How to Build a Growth Dashboard in Amplitude (Step-by-Step)

Step 1: Define your four core metrics before opening Amplitude

The most common mistake when building dashboards is starting with the tool instead of the questions. Before touching Amplitude, write down one metric for each pillar: (1) Acquisition — new activated users per week, (2) Activation — percentage of new users reaching your defined aha moment within 7 days, (3) Retention — D30 retention rate for weekly cohorts, (4) Revenue — new MRR from the current cohort. These four metrics become the top row of your dashboard. Everything else is a supporting diagnostic chart.

Step 2: Build your activation funnel

In Amplitude, go to Funnels → create a new funnel with your core activation sequence. This is typically: sign up → complete onboarding step → reach key feature → activate (however you define it). Set the conversion window to 7 days. Add a breakdown by acquisition source (UTM medium or channel property). This chart tells you where users are dropping off and which channels bring users who actually activate — two of the most important diagnostics in growth analytics.

Step 3: Add your retention curve

Go to Retention → create a new retention analysis using your activation event as the start event and your 'return visit' or 'core action' event as the return event. Set time period to weekly, look-back to 8 weeks. Add a breakdown by acquisition cohort or user segment. This is the chart that tells you whether you have product-market fit — if your retention curve flattens above 0% by week 4, you have something. If it keeps declining toward zero, you have a retention problem that no amount of acquisition spend will fix.

Step 4: Build your growth accounting chart

Amplitude's User Sessions or custom event charts can be used to approximate the growth accounting model: new users + resurrected users - churned users = net new active users. This is more useful than raw active user counts because it tells you whether growth is coming from new acquisition, reactivation, or retention. Create a stacked bar chart showing these three components week over week. The shape of this chart reveals your growth engine — if it's mostly new user growth with high churn, you have an acquisition-dependent model that won't scale efficiently.

Step 5: Add your top feature adoption metrics

Create a user composition chart showing what percentage of active users triggered each of your 3-5 core features in the last 30 days. This is your feature health scorecard. Sort by adoption rate. Features with low adoption among retained users are candidates for UX improvement or deprecation. Features with high adoption among retained users are candidates for onboarding emphasis — get new users to them faster. Pin this chart to your dashboard next to the retention curve.

Step 6: Schedule a weekly review

A dashboard no one looks at is worse than no dashboard — it creates false confidence. Once your Amplitude dashboard is built, set it as the opening agenda item for your weekly growth meeting. The review should take 15 minutes: read each chart top to bottom, note what moved, form one hypothesis about why it moved, and assign one experiment to test that hypothesis. The habit of weekly data review is more valuable than the sophistication of the charts.