HEART and AARRR are frameworks for choosing product metrics. HEART, created to measure user experience, covers happiness, engagement, adoption, retention and task success. AARRR follows the business funnel: acquisition, activation, retention, referral and revenue. In both, each dimension follows the goals, signals and metrics method: what you want, the behaviour that shows it is happening and the number that tracks that behaviour.
How to use
- Describe the product in one or two sentences, with no confidential data.
- Choose the product type and the framework: HEART, AARRR or both.
- Fill in goal, signal, metric and target for the dimensions you already have in mind.
- Generate the table: empty dimensions get examples for the product type to adapt.
- Read the warnings (metric with no target, vanity metric) and export as CSV, PNG or PDF.
What each field asks for
| Field | What to enter |
|---|---|
| Product | What the product does and for whom, in one or two sentences. Do not paste confidential data. |
| Product type | Sets the examples used for the dimensions you leave empty. |
| Framework | HEART measures experience; AARRR measures the business funnel. |
| Dimension | |
| Goal | E.g. customers book without help |
| Signal | E.g. booking completed on the phone |
| Metric | E.g. % of bookings started and completed |
| Target | E.g. 85% in the quarter |
Example
A fictional booking platform for hair and beauty salons uses HEART. The user fills in three dimensions: happiness (average satisfaction from 1 to 5 per active salon, target 4.3 by December), adoption of the automatic reminder and task success (% of bookings started and completed, target 85% in the quarter). The tool warns that "total reminders sent" has no target and looks like a vanity metric, and fills engagement and retention with B2B SaaS examples, such as "% of accounts active in month 1 still active in month 3".
When to use
- When launching a product or feature and deciding what to measure before looking at the data.
- When the dashboard has many numbers and none of them says whether the experience is improving.
- To align product, marketing and sales on the funnel stages and who tracks each one.
- Before setting OKRs, to choose metrics with a clear signal and a target.
Frequently asked questions
What does HEART stand for?
Happiness, engagement, adoption, retention and task success. The framework was created to measure user experience at scale.
What does AARRR stand for?
The stages of the business funnel: acquisition, activation, retention, referral and revenue. It helps you see where the funnel loses most people and which stage deserves the next effort.
What is the difference between HEART and AARRR?
HEART looks at the experience of people who already use the product; AARRR looks at the customer's path to generating revenue. They complement each other: many teams use AARRR for the business and HEART for a specific feature.
What is the goals, signals and metrics method?
First you define the goal for the user, then the signal (the behaviour that shows the goal is being reached) and finally the metric, which turns the signal into a number you can compare over time. Starting from the metric tends to produce numbers with no purpose.
What is a vanity metric?
One that only goes up and does not help any decision, such as cumulative downloads, sign-ups or visits. Prefer rates and ratios over a period, such as the percentage of active users who complete the core action.
Do I need to measure every dimension?
No. Pick 1 to 3 dimensions that matter most for the current decision. The others can stay as monitoring, without an aggressive target.
What does the AI do in this tool?
When it is switched on, it suggests signals and metrics for the dimensions you left blank, based on the product description. Without AI, those dimensions get ready-made examples for the chosen product type.