Engagement Drives Stickiness Drives Retention Drives Growth: What It Takes to Become a Great Product Manager

Engagement Drives Stickiness Drives Retention Drives Growth: What It Takes to Become a Great Product Manager

In the world of product management, there is a mantra that holds true: "Engagement drives stickiness drives retention drives growth." This simple phrase encapsulates the key factors that contribute to the success and growth of a product. But what exactly does it mean?

Let's break it down. If a product truly adds value for you, you will engage with it more deeply. You'll spend more time using it, exploring its features, and finding ways to make it an integral part of your life. This engagement drives stickiness. When a product is sticky, it means that you keep coming back to it, even without external prompts or reminders. You find it enjoyable, useful, or even essential, and you become an active user.

But why is stickiness important? Stickiness helps reduce a product's dependency on tactics like push notifications to keep users coming back. It's about creating a product that users naturally want to return to, without any external nudges. And this stickiness leads to retention. Retention simply refers to users returning to your product on a regular basis. When users find value in your product, they are more likely to keep coming back for more.

And what does retention drive? It drives growth. But growth needs to be understood in the context of the overall market and the number of users relative to the total addressable market. It also depends on the balance between new user acquisition, churn, and resurrection. A decrease in daily active users (DAU) can be an early indicator of a decrease in weekly active users (WAU), which is itself an early indicator of a decrease in monthly active users (MAU). Monitoring these metrics can provide insights into the health and growth potential of a product.

So, how can product managers ensure engagement, stickiness, retention, and ultimately, growth? Here are three actionable pieces of advice:

1. Focus on the core value: The greatest growth lever for any product is creating magical moments in which users recognize its value. Understand your product's core value and continuously work to enhance and communicate it to users. Delight them with features, experiences, or solutions that make their lives better. By focusing on the core value, you can keep users engaged, sticky, and ultimately, retained.

2. Develop emotional intelligence: As a product manager, your success depends on your ability to empathize with customers. During user interviews or interactions, pay attention to their body language and emotions. Try to understand their pain points and address them effectively through your product or feature. By forming authentic and trustworthy connections with both internal and external stakeholders, you can inspire people and help them reach their full potential.

3. Build social capital: A great product manager understands how the organization operates and knows how to navigate it effectively. Build social capital by forming relationships, collaborating with cross-functional teams, and advocating for your product. Secure the necessary resources, budget, and staffing to support your product's success. Influence decision-making and secure top talent to work on your product. By building social capital, you can drive growth and ensure the long-term success of your product.

In conclusion, becoming a great product manager requires a combination of core competencies, emotional intelligence, and company fit. It's about understanding the importance of engagement, stickiness, retention, and growth. By focusing on the core value, developing emotional intelligence, and building social capital, product managers can drive the success and growth of their products. Remember, a great company focuses on sustainable growth through engagement, stickiness, and retention.