Research recipe
Engagement Decay & Habit Research
The problem, in the customer's voice
What this recipe does
These customers activated, found value, and then drifted; not because anything broke, but because the product never earned a place in the routine. Onboarding research won't catch this, because the loss happens after onboarding succeeds. Cohort analysis shows which behaviours separate the customers who stay from the ones who fade and when the fade starts. Diary studies then do what no analytics can: a week or two inside customers' real routines showing where the product fits, what competes with it, and what quietly replaces it. Interviews with drifted-but-recoverable customers explain what changed. Re-engagement and habit-hook concepts get prototype-tested before anything is built.
The method sequence
Explore
Find which behaviours separate the customers who stay from the ones who fade, and when the fade starts.
Focus
Spend a week or two inside customers' real routines, then hear what changed from the drifters.
Validate
Prototype-test re-engagement and habit hooks before anything is built.
.svg)
