SaaS teams rarely need more events. They need a small chain of evidence from acquisition to activation, continued use and conversion. Define that chain with aggregate signals before adding instrumentation.
| Stage | Useful aggregate signals | Decision |
|---|---|---|
| Acquisition | Source, landing page, campaign, country and device share. | Which channels and pages deserve better content or distribution? |
| Activation | Goal completion, event sequence, funnel step completion and time to first meaningful event. | Where does onboarding need clearer guidance? |
| Engagement | Returning activity estimates, feature events, measured engagement and active days. | Which workflows are used enough to protect and improve? |
| Retention | Coarse weekly or monthly cohorts, with minimum-size safeguards. | Does continued value appear after the first use? |
Keep the denominator honest
Call a value a conversion rate only when the numerator and denominator come from the same supported population and period. Do not combine a source list and a goal list to claim source-level conversion unless the data explicitly links them.
Questions for the weekly review
- What changed versus the previous period?
- Which funnel step lost the most aggregate activity?
- Which page, source or campaign deserves a product or content experiment?
- What is missing because of sampling, opt-out or low coverage?
Use local AI reports to draft hypotheses, then validate them against the dashboard and deployment calendar. The model should explain uncertainty rather than invent individual stories.