growth-funnel — Claude Code skill: AARRR growth funnel
This skill maps growth across the five AARRR stages and points at the bottleneck. Useful when you don't know which stage to fix first.
npx skills add kostja94/marketing-skills --skill growth-funnel -a claude-codeWhat growth-funnel does
The skill runs growth planning on AARRR, the five stages of the customer lifecycle: acquisition, activation, retention, referral, revenue. Each stage comes with its own questions and metrics — CAC and CPA on the way in, activation rate and time-to-first-value, D1/D7/D30 and churn, referral rate and NPS, ARPU and LTV. Dave McClure of 500 Startups built the framework, and the point is actionable numbers rather than vanity ones.
Inside are action and tactic tables per stage, plus pointers to sibling skills in the same collection: cold-start-strategy for the first users, retention-strategy for churn, conversion-optimization for activation and revenue, referral-program for referrals. The skill tells you to define behavior-based events instead of aggregate ones and to compare cohorts over time. The bottleneck is the stage with the largest drop-off, and that's where the priority goes.
Install runs through npx skills add, so you need Node.js with npx available. The skill itself is a single SKILL.md file and pulls in no external services or API keys. If your actual problem is churn rather than the whole funnel, this one hands off to retention-strategy — it gives the lifecycle view, not retention tactics.
What it helps with
- lay out growth across AARRR stages and spot the weak one
- pick metrics for each stage of the customer lifecycle
- find the stage with the biggest drop-off and fix it first
- connect marketing, product and support work into one picture
- compare cohorts instead of blended averages
Example prompts for the agent
- map our growth funnel across AARRR and tell me where the bottleneck is
- which metrics should we track for activation and retention
- draft an action plan per funnel stage for a new product
How to install growth-funnel
1Skills CLI (Vercel)
npx skills add kostja94/marketing-skills --skill growth-funnel -a claude-code2Manually: put the files in place
~/.claude/skills/growth-funnel/SKILL.mdCopy the whole skill folder; for one project use .claude/skills/growth-funnel/
1Skills CLI (Vercel)
npx skills add kostja94/marketing-skills --skill growth-funnel -a codex2Manually: put the files in place
.agents/skills/growth-funnel/SKILL.mdFor all projects use ~/.agents/skills/
1Skills CLI (Vercel)
npx skills add kostja94/marketing-skills --skill growth-funnel -a cursor2Manually: put the files in place
.cursor/skills/growth-funnel/SKILL.mdCursor also reads .agents/skills/ and .claude/skills/
1GitHub CLI
gh skill install kostja94/marketing-skills growth-funnel2Manually: put the files in place
.github/skills/growth-funnel/SKILL.md1Skills CLI (Vercel)
npx skills add kostja94/marketing-skills --skill growth-funnel -a gemini-cli2Platform CLI
gemini skills install https://github.com/kostja94/marketing-skills --path skills/strategies/launch/growth-funnelManually: put the files in place
.devin/skills/growth-funnel/SKILL.mdThe legacy .windsurf/skills/ path still works
Skills CLI (Vercel)
npx skills add kostja94/marketing-skills --skill growth-funnel -a opencodeClaude.ai
Zip the folder and upload it in Settings → Capabilities → Skills
Step by step, with commands for each platform: How to install skills in Claude Code: five ways
Questions about growth-funnel
How do I install growth-funnel in Claude?
Run npx skills add kostja94/marketing-skills --skill growth-funnel -a claude-code. The skill lands at ~/.claude/skills/growth-funnel/SKILL.md.
What does growth-funnel do?
It plans growth with the AARRR framework: walks the five customer lifecycle stages, suggests metrics and actions for each, and flags where the bottleneck likely sits.
How is growth-funnel different from retention-strategy?
growth-funnel covers the whole lifecycle, while retention-strategy goes deep on retention and churn prevention. Reach for the second when you need retention tactics.
Source text
SKILL.md · MIT
--- name: growth-funnel description: When the user wants to plan growth using the AARRR framework, diagnose growth bottlenecks, or map actions across the customer lifecycle. Also use when the user mentions "growth funnel," "AARRR," "pirate metrics," "acquisition activation retention," "customer lifecycle metrics," or "growth framework." For retention tactics, use retention-strategy. metadata: version: 1.1.1 --- # Strategies: Growth Funnel (AARRR) Guides growth using the AARRR framework (Pirate Metrics)—five stages of the customer lifecycle. Created by Dave McClure (500 Startups) to focus on actionable metrics over vanity metrics. Use this skill when diagnosing growth bottlenecks, prioritizing improvements, or aligning product, marketing, and customer success. **When invoking**: On **first use**, if helpful, open with 1–2 sentences on what this skill covers and why it matters, then provide the main output. On **subsequent use** or when the user asks to skip, go directly to the main output. ## AARRR Framework | Stage | Question | Key metrics | |-------|----------|-------------| | **Acquisition** | How do users discover you? | CAC, CPA, conversion by source | | **Activation** | Do users reach "aha moment"? | Activation rate, time-to-first-value | | **Retention** | Do users return? | D1/D7/D30 retention, churn | | **Referral** | Do users recommend? | Referral rate, NPS, viral coefficient | | **Revenue** | Do users pay? | Conversion rate, ARPU, LTV | **Principle**: Define behavior-based events per stage; analyze by cohort. Quality over volume—channels bringing fewer but more activated users often outperform. ## Per-Stage Actions | Stage | Actions | Related skills | |-------|---------|----------------| | **Acquisition** | SEO, paid ads, content, partnerships, directories, marketplaces | cold-start-strategy, seo-strategy, paid-ads-strategy, directory-submission, distribution-channels | | **Activation** | Onboarding, use-case guidance, FAQ, case studies, free trials, trust signals | conversion-optimization, faq-page-generator, customer-stories-page-generator | | **Retention** | Support, churn analysis, feedback, loyalty, dunning | retention-strategy, email-marketing | | **Referral** | Referral program, affiliate, case study sharing | referral-program, affiliate-marketing | | **Revenue** | Pricing, conversion optimization, CAC vs LTV analysis | pricing-strategy, conversion-optimization, paid-ads-strategy | ## Tactics by Stage | Stage | Tactics | |-------|---------| | **Acquisition** | Google ads (keywords, display); organic SEO; social (LinkedIn, YouTube, X, blog); partnerships (NGOs, SMBs); directories, marketplaces | | **Activation** | Use-case guidance; video + blog tutorials; FAQ; case studies; free trials/credits; new-feature promotion; email; trust signals (reviews, media) | | **Retention** | Timely support; churn analysis; feedback collection; loyalty perks (credits, early access) | | **Referral** | Referral credits; signup email with referral CTA; enterprise case sharing; affiliate program | | **Revenue** | Conversion optimization; platform attribution; CAC vs LTV; post-campaign traffic analysis | **Post-campaign**: Analyze traffic and conversion by channel; reallocate budget to top performers. ## Implementation - **Events**: Define precise, behavior-based events for each stage - **Cohorts**: Analyze by cohort, not aggregate; compare cohorts over time - **Bottlenecks**: Identify stage with largest drop-off; prioritize there first - **Cross-functional**: Product, marketing, customer success share common language ## Output Format - **Stage** assessment (where are you strong/weak?) - **Metrics** per stage (current, target) - **Actions** prioritized by bottleneck - **Related** skills for each stage ## Related Skills - **cold-start-strategy**: Acquisition for 0→1; first users - **retention-strategy**: Retention and churn prevention - **conversion-optimization**: Activation, revenue conversion - **referral-program**: Referral stage tactics - **gtm-strategy**: Full GTM; growth-funnel is lifecycle view - **integrated-marketing**: Channel mix across stages
© kostja94 · MIT · kostja94/marketing-skills
