BoardSnap is an iOS app that reads whiteboard photos and produces clean summaries and action items in about ten seconds. This pirate metrics template runs a team-level AARRR audit — ownership, current performance, targets, and levers — built for a cross-functional growth session.
Use this when you're kicking off a growth team, doing a quarterly growth review, or debugging why one stage of the funnel is underperforming. It complements the AARRR funnel template — the AARRR template is strategic (which stage to prioritize), and this pirate metrics template is operational (who owns each stage and what are they doing about it).
For each of the five AARRR stages, write the team or person accountable for the metric. Acquisition might be marketing. Activation might be product. Retention might be product and success jointly. Write a real name — 'product team' is not an owner. If a stage has no owner, that's your first action item.
For each stage: current metric value, target value, and deadline. Keep it to the primary metric per stage — not a dashboard, a single number that represents the health of each stage. If you have three metrics per stage and can't choose one, that's also something to decide in this session.
The one thing, if changed, that would move each stage's metric most. Write one lever per stage. This is the output of having prioritized — the team isn't working on everything, they're working on the lever.
For each stage: is there an experiment running right now? Write the experiment name, the hypothesis, and the expected completion date. If there's no experiment running on a stage, is that intentional or an oversight?
A quick status column: Green (on track), Yellow (at risk), Red (blocked). For anything red: the blocker and the owner of resolving it. This section turns the audit into an action list.
One row per stage, five columns: Stage, Owner, Current / Target, Top Lever, Status. Label every cell. BoardSnap reads labeled grids accurately.
Don't fill in metrics before owners. Every unowned stage is a decision to make in the room. Make it. Assign a real person or team before moving to numbers.
Current first — the actual number from your analytics tool. Then target. The gap between current and target should be ambitious but achievable in 90 days. If the gap requires a miracle, revise the target.
For each stage, the room should answer: 'If we could only change one thing, what would it be?' That's the lever. Focus the debate on the answer to that question — not on listing every possible intervention.
Any stage marked red gets a blocker written next to it. Name the blocker specifically — not 'resource constraints,' but 'we need an iOS developer and don't have one until May.' Specificity is actionable.
BoardSnap reads the full grid — owners, metrics, levers, experiments, and statuses. The output is a clean growth audit with every red-flagged item as a priority action and every lever as a task.
Growth metrics reviews in slides are passive — people watch the numbers scroll by. A whiteboard growth audit is active — someone has to write the number, defend the lever, and put their name next to the stage they own.
BoardSnap makes the accountability visible and portable. The grid — owner, metric, lever, status — is captured in ten seconds and shareable with the full team before anyone's laptop closes.
Dave McClure named the AARRR framework 'pirate metrics' because the acronym sounds like a pirate saying 'AARRR.' It was originally presented in a 2007 startup metrics talk. The name stuck. The framework maps the full user lifecycle from first touch to revenue and referral.
The AARRR funnel template is strategic — it maps the full funnel to identify which stage to prioritize. This pirate metrics template is operational — it assigns owners, tracks current vs. target, and manages the in-flight experiments across all five stages. Use the AARRR template to decide where to invest; use this template to manage the execution.
Monthly for fast-moving growth teams; quarterly for teams in a steadier state. The board should look different every time — if the same levers are listed and the same stages are red quarter after quarter, the problem is execution, not planning.
The free tier covers one project and 30 boards. Pro is $9.99/month or $69.99/year for unlimited boards, projects, and AI chat.
No exporting, no transcription. Snap the board, get the action plan.