We don't use 90% of what we've built

By
Mukund Kabra

When teams say "We don't use 90% of what we've built", it usually means the system that should drive decisions is unclear or untrusted. Define activation, remove friction, and build usage loops that make adoption observable and compounding.

Category:
Product Growth
Reading time:
2
min read
Published on:
January 24, 2026

We don't use 90% of what we've built

Problem

When you don't use 90% of what you've built, you lose the ability to make confident tradeoffs. Flat growth often means the current motion has hit its ceiling: the same channels saturate, the same offers stop working, and marginal returns shrink. You cannot diagnose the real bottleneck without separating acquisition, activation, retention, and monetization into clear drivers with owners. The business becomes vulnerable to small shocks: a CPM spike, a competitor launch, or a seasonal dip can wipe out months of effort. Until this is fixed, every improvement will feel slower than it should.

Insight

Not using 90% of what's been built isn't about laziness, it's about design. Most systems evolve reactively, not strategically. Tools, workflows, and reports get added to solve short-term pain, not to serve a long-term architecture. Over time, the noise overtakes the signal. People stop using what they don't understand, and no one feels ownership over what remains. The deeper issue is that teams conflate building with improving. Building feels like progress, it's visible, measurable, and satisfying, but improvement happens quietly through refinement and removal. The truth is, growth isn't about how much you build, it's about how much you use effectively. The most efficient companies scale through clarity, not complexity.

How Velocity Approaches It

We help companies strip back to what actually works. Velocity starts by auditing your tools, automations, and systems across marketing, product, and data. We identify what's valuable, what's redundant, and what's blocking adoption. Then we rebuild your operating layer around usability and impact, fewer moving parts, cleaner workflows, and clear accountability for every asset in play. The goal isn't to build more, it's to make what you have work harder. When teams see the system work, they start to trust it again. If you're done building for the sake of building, we'll help you get full value from what you've already made.

Tags:  
User Retention Strategy; Customer Segmentation; Behavioral Cohorts; Retention Loops; Churn Prevention; LTV Growth

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