5 questions to ask when your product stops growing | Jason Cohen (2x unicorn founder)

Jan 25, 2026 1h 46m 15 insights Episode Page ↗
Jason Cohen, a four-time founder including two unicorns, shares his actionable framework for diagnosing and rekindling product growth. He covers critical steps from addressing customer churn and optimizing pricing to exploring new acquisition channels and questioning the necessity of growth itself.
Actionable Insights

1. Re-evaluate Growth Necessity

Question the assumption that continuous growth is always necessary. Consider if maximizing profit or personal fulfillment is a more appropriate goal, especially for smaller or bootstrap companies, to avoid pursuing growth at all costs.

2. Follow Stalled Growth Framework

When product growth stalls, follow a structured diagnostic process: first, check customer churn; then, evaluate pricing and positioning; next, assess existing customer growth (NRR); finally, analyze acquisition channel saturation.

3. Quantify Max Customer Cap

To understand the severity of logo churn, calculate your maximum potential customer base by dividing new customers added per month by your monthly cancellation rate. This reveals a hard cap on growth if churn isn’t addressed.

4. Ask “What Made You Cancel?”

Instead of asking “Why did you cancel?” use open-ended questions like “What made you cancel?” to encourage customers to provide specific, actionable feedback about product issues or situational factors, rather than generic excuses like “budget.”

5. Dig Beyond Surface Reasons

Don’t accept surface-level reasons like “too expensive” or “project ended” for cancellations. Dig deeper to understand the underlying product, market, or communication failures, acknowledging that complex systems often have multiple interlocking causes.

6. Prioritize Early Customer Onboarding

Focus on improving the early customer onboarding experience, as small changes in this initial period can significantly reduce churn and increase long-term profitability by ensuring customers achieve early success and value.

7. Reassess Pricing & Market Fit

Recognize that your product’s pricing is likely too low and may be attracting the wrong market segment. Raising prices can sometimes increase sign-ups by signaling higher quality and attracting more valuable customers.

8. Position for Value, Not Savings

When positioning your product, emphasize how it helps customers achieve their core objectives (e.g., “double leads”) rather than just saving money or time. This can significantly increase perceived value and allow for higher pricing.

9. Achieve High Net Revenue Retention

For sustained growth, ensure your Net Revenue Retention (NRR) is above 100%, meaning existing customers’ upgrades and expansions outweigh downgrades and cancellations. This is crucial for offsetting natural churn and scaling effectively.

10. Track True Customer Value

Beyond operational or usage metrics, actively measure the actual value customers derive from your product. This understanding allows you to create more value and strategically determine how to split that value through pricing.

11. Anticipate Channel Saturation

Assume that existing marketing and acquisition channels will eventually saturate and decline (the “elephant curve”). Proactively explore and invest in new, creative channels or market segments before current ones lose effectiveness.

12. Leverage Indirect Growth Channels

Consider indirect growth strategies, such as selling through agencies or partners, to reach new customer segments and overcome saturation in direct acquisition channels.

13. Prioritize Content Quality

When creating content, prioritize high quality and depth over strict consistency in publishing frequency. Exceptional content, even if less frequent, is more impactful and builds a stronger audience.

14. Scrutinize A/B Testing Results

Be skeptical of A/B testing results, especially for minor changes or without sophisticated statistical analysis, as many observed “wins” can be false positives that don’t lead to long-term improvements.

15. Extract Data from Image Charts

Utilize AI tools like Gemini to convert data presented in images (e.g., charts, infographics) into structured tables that can be easily pasted into spreadsheets for personal analysis and model building.