Choosing the metrics and thresholds that would justify shutting down a news app

Imagine you are the product manager who owns a news app. What signals in your data would convince you that the right move is to shut the app down rather than keep investing in it? ```hint Define failure first Decide what the app exists to achieve, for its readers and for the business, before naming any metric. A case for shutting it down needs evidence that it is falling short of that goal in a way further investment is unlikely to fix. ``` ### Clarifying Questions - What kind of news app is it: an aggregator of many publishers, or a single publisher's own app? - How does it make money: advertising, subscriptions, or neither because it supports a larger product such as a device or platform? - Is the app new and still looking for product-market fit, or mature and declining? - Are you defining what to monitor on an ongoing basis, or making a decision now with data that already shows a decline? ### What a Strong Answer Covers - Starting from the app's goal and business model, so that failure is defined before metrics are chosen. - Metrics across reader value (engagement depth, habit, retention), monetization, costs and unit economics, and strategic value, with leading and lagging indicators. - Kill criteria agreed in advance, with thresholds, a duration and a benchmark, rather than a reaction to one bad month. - Ruling out measurement problems, news-cycle swings and fixable causes before concluding, and weighing alternatives such as a pivot, merger into another product, sale or maintenance mode. - What a shutdown would cost readers, publishers and the brand, and how it would be handled. ### Follow-up Questions - A small, loyal group of readers is highly engaged, but overall retention keeps falling. Does that change your recommendation? - How would you tell a temporary slump after a major news period ends from a structural decline? - If leadership decides to shut the app down, what would you measure during the wind-down?