grow-app

# Grow an App

Your app has users who sign up and then quietly disappear — cohorts decay, daily actives are flat, the activation funnel leaks where it always has, and nothing looks obviously broken. This journey seals the bucket: it turns first-time users into activated, then habitual, then would-miss-it users across eight interactive phases. The agent asks before every decision and records the outcome in `docs/`, so the work resumes across sessions instead of restarting. Growth here is an engineering and design problem, not a bigger ad budget.

## Core Principle

**Fix the leaky bucket before pouring in acquisition: habit, activation, and retention come before any growth spend.** This skill sequences the eight phases, asks every decision question, and records each choice in `docs/`. The constituent skills carry the method — invoke them rather than improvising their frameworks.

## Journey Map

| Phase | Skill | Question it answers | Artifact |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | hooked-ux | Why do users come back without us paying? | Extends docs/PRODUCT.md |
| 2 | improve-retention | Why don't new users reach the loop? | Extends docs/PRODUCT.md |
| 3 | continuous-discovery | What do our own users actually need? | Extends docs/PRODUCT.md + docs/CUSTOMER.md |
| 4 | lean-ux | Which bet is worth building? | Extends docs/EXPERIMENTS.md |
| 5 | inspired-product | Is the team building the right things? | Extends docs/PRODUCT.md |
| 6 | lean-analytics | Which single number tells the truth? | Creates docs/METRICS.md — sets the Rule 8 bar |
| 7 | microinteractions | Does it feel alive in the hand? | Extends docs/DESIGN.md |
| 8 | drive-motivation | Will engagement last, or curdle? | Extends docs/PRODUCT.md |

Phases 1-2 seal the loop and the funnel; 3-5 steer with evidence; 6 is the instrument panel; 7-8 are the finish and the ethical backstop. Take the lean-analytics baseline (Phase 6) early — before the Phase 1-2 fixes land — so every change is read against a pre-change number, then keep updating it. Habit formation is slow: read Phase 1's success against the "5% rule" (a habit has formed when 5%+ of users return unprompted), not a single cohort.

## Operating Rules

1. **Resume first.** Before anything else, read `docs/GROW-APP-PLAN.md` and every artifact in the Journey Map. If the tracker exists, summarize the journey state in 3-5 lines and ask which phase to enter. Done when the user has confirmed an entry point. A journey with a tracker is resumed, never restarted.
2. **Intake on first run only.** No tracker: run the Intake below, then create `docs/GROW-APP-PLAN.md` with every phase statused `pending | in-progress | awaiting-evidence | done | deferred: reason | skipped: reason`. Done when the tracker exists and the user has confirmed the phase plan.
3. **Phase entry.** Announce: what the phase does, the decision it forces, the artifact it produces, rough effort. Offer proceed / skip / defer — phases marked GATE may be deferred, never skipped. Mark the phase `in-progress` on proceed. Done when the user chose.
4. **Skill invocation and fallback.** Load the phase's skill and use it: each phase's Invoke line names the skill by slug — use that skill to run the phase. If it is not available, offer: `npx skills add wondelai/skills/<slug> --global`. If the user declines, run the phase from its Brief — the minimum viable method. State which mode you are in.
5. **In-phase decisions.** Ask every question under "Decide with the user" — with concrete options and your recommendation. Record the choice in the tracker's Key Decisions. A decision made silently is a defect.
6. **Phase exit.** Present the draft artifact content for sign-off before writing. On approval: write or extend the docs/ files, update the tracker (status, Key Decisions, Next Actions). Done when the files are written and the phase row shows `done`.
7. **Artifact discipline.** Read before writing; create a file only if missing, otherwise extend — add or update your sections, preserve everyone else's. Files are UPPERCASE in `docs/`. Every recommendation lands as a checkbox or a table row with owner and priority. See [references/artifact-templates.md](references/artifact-templates.md) when creating a docs/ file for the first time — create it from the full skeleton (all section headings), then fill the sections your phase names.
8. **Retention before acquisition.** Acquisition-oriented phases — the optional cold-start-problem, contagious, and crossing-the-chasm, plus any paid-growth work — stay locked while activation and retention sit below the bar set at intake; unlock them only once the cohort curve clears that bar. Every habit loop and reward must pass the Manipulation Matrix: build only what the maker would use and honestly believes materially improves users. When a tactic needs manufactured anxiety or loss aversion, replace it with one built on real value.

## Intake

Run only on first start (no tracker). Ask:

1. What does the app do, and what core action does a retained user repeat? (defines the Hook loop and the OMTM)
2. What are the current retention numbers — day-1/7/30 or week-4 cohorts? (sets the Rule 8 acquisition bar; feeds lean-analytics)
3. Where does the activation funnel leak, and what is the first-run flow? (gates improve-retention)
4. Solo/small team or a full product trio (PM, designer, engineer)? (scales continuous-discovery and inspired-product)
5. Is the app a network/marketplace product, and do engaged users fail to convert to revenue? (flags optional cold-start-problem / monetizing-innovation)
6. What analytics and instrumentation exist today? (gates lean-analytics and every experiment)
7. Is retention broken by UX or performance rather than missing engagement? (if yes, route to improve-app first)

Skip heuristics: skip Phase 5 for a solo founder with no team to realign; defer Phase 7 until the loop and activation clear their bars; run Phase 3's cadence degraded if no user access exists yet. Then create the tracker from ref