Pick a North Star metric

To: CEO, Growth Lead From: Head of Product Subject: Aligning on Simmer’s North Star Metric

We are currently debating whether Monthly Recurring Revenue (MRR) or Monthly Active Users (MAU) should be our North Star metric. Both capture critical truths: we need top-of-funnel scale (MAU), and we need to build a sustainable business (MRR).

However, I recommend we adopt neither. Instead, our North Star should be Weekly Active Cooks (WAC): the number of users who complete at least two recipes in Cook Mode per week.

Why MRR and MAU Fall Short

A great North Star measures the exact moment a user realizes core value, which in turn acts as a leading indicator of revenue.

MAU is too broad and easily inflated. Currently, 68% of our 2.1M MAUs are search-driven browsers who read one recipe and leave; only 4% of them retain at month six. Furthermore, last year’s push notification test proved that chasing MAU is dangerous: we grew MAU by 6%, but produced zero lift in actual cooking while doubling our uninstall rate. Optimizing for MAU incentivizes low-intent traffic.

MRR is a lagging indicator. It measures value captured, not value delivered. You cannot easily rally an engineering or design squad around "increase MRR" without them resorting to aggressive paywalls that might hurt long-term retention.

Why "Weekly Active Cooks" (2+ Completions) Wins

Cooking in Cook Mode is the undeniable heart of Simmer. Our 12-month cohort data proves that WAC bridges the gap between MAU and MRR: 1. It drives retention: Users who hit the 2x/week Cook Mode threshold have a massive 61% retention rate at month six. (By contrast, users who just save recipes retain at only 9%). 2. It drives revenue: 82% of our new Simmer Plus subscribers cooked at least three recipes in Cook Mode during their first two weeks.

If we get users to cook with us twice a week, retention and MRR will naturally follow. Note that because Cook Mode timers are a Simmer Plus feature for most recipes, our free tier must allow enough Cook Mode access (via free-tier recipes or a trial) for new users to hit this magic threshold before hitting a paywall.

Input Metrics for Teams to Own

To move WAC, we can break the user journey into four actionable input metrics for our product squads:

1. Acquisition/Onboarding Squad — First-Cook Activation Rate: The percentage of new users who complete 1+ recipe in Cook Mode within 7 days of signup.
2. Core Experience Squad — Save-to-Cook Conversion Rate: Savers average four recipes a week, but rarely cook them (9% retention). We must build bridges—like smart ingredient lists or timely reminders—that turn aspirational "Savers" into "Cooks."
3. Habit/Retention Squad — Weekly Meal Plan Adoption: Weekly planners retain at 54%, yet only 7% of MAUs have ever planned a week. Getting users to plan their week is the surest way to get them cooking 2+ times a week.
4. Monetization Squad — Cook-Qualified Paywall Conversion: The conversion rate of free users who hit the "3 cooks in 14 days" threshold into Simmer Plus subscribers.

Guardrails Against Gaming

Any metric can be gamed. To ensure teams drive genuine value rather than manipulating the numbers, we will pair our North Star with three strict guardrails:

• Minimum Time-in-Cook-Mode: Because a "cook" is logged at the final step, a team could game WAC by making steps shorter or prompting users to swipe through rapidly. We will only count completions where the user spends a realistic minimum duration (e.g., >10 minutes) in Cook Mode.
• Uninstall & Notification Opt-Out Rates: To prevent another notification backfire, any growth experiments that spike uninstalls or push opt-outs above baseline will be automatically rolled back.
• Free-to-Paid Conversion Rate: If we give away too much free Cook Mode access to juice WAC, we might cannibalize Simmer Plus. MRR growth and conversion rates will serve as our ultimate business health check.

By focusing on Weekly Active Cooks, Growth gets an engagement metric that actually retains, and the business gets a predictable engine for MRR.

Recommendation: optimize for weekly cooking, not revenue or visits

Our North Star should be Weekly Engaged Cooks: the number of unique users who complete at least two recipe-cooking sessions in Cook Mode within a rolling seven-day period. Count each person once, across free and paid users.

Simmer’s core promise is helping people make meals—not merely find recipes. This metric captures users repeatedly receiving that value.

The evidence points toward cooking: - Users cooking at least twice a week have 61% month-six retention, versus 9% for save-only users and 4% for browse-only users. - 82% of new subscribers cooked at least three recipes in their first two weeks. - Weekly planners also retain well, at 54%, but planning has reached only a small minority of users. It should support cooking, not define value for everyone.

These are associations, not proof that pushing users across a threshold causes retention or subscription. They are nevertheless our strongest starting evidence; we should test whether product changes that increase genuine cooking also improve those outcomes.

Why not MRR or MAU?

To our CEO: MRR remains a critical business outcome. But as the North Star, it could reward price increases or aggressive paywalls even while fewer people get value. Weekly cooking gives teams a customer-value objective with a plausible connection to durable revenue.

To our growth lead: MAU measures reach, but treats a one-recipe search visitor like a habitual cook. Our notification experiment demonstrates the danger: MAU rose 6%, uninstalls doubled, and cooking completions stayed flat. That was more activity, not more value.

Four input metrics teams can own

These are drivers, not independent targets to maximize at any cost. Track their absolute user counts alongside rates so teams cannot improve percentages simply by shrinking eligibility.

Guardrails against gaming

1. Measure cooking, not button presses. Reaching the last step is a proxy, not proof of a cooked meal. Exclude automated activity and duplicate completion events. Audit suspicious completion patterns and periodically validate the proxy through user research. Don’t reward tapping through steps, auto-completion, or cosmetic changes to logging.

2. Protect the whole experience. Monitor uninstalls, notification opt-outs, complaints, and cooking satisfaction. Reject “growth” that increases qualifying activity through nagging while materially worsening these measures. Preserve browse-only usefulness; not every visitor needs to become a tracked cook.

3. Require durable gains. Evaluate experiments on sustained weekly cooking and cohort retention, not just a short-lived threshold crossing. Keep metric definitions stable and report results separately for new, existing, free, and paid users.

4. Keep economics visible. Review MRR, paid conversion, subscriber churn, and contribution margin alongside the North Star. More cooking is not enough if it undermines a sustainable business.

Bottom line: MAU tells us who arrived; MRR tells us what we earned. Weekly Engaged Cooks tells us whether Simmer is becoming useful enough to return to—and pay for.

To: CEO & Growth Lead From: Head of Product Subject: Aligning on Our North Star Metric

Choosing between Monthly Active Users (MAU) and Monthly Recurring Revenue (MRR) is a classic tension between reach and monetization. But choosing either will hurt Simmer.

Here is why neither works as our North Star, what we should measure instead, and how we keep the business honest.

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Why Not MAU or MRR?

• MAU is a vanity metric that invites bad behavior. 68% of our monthly actives are transient visitors who read one recipe from Google and bounce, retaining at a dismal 4% by month six. Last year’s push notification test proved MAU is dangerous: blast notifications spiked MAU by 6%, but Cook Mode usage didn’t budge and uninstalls doubled. Optimizing for MAU encourages low-intent traffic acquisition and spammy retention hacks.
• MRR is a lagging output. MRR tells us if we extracted value last month, not if we created value today. Optimizing directly for MRR leads teams to tighten paywalls, increase discounts, or push annual locks—tactics that burn long-term trust without fixing the core product engine.

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The Proposed North Star: Weekly Active Cooks (WAC)

Definition: The number of unique users who complete at least one recipe in Cook Mode in a rolling 7-day window.

A great North Star sits at the intersection of customer value and enterprise value. For Simmer, that intersection is Cook Mode:

1. It predicts retention: Users who cook $\ge$2 recipes a week retain at 61% at month 6 (compared to 9% for passive recipe savers and 4% for browsers).
2. It fuels monetization: 82% of new subscribers completed at least three Cook Mode sessions in their first two weeks. Cook Mode is the direct gateway to our $6/month Simmer Plus subscription.

If Weekly Active Cooks grows sustainably, MAU becomes higher-intent and MRR growth naturally follows.

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Team Input Metrics

Product, Growth, and Content teams cannot easily move WAC directly; they need operational inputs they can own day-to-day:

1. Browse-to-Cook Activation Rate (New User Experience & Growth): % of first-time visitors who enter Cook Mode within 7 days of their first session. Goal: Move users out of the 68% bounce bucket and into an interactive cooking experience. 2. Multi-Cook Frequency (Core Product): % of active cooks completing $\ge$2 Cook Mode sessions per week. Goal: Deepen habit formation to hit the threshold associated with our 61% 6-month retention rate. 3. Weekly Meal Plan Adoption (Engagement & Feature Hook): % of monthly actives who schedule $\ge$3 recipes into a weekly meal plan. Goal: Only 7% have ever tried meal planning, yet planners show 54% month-6 retention. Meal planning provides the forward-looking intent that drives repeat Cook Mode completions. 4. Qualified Cook-to-Subscriber Conversion (Monetization): Conversion rate to Simmer Plus among users who have completed their 3rd Cook Mode recipe. Goal: Target our paywalls and free-trial prompts precisely when users reach the high-intent threshold (the 82% cohort), rather than hitting casual browsers with hard walls.

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Guardrail Metrics (To Prevent Gaming)

To ensure teams do not inflate WAC artificially, we must establish three non-negotiables:

• Cook Mode Session Integrity: Cook Mode completions are only counted if the user spends at least 5 minutes in the mode with step-progression intervals matching real cooking behavior. This prevents growth teams from auto-completing sessions via deep links.
• Net Churn & Uninstall Rate: Every experiment that touches engagement or notifications must track app uninstalls and notification opt-outs. Any test that increases uninstalls (like the push notification failure) is an automatic rollback, regardless of active-cook uplift.
• Monthly Cohort Renewal Rate: We must monitor 30- and 90-day retention of new Simmer Plus subscribers to ensure we are not driving low-intent conversions through deceptive trial dark-patterns.

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By rallying around Weekly Active Cooks, we bridge the gap between audience growth and revenue: we build a sticky, habitual product first, and harvest the revenue second.