A shorter first week and a longer stay
A habit tracker had plenty of installs and a loyal core, but most new users disappeared before their first streak. We redesigned the first week of the journey and lifted day-30 retention by nine points.
The challenge
Onboarding asked new users to set up five habits, pick reminder times and choose a theme before they saw the app working.
Push notifications went to everyone at 9:00 local time, including people who had set their habits for the evening.
What we did
- 1
Mapped the drop-off
Analytics showed 46% of new users quit during setup. Those who finished one habit on day one were three times more likely to stay.
- 2
Cut onboarding to one habit
We designed a flow where users start with a single habit and add more later. The spec and mockups went to the app team.
- 3
Rebuilt reminders
Pushes now fire at the time each user chose for the habit, with gentle copy and a cap of one per day.
- 4
Added a streak rescue
A short email and in-app message for users who miss two days in a row, tested against a holdout group.
The results
- onboarding completion
- +38%onboarding completion
- push opt-outs
- −41%push opt-outs
- trial-to-paid conversion
- +12%trial-to-paid conversion
“We used to think retention was a product problem only. Almaty RW showed us how much of it was timing and tone.”
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