About golden funnels
Golden funnels are the small set of consistent events that measure the steps that matter most to Apollos. They are the prime metrics we use to measure success.
How it works
The idea comes from Segment's writing on customer data maturity. As a tracking setup grows, it drifts: event names multiply, similar actions get tracked in different ways, and some events are sent so often that they drown out the useful ones. Segment recommends auditing on a regular schedule. The audit has two passes:
- Bottom-up: inventory every event across all sources. How many uniquely named events are there? Are they consistent across sources? Are there high-volume events, and are they worth what they cost?
- Top-down: ignore the existing events and define a set of golden funnels. These are the ideal flows of short, consistent events that measure each business-critical action, for example acquisition, activation, retention, revenue, and referral funnels, each with a handful of events marking entry, midpoint, and completion.
For Apollos, each golden funnel ends in a single conversion event, such as Signup Completed, Daily Habits Completed, or Donation Completed. The steps leading up to it are usually Button Used events. Each golden funnel event page lists its funnel.
For the full background, see Segment's data collection best practices.
The golden funnel events
The event index lists every golden funnel event and its status.