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{
"category": {
"label": "Retention",
"href": "#"
},
"title": "Week-4 retention is the number we trust most. Here is why.",
"lead": "Day-1 retention flatters onboarding and day-90 arrives too late to act on. After three years of measuring our own product, week 4 is the one number we check before every roadmap review.",
"author": {
"name": "Danielle Okafor",
"role": "Head of Product",
"avatar": {
"src": "https://images.unsplash.com/photo-1573497019940-1c28c88b4f3e?auto=format&fit=crop&crop=faces&w=96&h=96&q=80",
"alt": "Portrait of Danielle Okafor"
}
},
"date": "Sep 24, 2026",
"dateTime": "2026-09-24",
"readTime": "8 min read",
"cover": {
"src": "https://images.unsplash.com/photo-1434030216411-0b793f4b4173?auto=format&fit=crop&w=2000&h=1000&q=80",
"alt": "A hand sketching a retention curve on paper beside a coffee cup",
"caption": "Every retention curve we draw starts on paper before it starts in a query."
},
"body": [
{
"type": "paragraph",
"text": "Most teams we talk to track retention at three points: day 1, day 30 and day 90. Each answers a real question, but none of them tells you early enough whether a feature changed behaviour. Day 1 measures your onboarding email. Day 90 measures a quarter you have already lived through."
},
{
"type": "paragraph",
"text": "Week 4 sits in between. A user who comes back in their fourth week has done it without a welcome sequence, a trial deadline or a sales call nudging them. That return is a habit forming, and habits are what the roadmap is supposed to create."
},
{
"type": "heading",
"text": "What we actually measure"
},
{
"type": "paragraph",
"text": "We count a user as retained in week 4 when they perform a core action — not a login — between day 22 and day 28 after signup. For Tessaly that action is opening or sharing a saved report."
},
{
"type": "code",
"label": "week_4_retention.sql",
"code": "select\n date_trunc('week', u.signed_up_at) as cohort,\n count(distinct u.id) as users,\n count(distinct e.user_id) filter (\n where e.occurred_at between u.signed_up_at + interval '21 days'\n and u.signed_up_at + interval '28 days'\n )::float / count(distinct u.id) as week_4\nfrom users u\nleft join events e\n on e.user_id = u.id and e.name in ('report_opened', 'report_shared')\ngroup by 1\norder by 1;"
},
{
"type": "callout",
"tone": "tip",
"title": "Pick one core action",
"text": "If your core action is a login, week-4 retention will mostly measure your notification settings. Choose the action that delivers the value people pay for."
},
{
"type": "heading",
"text": "Three reasons it beats the alternatives"
},
{
"type": "list",
"ordered": true,
"items": [
"It is early. Four weeks is short enough to read the effect of a release within one planning cycle.",
"It is honest. Trial reminders and onboarding emails have stopped by day 22, so they cannot inflate it.",
"It predicts revenue. Across 1,400 workspaces, week-4 retention explains 71% of the variance in month-6 paid conversion."
]
},
{
"type": "quote",
"text": "We stopped debating which features mattered. If week 4 did not move, the feature was not done.",
"cite": "Marcus Hale, Head of Growth at Pellora"
},
{
"type": "image",
"image": {
"src": "https://images.unsplash.com/photo-1552664730-d307ca884978?auto=format&fit=crop&w=1600&h=900&q=80",
"alt": "A product team sorting feature ideas on a sticky-note wall"
},
"caption": "Roadmap review at Pellora: every card carries its expected effect on week-4 retention."
},
{
"type": "heading",
"text": "Where it misleads"
},
{
"type": "paragraph",
"text": "Week 4 is a weak signal for products used monthly, like invoicing or payroll. For those, measure the second cycle instead: did the customer come back for their next invoice run?"
},
{
"type": "callout",
"tone": "warning",
"text": "Small cohorts swing wildly. Below roughly 200 signups a week, read a four-week rolling average rather than single cohorts."
},
{
"type": "paragraph",
"text": "None of this needs a data team. In Tessaly, open Retention, set the window to days 22–28 and choose your core action. The chart you get is the one we put at the top of every roadmap review."
}
],
"related": {
"title": "Keep reading",
"viewAll": {
"label": "All posts",
"href": "#"
},
"posts": [
{
"title": "Funnels that survive a pricing change",
"excerpt": "When the plan page changes, step definitions drift. How we version funnel steps so last quarter's conversion still means the same thing.",
"href": "#",
"category": "Funnels",
"cover": {
"src": "https://images.unsplash.com/photo-1516321318423-f06f85e504b3?auto=format&fit=crop&w=1200&h=800&q=80",
"alt": "Two people pointing at a funnel report on a laptop"
},
"author": {
"name": "Sofia Lindqvist",
"role": "Product Analyst",
"avatar": {
"src": "https://images.unsplash.com/photo-1494790108377-be9c29b29330?auto=format&fit=crop&crop=faces&w=96&h=96&q=80",
"alt": "Portrait of Sofia Lindqvist"
}
},
"date": "Sep 17, 2026",
"dateTime": "2026-09-17",
"readTime": "6 min read"
},
{
"title": "Reconciling product revenue with the finance ledger",
"excerpt": "Product counts upgrades when they happen; finance counts them when they are invoiced. A practical guide to closing the gap every month.",
"href": "#",
"category": "Revenue",
"cover": {
"src": "https://images.unsplash.com/photo-1499750310107-5fef28a66643?auto=format&fit=crop&w=1200&h=800&q=80",
"alt": "A laptop, coffee and an open notebook on a wooden desk"
},
"author": {
"name": "Marcus Hale",
"role": "Data Engineer",
"avatar": {
"src": "https://images.unsplash.com/photo-1507003211169-0a1dd7228f2d?auto=format&fit=crop&crop=faces&w=96&h=96&q=80",
"alt": "Portrait of Marcus Hale"
}
},
"date": "Sep 10, 2026",
"dateTime": "2026-09-10",
"readTime": "11 min read"
},
{
"title": "Twelve interviews about the dashboards nobody opens",
"excerpt": "We asked customers which saved reports they had stopped reading. The answers changed how we design defaults for new workspaces.",
"href": "#",
"category": "Research",
"cover": {
"src": "https://images.unsplash.com/photo-1552664730-d307ca884978?auto=format&fit=crop&w=1200&h=800&q=80",
"alt": "A team sorting interview notes on a sticky-note wall"
},
"author": {
"name": "Amara Nwosu",
"role": "Customer Research",
"avatar": {
"src": "https://images.unsplash.com/photo-1534528741775-53994a69daeb?auto=format&fit=crop&crop=faces&w=96&h=96&q=80",
"alt": "Portrait of Amara Nwosu"
}
},
"date": "Sep 3, 2026",
"dateTime": "2026-09-03",
"readTime": "7 min read"
}
]
}
}