Cognitive Scaffold

Preparing your thinking workspace

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MENTAL MODEL · M3684

AARRR Model

AARRR Model
BusinessmediumMarketing
Included
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Updated 2026-08-05

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INTRODUCTION

English translation pending.

CORE DEFINITION

A growth framework introduced by Dave McClure under the name Pirate Metrics, describing the user lifecycle as five sequential stages: Acquisition, Activation, Retention, Referral, and Revenue. Its core proposition is that growth is the product of the five conversion rates, so the binding constraint is always the stage with the largest drop-off. It assumes each stage can be instrumented and measured separately, and that the metric chosen for each stage genuinely represents the underlying behavior.

SCAFFOLDING EFFECT

psychology

Reduce cognitive load

- Growth dashboard: break a vague growth goal into five trackable conversion rates. - Funnel triage: locate the stage with the largest drop-off before committing budget. - Lever check: test whether retention and referral compound faster than pure acquisition does.

anchor

Anchor fast decisions

Users pass through the five stages in sequence and each stage loses a fraction of the cohort, so final revenue is a product of conversions rather than a sum. Because retention and referral multiply across every future cohort while acquisition only adds once, a small gain in retention or referral outweighs an equivalent gain in acquisition. That asymmetry is why the model treats retention as the primary lever.

MINIMUM ACTION

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Practice this model in one real situation:

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Source support: Explicit

  • link
    productplan.comhttps://www.productplan.com/glossary/aarrr-framework/ZH · Explicit
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