BoardSnap is an iOS app that converts whiteboard photos into clean summaries and action items in about ten seconds. This AARRR template structures all five pirate metric stages — Acquisition, Activation, Retention, Referral, Revenue — on a single board with current metrics and the levers that move them.
Use this template for a growth audit: map the current state of all five stages, identify where the funnel is leaking, and prioritize which stage deserves resources next. It's most powerful when done quarterly alongside OKRs — it shows which stage the OKRs are targeting and whether the strategy is balanced.
Also useful for onboarding new growth team members or for a board presentation where you need to show the full funnel in one glance.
How users discover and arrive at your product. Channels, organic vs. paid split, CAC by channel, and conversion rate from first touch to account creation. Write the current numbers — not goals, not estimates. Where are users actually coming from today?
The moment a new user experiences the core value for the first time. Define your activation event explicitly — for BoardSnap, it might be 'first board snapped and summary received.' Write the current activation rate, time to activation, and top drop-off points in the onboarding flow.
How many users come back, and how often. Write D1, D7, and D30 retention rates. Identify the behaviors that correlate with long-term retention — these are your retention drivers. If you don't know what drives retention, that gap belongs on the board as an action item.
How users bring other users in. Write viral coefficient, NPS, and active referral program results if any. Identify the moments in your product when users are most likely to refer — 'right after first value delivery' is usually the answer. Write the referral rate and the referral mechanic.
How usage converts to money. Write conversion rate (free to paid), ARPU, LTV, LTV:CAC ratio, and churn rate. Identify the moments in the user journey that drive upgrade decisions. These are the levers for revenue growth.
One row per stage. Label each: Acquisition, Activation, Retention, Referral, Revenue. Leave space for three columns within each row: definition, current metric, and lever.
For each stage, write the specific definition for your product. 'Activation' means something different for every product — write what it means for yours before writing the number.
Fill in the real numbers. Don't use aspirational figures or industry benchmarks — write what the data actually shows. If you don't have the data for a stage, write a question mark and add 'instrument this' as an action item.
For each stage, write one to three levers — specific things you could change that would move the metric. These are the candidates for your next growth experiment.
Where does the funnel drop most sharply? Circle that stage. That's where the leverage is. A ten-point improvement in activation is usually worth more than a marginal improvement in acquisition.
BoardSnap reads all five AARRR rows — definitions, metrics, and levers. The output is a structured growth audit with the biggest leak identified and the levers listed as action items.
A growth dashboard shows you the numbers in isolation. A whiteboard AARRR session shows the whole team the numbers in sequence — so everyone can see where the funnel is breaking and why investing in acquisition while activation is broken is a money leak.
BoardSnap preserves the full funnel map after the session — all five stages, their metrics, and the levers the team agreed to pull. It's a more useful artifact than a screenshot of your analytics tool.
AARRR is a growth framework coined by Dave McClure that breaks the user journey into five stages: Acquisition (how users find you), Activation (first value experience), Retention (users coming back), Referral (users bringing others), and Revenue (monetization). It's called the 'pirate metrics' framework because of the acronym. Most teams focus on Acquisition and Revenue and underinvest in Activation and Retention, where the most leverage usually exists.
Fix from the top down, but start with Activation. Improving acquisition before fixing Activation just fills a leaky bucket faster. Once Activation is strong, improve Retention before scaling Acquisition. Retention is the foundation of sustainable growth.
Yes, with adjusted definitions. B2B Activation might be 'first project created and shared with a teammate.' B2B Referral might be 'organic seat expansion or customer-sourced referral.' The stage names stay the same; the specific events change based on your product model.
The free tier includes one project and 30 boards. Pro is $9.99/month or $69.99/year for unlimited boards and AI chat on any board you snap.
No exporting, no transcription. Snap the board, get the action plan.