aarrr-pirate-metricslisted

# AARRR (Pirate Metrics) ## Overview A startup's growth is a **sequential funnel** — each stage gates the next. Great Acquisition is worthless if Activation is broken; great Activation is worthless if Retention is zero. Optimizing the wrong stage produces work that looks like progress while the bottleneck stays. The **AARRR framework** (Dave McClure, *Startup Metrics for Pirates*, 2007) names five stages: Acquisition (do they show up?), Activation (good first experience?), Retention (do they come back?), Referral (do they tell others?), Revenue (do they pay?). The bottleneck stage governs total growth — improving any other stage produces no system-level gain (Goldratt, *The Goal*, 1984). **Compose with:** [first-principles](../first-principles/SKILL.md) to identify your specific Activation event; [pmf-crossing-the-chasm](../pmf-crossing-the-chasm/SKILL.md) to recognize when Retention will always be the bottleneck pre-PMF; [probabilistic-thinking](../probabilistic-thinking/SKILL.md) to set base rates per stage. ## When to Use - Growth is **stalling** and the cause is not obvious — multiple teams have plausible explanations - Product, marketing, and sales are **arguing about whose problem it is** - You need a **shared instrumentation framework** across teams - Designing **end-to-end metrics for a new product** - Someone says: *"AARRR," "pirate metrics," "growth funnel," "where is our funnel breaking?"* **When NOT to use:** No users yet → use [lean-startup](../lean-startu