Stop Overthinking Your Zettelkasten System: How To Get Started Writing Your First Notes and Achieve Success in Retention and Activation Rates

Stop Overthinking Your Zettelkasten System: How To Get Started Writing Your First Notes and Achieve Success in Retention and Activation Rates

When it comes to measuring the success of a product or service, activation and retention rates are two key metrics that businesses focus on. Activation rate refers to the percentage of users who hit a specific milestone or complete a certain action, while retention rate measures the percentage of users who continue to use the product or service over a period of time. In this article, we will explore the importance of these metrics and provide actionable advice on how to improve them.

What is a good activation rate? A good activation rate should not only be highly predictive but also highly actionable. It should be a leading indicator of a new user sticking around and becoming a customer, rather than just completing the sign-up flow. The activation milestone should demonstrate the value of the product or service to the user, increasing the likelihood of long-term retention. Ideally, users who hit the activation milestone should retain at a rate at least 2 times better than those who do not complete the activation step.

For SaaS products, the average activation rate is 36%, with a median of 30%. However, it is important to note that simply completing the sign-up flow is unlikely to be predictive of long-term retention. Companies should choose a milestone that is relatively early in a user's lifecycle and strongly correlates with long-term retention. For example, Facebook's activation milestone is having 7 friends in 10 days, while Twitter's is following 30 people, and Dropbox's is uploading at least 1 file.

To improve activation rates, our advice is to not overthink it. Pick a milestone that captures the value of your product or service and is easy for users to achieve early on. It is also important to continuously analyze and refine your activation process based on user feedback and data. By making the metric something that growth teams can directly impact, you can increase the chances of users sticking around and becoming long-term customers.

Now, let's shift our focus to the topic of Zettelkasten systems and note-taking. A Zettelkasten system is a method of note-taking that can be a powerful tool for thinking and generating new ideas. It consists of three types of notes: literature notes, permanent notes, and sequence notes.

Literature notes are the initial notes you take while reading. They don't have to be perfect or complete, but rather serve as a way to capture your thoughts and move on. The act of creating these notes stimulates your brain to connect them with existing knowledge, helping you to develop a deeper understanding of the subject.

Permanent notes are top-level topics or groups of notes that help you establish thoughts and arguments. They provide a structure to your note-taking system and serve as a foundation for further exploration and analysis. It's important to remember that your Zettelkasten system is a living ecosystem that can evolve and change over time. Don't be afraid to merge similar permanent notes or rewrite note titles as you gain more insights.

Sequence notes, on the other hand, are atomic notes that contain one idea each and are nested within permanent notes. They add thoughts and ideas to the original permanent note, creating a network of interconnected concepts. The key principle here is that one note should represent one thought.

To get started with your Zettelkasten system, our advice is to not overthink it. Don't get caught up in creating the perfect structure or interconnectedness of the notes. Instead, focus on the practices that make the system work. Practice regularly and figure out a way that suits your workflow and thinking process. Experiment with different techniques and find what works best for you. Remember, the process matters more than the structure.

In conclusion, both activation and retention rates are important metrics for businesses to track and improve. By choosing an activation milestone that demonstrates the value of your product or service and continuously refining your activation process, you can increase the chances of users becoming long-term customers. Similarly, by adopting a Zettelkasten system for note-taking and focusing on the practices that make it work, you can enhance your thinking process and generate new ideas. Don't overthink it, but instead, take action and find what works best for you.