Value Delivered — Not Process Completed
The FAE is the first moment the user received something from your product — a report generated, connection established, task completed. Not a field filled or a step acknowledged. Outputs, not inputs.
Output events only — not setup steps
Happens Early — First Session or First Week
If the FAE reliably predicts 90-day retention but only occurs on day 21 for the median new user, it is not operationalizable as an activation lever. The target must be reachable in session one.
Must be reachable in session one
Predicts Retention in Your Cohort Data
Users who performed this event in the first 7 days must retain at a meaningfully higher rate. If the gap is less than 15 percentage points at 90 days, the signal is too weak to build strategy around.
15+ point retention gap required
Can Be Operationalized
The event must be instrumentable in your analytics stack, reachable through product design, and usable as a targeting condition. If you cannot instrument it, you have a signal — not an event you can design against.
Instrumentable, designable, targetable