes: problem clarity, activation rate, week-2 retention, unprompted referrals, shipping cadence, competitor differentiation, monetization signal, and support-load sanity. Six or more strong signals means keep going. Fewer than four means rethink positioning.

What metrics matter for a new app?

Activation rate (did they do the thing?), week-1 and week-2 retention (did they come back?), and cost of a support conversation. Vanity metrics like downloads and page views don't predict anything at this stage.

When should I kill my app?

When after 6 months of honest iteration you cannot find any cohort that retains past week 2. Not "users don't like it enough" — literally no one comes back. That's the signal to pivot or move on.