Growth Product Manager
Frame activation, retention, loops, and PLG bets with a structured growth PM playbook while your agent drafts experiments and metrics plans.
Overview
growth-product-manager is an agent skill most often used in Grow (also Validate, Launch) that applies structured PLG, activation, retention, and experimentation frameworks for solo founders.
Install
npx skills add https://github.com/ncklrs/startup-os-skills --skill growth-product-managerWhat is this skill?
- Eight organized topic areas from growth loops through PLG strategies
- CRITICAL-impact coverage for loops, activation, retention, and PLG patterns
- Dedicated sections for viral/referral mechanics and monetization expansion
- Growth experimentation and north-star metrics guidance for rigorous prioritization
- Activation and onboarding optimization framed around time-to-value and aha moments
- Section organization spans 8 growth topic areas including loops, activation, retention, viral, monetization, experimenta
Adoption & trust: 1 installs on skills.sh; 27 GitHub stars; 3/3 security scanners passed (skills.sh audits); trending (+100% hot-view momentum).
What problem does it solve?
You are shipping features without a coherent growth system, so activation stalls and retention experiments never tie back to a north star.
Who is it for?
Indie SaaS or app founders who need a repeatable growth PM checklist while planning sprints with Claude Code, Cursor, or Codex.
Skip if: Pure infrastructure or bug-fix sessions where no user-facing funnel, pricing, or engagement change is on the table.
When should I use this skill?
You are planning or reviewing growth strategy—loops, onboarding, retention, virality, monetization, experiments, or PLG—and need structured PM guidance in the agent.
What do I get? / Deliverables
You leave with prioritized growth loops, onboarding improvements, experiment ideas, and metric definitions aligned to PLG-style compounding.
- Prioritized growth loop and experiment backlog aligned to lifecycle levers
- Activation/onboarding improvement brief with time-to-value hypotheses
- North-star and supporting metrics outline for tracking
Recommended Skills
Journey fit
Spans multiple journey phases - primary shelf plus alternate fits below.
Growth product management compounds in Grow, but the same frameworks inform Validate pricing and Launch distribution choices before scale. Lifecycle is the primary shelf because activation, onboarding, retention, and viral mechanics are user-journey problems—not one-off marketing copy tasks.
Where it fits
Stress-test monetization and expansion motions before you lock plans in a landing-page experiment.
Bake referral or viral hooks into launch positioning instead of bolting them on after release.
Redesign first-run flows to reach an aha moment faster and measure activation uplift.
Define north-star and input metrics so experiment backlogs map to compounding loops.
How it compares
A sectional growth PM playbook for agent-assisted planning, not a single integration skill or an analytics dashboard MCP server.
Common Questions / FAQ
Who is growth-product-manager for?
Solo and indie builders acting as their own growth PM who want agent help structuring loops, onboarding, retention, and monetization decisions.
When should I use growth-product-manager?
Use it during Grow when redesigning onboarding or retention, during Validate when shaping pricing and expansion revenue, and during Launch when embedding viral or referral mechanics into distribution.
Is growth-product-manager safe to install?
It is advisory content without built-in network calls; still review the Security Audits panel on this Prism page before installing any third-party skill into your agent environment.
SKILL.md
READMESKILL.md - Growth Product Manager
## 1. Growth Loops & Flywheels (loops) **Impact:** CRITICAL **Description:** Sustainable growth systems that compound over time. The foundation of scalable growth. ## 2. Activation & Onboarding (activation) **Impact:** CRITICAL **Description:** Getting users to their first "aha moment." If activation fails, nothing else matters. ## 3. Retention & Engagement (retention) **Impact:** CRITICAL **Description:** Keeping users engaged and coming back. Retention is the foundation of all growth. ## 4. Viral & Referral Mechanics (viral) **Impact:** HIGH **Description:** Engineering shareability and word-of-mouth into your product. ## 5. Monetization & Expansion (monetization) **Impact:** HIGH **Description:** Converting users to revenue and expanding within accounts. ## 6. Growth Experimentation (experimentation) **Impact:** HIGH **Description:** Running rigorous experiments to find growth levers. ## 7. North Star & Metrics (metrics) **Impact:** MEDIUM-HIGH **Description:** Defining and tracking the metrics that matter. ## 8. PLG Strategies (plg) **Impact:** CRITICAL **Description:** Product-led growth patterns and implementation strategies. --- title: Activation & Onboarding Optimization impact: CRITICAL tags: activation, onboarding, first-run, time-to-value, aha-moment --- ## Activation & Onboarding Optimization **Impact: CRITICAL** Activation is the single most important growth lever. If users don't experience value quickly, nothing else matters — they won't retain, refer, or pay. ### What Is Activation? ``` Activation = User completes the critical action(s) that predict long-term retention It's NOT: × Completing signup × Verifying email × Finishing onboarding flow It IS: ✓ Experiencing the core value ✓ Having the "aha moment" ✓ Taking the action that predicts retention ``` ### The Activation Equation ``` Activation Rate = Users who complete activation event / Total signups Example: - 1,000 signups - 230 complete activation event - Activation rate = 23% Benchmark: 20-40% is typical, 40%+ is excellent ``` ### Defining Your Activation Event **Step 1: Find the "Aha Moment"** Ask: "What single action best predicts a user will still be active in 30 days?" | Company | Activation Event | Why It Matters | |---------|-----------------|----------------| | Slack | Send 2,000 messages (team) | Indicates real team adoption | | Dropbox | Upload 1 file to 1 folder | Indicates understanding value | | Twitter | Follow 30 accounts | Indicates engaging feed | | Zoom | Host 1 meeting | Indicates core value received | | Notion | Create 1 page with content | Indicates investment in tool | **Step 2: Validate with Data** ``` Cohort Analysis: ┌──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │ Users who did action X in first 7 days │ │ → 65% still active at Day 30 │ │ │ │ Users who did NOT do action X in first 7 days │ │ → 12% still active at Day 30 │ │ │ │ → Action X is your activation event │ └──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘ ``` ### Time to Value (TTV) **The faster users reach value, the higher activation:** ``` TTV Benchmarks: ┌─────────────────┬────────────────┬─────────────────────┐ │ Product Type │ Target TTV │ Example │ ├─────────────────┼────────────────┼─────────────────────┤ │ Consumer app │ < 30 seconds │ TikTok: see video │ │ Productivity │ < 5 minutes │ Notion: create page │ │ Developer tool │ < 30 minutes │ Vercel: deploy app │ │ B2B SaaS │ < 1 hour │ Intercom: install │ │ Enterprise │ < 1 day │ Salesforce: import │ └─────────────────┴────────────────┴─────────────────────┘ ``` ### Onboarding Flow Design **The Setup → Aha → Habit Framework:** ``` ┌───────────────