What are the most common pitfalls to avoid when designing experiments for early adopter retention?

1 Define your retention metrics

Before you run any experiment, you need to define what retention means for your product and your customers. Retention metrics measure how often and how long your customers use your product over a period of time. Depending on your product type, your retention metrics could be daily active users, monthly recurring revenue, churn rate, or customer lifetime value. You should choose the metrics that best reflect your value proposition and your customer segments.

3 Choose the right experiment type and duration

There are different types of experiments you can use to test your hypotheses, such as surveys, interviews, landing pages, prototypes, or A/B tests. You should choose the experiment type that best suits your hypothesis, your resources, and your stage of development. For example, if you want to test the demand for your product idea, you could use a landing page with a sign-up form. If you want to test the usability of your product, you could use a prototype with a feedback tool. You should also decide how long you need to run your experiment to collect enough data and avoid biases or external factors.

4 Segment and target your early adopters

Your early adopters are the customers who are most likely to benefit from your product and provide you with valuable feedback. You should segment and target your early adopters based on their characteristics, behaviors, needs, and preferences. For example, you could use personas, customer journeys, or jobs-to-be-done frameworks to identify and understand your early adopters. You should also use the right channels and messages to reach out to them and invite them to participate in your experiment.