Rota, a shift planning app
Product usage slide with six engagement stat cards
Usage numbers only mean something together, because an active user count with no session depth behind it can describe a product people open and abandon. This slide puts six measures from the same four weeks on equal cards for Rota, a fictional shift planning app.
What is on the slide
- Headline
- Usage in August, with the line noting all six numbers come from the same four weeks.
- Reach
- 18,400 weekly active users, managers and staff who opened the app in a given week. 212,000 shifts published across 3,900 venues.
- Depth
- 9.2 sessions per user as a median for the month, with a four minute median session.
- Context
- 71% of sessions on phone or tablet, up from 64% in February. 46% of July accounts still publishing rosters in August.
When this is the right slide
Six equal cards suit a usage summary where no single number outranks the rest and the audience needs the shape of engagement rather than one headline.
What to swap it for
Metrics: Mixed-Tier Dashboard. Swap to the mixed tier dashboard when one number deserves more weight than the others and equal cards would flatten the story.
What this slide shows
A short headline reads Usage in August with one line underneath stating that the six numbers share a four week window. Below them sit six cards in a three by two grid, each holding a display size value, a metric name and a single sentence of explanation. The first row reads 18,400 weekly active users, 9.2 sessions per user and a four minute median session. The second row reads 212,000 shifts published, 71% mobile share and 46% thirty day retention. The explanation lines are deliberately concrete: managers and staff who opened the app in a given week, across 3,900 venues in August alone, of July accounts still publishing rosters in August. The cards share one tint and one type scale, so no card is visually ranked above another, and the footer carries the page number. Nothing on the slide is a chart, because the argument is the set of six numbers rather than any movement in one of them.
Who this slide is for and when to use it
Product reviews, investor updates and internal all hands, where the audience wants to know whether the product is being used rather than how revenue is tracking. Six cards is enough to describe a behaviour pattern and few enough that a reader can hold them all after one pass. It is the wrong slide when one number is the news. A retention jump from 30% to 46% deserves a hero number and a chart showing the movement, not a card among five neighbours. It is also the wrong slide for a mixed audience that does not share definitions. If half the room thinks an active user means an account and the other half thinks it means a person, the definitions have to be settled before the numbers can mean anything.
How to adapt it
First, pick six numbers that tell one story rather than six that happen to be available. A useful test is whether removing any card would change what the slide says. If not, it was padding. Second, keep the value formats consistent within a row where you can, since a row of two percentages and one duration reads slower than a row of three of the same type. Third, put the definition in the explanation line, not in a footnote. Median session of four minutes needs the word median on the card, because an average session would be a different and usually larger number. When one metric genuinely outranks the others, the mixed tier dashboard gives it a larger tile and keeps the rest as supporting figures, which is a more honest layout than six equal cards with one that is secretly the point.
What makes this slide work
One measurement window for all six
The line under the headline says every number comes from the same four weeks, which removes the most common hidden error on a usage slide: a weekly active figure sitting next to a monthly retention figure sitting next to a lifetime total. Without that sentence the six cards would be six different studies.
Reach and depth appear together
18,400 weekly actives is meaningless beside 9.2 sessions per user and a four minute median. Together they describe a product opened often and used briefly, which is exactly what a rostering tool should look like. A slide with three reach numbers and no depth numbers can hide a product nobody actually uses.
Two cards carry a comparison
Mobile share is up from 64% in February and retention is measured on July accounts, so two of the six cards say where the number came from as well as what it is. Six static figures with no reference point would leave the reader unable to tell an improvement from a decline.
Questions people ask
Which product usage metrics belong on one slide?
A pair for reach, a pair for depth and a pair for context. Here that is weekly actives and shifts published, sessions per user and median session length, then mobile share and retention. That spread stops a reader drawing a conclusion from volume alone, which is the usual failure of a usage slide built from whatever the dashboard shows first.
Should usage be weekly or monthly?
Match the product's natural rhythm and say which you used. Rostering happens weekly, so weekly active users is the honest reach measure. A tax product would report monthly or seasonally. What matters more than the choice is that every card on the slide shares one window, which is why this one states the window in a single line.
Is average or median session length better?
Median, in almost every case, and label it as such. A handful of sessions left open all day drags an average upwards and makes a product look more engaging than it is. This slide reports a four minute median, which is a claim about the typical session rather than about the arithmetic of a long tail.
How should retention be defined on a slide?
By naming the cohort and the action. Here it is accounts created in July that were still publishing rosters in August, which is specific enough to reproduce. Retention that only says 46% invites three different interpretations, and the one the audience picks will usually be the most flattering, which is a problem the next meeting inherits.
Do these cards need charts?
Not on this slide. Six charts in a grid is unreadable and six numbers with context lines is not. If a card's trend is the argument, give that metric its own slide with a line chart and keep the grid for the standing picture. The grid answers what usage looks like; a chart answers how it got there.
How often should a usage slide be rebuilt?
Every reporting cycle, with the same six metrics and the same definitions. The value of the slide comes from comparability, so swapping a metric because it looks better this month destroys the series. If a metric stops being useful, retire it deliberately and note the change rather than quietly replacing it.
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