How to Solve an 80% Drop-Off in a Mobile App — A Practical Case Study

From data analysis to team plan — how I approached this retention challenge step by step

Hey, Dmytro here — welcome to Atomic Product.
Every week, I share practical ideas, tools, and real-world lessons to help you grow as a product thinker and builder.

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• How to Grow as a Product Manager in 2025

• Product Hypotheses ≠ Ideas — Or Why You’re Not Seeing Results

• How to Prioritize When Everything Looks Important

• MVP Is Not a Product. It’s a Question

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One of the biggest challenges in product education today is the gap between theory and real-world decision-making. Frameworks are great — but they won’t help much if you’ve never applied them under real constraints.

Recently, I was asked to solve a mobile product case as part of a hiring process. The task focused on a common but tough challenge: user retention during the first week.

In this case, I’ll walk you through how I apply product thinking in a real scenario:

• 🔎 How I analyze behavioral and qualitative data

• 💡 How I form 5 product hypotheses and score them using a light ICE framework

• 🎯 How I select one hypothesis for MVP testing

• 🛠 How I build a team plan — including user story, UX ideas, success metrics, and edge cases

• 🚨 (Bonus) Link to the full Figma prototype preview

This breakdown might be helpful if you:

– are preparing for a PM interview
– want to see what practical product thinking actually looks like
– work in a startup with limited resources

📌 Full breakdown below — curious to hear what you'd do differently!

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The Case Setup

Imagine you’ve just launched a mobile app called NutriTrack — designed for people who want to eat healthy without spending hours planning meals.

Here’s what it does:

• Automatically generates a personalized weekly meal plan

• Tracks calories and macronutrients

• Helps users stay on track with daily meal check-ins

When a new user signs up, they:

• Choose a goal (lose weight, maintain, or gain)

• Go through a short onboarding survey

• Receive a tailored weekly nutrition plan

• Can mark meals as “completed” or swap items any time

The Problem?
Despite a smooth onboarding and personalized suggestions, over 80% of new users stop using the app by Day 2 or 3, without completing even one week of the plan.

Let’s dive into the solution 👉