Current-user retention and resurrection

• Diagnostic question

  How often a devoted user should come back

  devoted cadence question

  Sets a realistic devoted-user frequency from typical loyal users, never extreme ones, which every habit metric is measured against.

• Diagnostic question

  How much better than the alternative

  perceived utility question

  Rates perceived utility against the best alternative, the second axis of the Habit Zone placement.

• Diagnostic question

  Does the business need a habit?

  business fit question

  Checks whether the business needs unprompted repeat use or grows through trust and referrals on occasional purchases.

• Diagnostic question

  The key action at each stage

  desired actions question

  Names the one action wanted from users at each lifecycle stage, so every lens rates the right behavior.

• Diagnostic question

  The habit statement

  habit statement question

  Drafts the habit statement as a hypothesis and checks whether the team agrees on it.

• Diagnostic question

  Quick scan: what users really want

  internal trigger quick scan

  The first of Hooked's five fundamental questions, used as the default quick scan of the internal-trigger link.

Sources

• Meaningful metrics: the Duolingo growth model · Duolingo Blog (Erin Gustafson), 2023

  APrimaryBenchmark confidence A. A primary source for the benchmark.

Book content is paraphrased, never quoted at length. Last verified October 24, 2026.