Every number, read by the group that behaves alike.
Lifecycles draw the paths. Segments are the customers who resemble each other and walk them the same way. Define your segments once and every number — the forecast, the board pack, the renewal queue — reads by the group that behaves alike, not a company-wide blur.
The other half of the foundation. ← Lifecycle intelligence
The company-wide average is where the truth goes to hide.
One headline number looks healthy. Underneath it, one segment is compounding and another barely pays back — and they average each other out until it's too late to act on either.
One number, two opposite stories. The average feeds the wrong one.
Every cohort is defined by six dimensions.
The same six dimensions apply to every number, everywhere — so a cohort means the same thing in the forecast, the board pack and the renewal queue. Combine them for a sharper cut: mid-market inbound × this quarter's intake × high fit.
Segment
The segmentation every team already shares.
Acquisition period
The intake they arrived in.
Product
The product or plan they started on.
ICP Fit
How well they match your ideal customer.
Usage
The behaviour pattern they cluster into.
Activation
When they first got value, not signed.
Pick one to read any metric by that cut — or combine several for a sharper cohort.
Pick a dimension. Watch the blend break apart.
The same metric — revenue retained as each cohort ages — cut by whichever dimension you choose. The dashed line is the company-wide average everyone quotes. The solid lines are what it's really made of.
Cutting net revenue retention by segment.
| Cohort (by segment) | Retained at month 12 |
|---|---|
| Enterprise | 116% |
| Mid-market | 111% |
| SMB | 92% |
| Company-wide (blended) | 108% |
Illustrative. Cut any metric by any dimension, or combine them.
See forward on any cohort →One set of segments, defined once, browsable by everyone.
Not a spreadsheet each team keeps its own copy of — one shared library the whole company reads. Here are four of them, and how they really behave.
One library, no drift. A segment resolves the same way for marketing, sales, CS and finance. See how numbers are defined →
Every segment carries a path — the early read on a brand-new account.
Before a new account has a history of its own, it inherits its segment's path: the shape it's most likely to walk and the value it's likely to carry. As the account unfolds, the read sharpens from the segment to the account itself.
Illustrative. The segment sets the expectation before an account has a history of its own.
See forward, always →The same segment reads the same in every surface.
A segment isn't a filter each tool re-invents. It's defined once and resolves identically wherever it appears — so the number in the forecast is the number in the board pack is the number in the renewal queue.
Defined once, true everywhere. Nobody reconciles three versions of it before a meeting.
What you gain by reading the cohorts.
Steering the slices instead of the average changes how the whole company runs — where it aims, what it funds, and how far the cash goes.
Align every team
One set of segments, company-wide.
Back your best customers
Aim acquisition at what pays back.
Better unit economics
Fund what compounds, cut what leaks.
Better use of capacity
Point people and spend where the return is.
Longer runway, faster growth
Payback sooner, retention compounding.
Segments and lifecycles are two halves of one foundation.
Lifecycles are the paths; segments are the customers who walk them the same way. Together they're the read underneath every applied intelligence — customer, sales and marketing — and the pricing that follows.
Now put the segments to work.
Customer, sales and marketing intelligence are three lenses on this same foundation — each one reads these segments and cohorts, end to end.