Thoughts | Content drives retention

Product doesn’t

A quick thought here. Something clicked today: For a long while I thought product development was the sole driver of retention. And then I realized, no user uses an online product for the sake of the product. Some examples that came to mind:

• I open credit karma to check my credit score (content)
• Facebook to see friend posts (content)
• The Chase app to check my balance (content)

Granted, I’ll open these apps to send money, which is more of a functionality. But the feature that keeps me coming back most often is content. This realization helped me reframe the role of product in driving retention: Product is here to help content shine. This is especially relevant for platform type products.