lifecycle-and-retentionlisted

# Lifecycle & Retention Keep and grow the customers you already have — the highest-leverage, most overlooked part of early-stage growth. Because lifetime value is proportional to `1 / churn`, retention usually moves LTV more than pricing or acquisition. Measure **NRR**, **GRR**, churn and the **quick ratio**, diagnose where the base leaks, then design the onboarding, lifecycle, and expansion motions that make the base compound. ## When to use The user needs to cut churn, lift net revenue retention, design onboarding/activation, build an expansion (upsell) motion, or answer "why are customers leaving and how do we keep them?" Run this after `unit-economics` — retention is the biggest lever inside that LTV. ## Before you start 1. **Read the brand/product context first** (`.agents/product-marketing.md` / `.agents/aaj-brand.md`) for model, pricing, and ICP, if present. 2. **Gather inputs:** - **Movement for one period** (monthly for month-to-month or usage products; annual for annual contracts): starting recurring revenue, and the period's **new**, **expansion**, **contraction**, and **churned** revenue. - **Customer counts** at start and lost in the period (for logo churn and lifetime). - Where available: the **top churn reasons**, the product's **activation milestone** ("aha" / first value), and the current **onboarding steps**. These turn the numbers into a plan. ## The math ``` Gross revenue churn = (contraction + churned) / startingRevenue Net revenue churn