Yes, separating features by acquisition vs. retention value is a high-impact roadmap strategy—but only if you treat it as a lens for portfolio balance rather than a rigid sorting system. This approach prevents the common trap of building only for existing users (retention comfort zone) or chasing shiny acquisition features that leak users downstream.

Here's your actionable implementation guide:

1. The "Intent Framework" Setup

Don't just tag features—map them to business outcomes:

Action step: Create a mandatory dropdown field in your roadmapping tool (Productboard, Jira, Airfocus, or even Airtable) called "Primary Growth Lever."

2. The Portfolio Balance Formula

Stage-appropriate allocation ratios prevent strategic drift:

Early Stage (0-10k users): 60% Acquisition / 30% Activation / 10% Retention
Rationale: You need volume to learn, but don't ignore onboarding leaks.

Growth Stage (10k-1M users): 40% Acquisition / 30% Retention / 30% Expansion
Rationale: Fill the bucket slower, but fix the holes.

Scale Stage (1M+ users): 30% Acquisition / 40% Retention / 30% Expansion
*Rationale: Compound growth comes from depth, not just width.

Action step: Review your last 2 quarters. If your actual build ratio deviates >15% from your stage-appropriate target, you have a strategic alignment issue, not a prioritization issue.

3. The Hybrid Feature Audit

Many features serve dual intent—don't force false binaries. Instead, score them:

The Dual-Intent Matrix:

• Plot features on a 2x2: High/Low Acquisition Impact vs. High/Low Retention Impact
• "Golden Features" (High/High): Prioritize aggressively (e.g., collaborative features that require inviting new users)
• "Tax Features" (Low/Low): Deprecate or avoid (technical debt often hides here)
• "Tactical Features" (High/Low or Low/High): Time-box these based on quarterly OKRs

Action step: Run your current roadmap through this matrix. If you have zero Golden Features in the next 90 days, your strategy is too fragmented.

4. Practical Roadmap Visualization

Don't separate into different documents—use swimlanes or color-coding within a single timeline view:

Action step: In your next roadmap review, lead with the ratio view (pie chart of intents) before showing the timeline. If leadership debates a feature, debate its category first.

5. The Counter-Balance Check

Warning: Pure intent-based roadmapping can create silos. Prevent this with:

The "Bridge Metric": Every acquisition feature must specify its 30-day retention assumption, and every retention feature must specify its referral/word-of-mouth coefficient.

Example:

• ❌ Weak: "Build TikTok integration" (Acquisition)
• ✅ Strong: "Build TikTok integration to reduce CAC by 20%; assumes 15% of new users retain longer than 60 days"

Action step: Add a "Retention Hypothesis" field to acquisition features and vice versa. Force the connection.

6. When to Ignore This Framework

DON'T use acquisition/retention separation when:

• Platform/Infra work: Database migration benefits both equally—tag as "Enablement"
• Compliance/Security: GDPR or SOC2 isn't retention; it's "Table Stakes" (separate category)
• Technical Debt: Tag as "Velocity" to protect capacity, not intent

Immediate Next Steps (Do This Week)

1. Tag retroactively: Go back 90 days and tag shipped features with their primary intent. Calculate your actual ratio.
2. Define your "North Star" balance: Based on your ARR growth rate (if <100% YoY, weight toward retention; if >300%, weight toward acquisition).
3. Create the "Intent Check" ritual: In your next grooming session, ask "What percentage of users need to [convert/stay/expand] for this to be worth building?" before estimating effort.

What specific context should I expand on?

• Are you currently overweighted toward one type of feature (and leaking users or plateauing in growth)?
• What stage is your product at (pre-PMF, growth, or mature)?
• Are you struggling with getting leadership buy-in for retention work, or is engineering pushing back on acquisition experiments?

Your answer will determine whether you need political tactics to balance the roadmap or analytical frameworks to prove the ROI of retention features.

Yes, it makes absolute sense to separate features based on Acquisition and Retention value. In fact, failing to distinguish between the two is a common reason why roadmaps fail to meet business objectives.

By categorizing your roadmap this way, you ensure that you aren't just building "cool stuff," but rather strategically addressing the "Leaky Bucket" problem (gaining users only to lose them) or the "Growth Stagnation" problem (having a great product but no new users).

Here is a step-by-step guide on how to implement this strategy effectively.

1. Categorize Your Backlog

Before you can build the roadmap, you must audit your existing feature ideas. Label every item with its primary growth lever:

• Acquisition Features: These are designed to bring new users into the product.
  • Examples: SEO-optimized landing pages, referral programs, free-trial workflows, integrations with popular platforms (Slack/Zapier), and "viral loops."
• Retention Features: These are designed to keep existing users coming back and increase their lifetime value (LTV).
  • Examples: Advanced analytics/reporting, notification systems, personalization, performance improvements, bug fixes, and "sticky" features that increase switching costs.

2. Determine Your Business Stage

Your roadmap balance should shift depending on where your product is in its lifecycle:

• Pre-Product Market Fit (PMF): Focus 80% on Retention. If users don't stick around, acquisition is a waste of money.
• Early Growth: Focus 60% on Acquisition. You need to prove the market size and gain data.
• Mature Scale: Focus 50/50 or 60% on Retention. At this stage, reducing churn by 1% is often more profitable than gaining 1,000 new users.

3. Apply the "Strategic Bucket" Framework

Instead of one long list, organize your roadmap into three "buckets." This ensures you don't ignore one area for too long.

• Bucket A: Acquisition (The "Top of Funnel"): Features that reduce friction for new signups.
• Bucket B: Retention (The "Core Value"): Features that deepen the habit for existing users.
• Bucket C: Expansion/Monetization: Features that encourage users to upgrade to higher tiers.

4. Adjust Your Scoring (RICE Method)

When prioritizing, use the RICE score (Reach, Impact, Confidence, Effort), but weight the "Impact" based on your current goal.

• If your quarterly goal is to reduce churn, a Retention feature gets an Impact multiplier of 2x.
• If your goal is market share, an Acquisition feature gets the multiplier.

5. Visualize the Roadmap

When presenting to stakeholders, use a Theme-Based Roadmap rather than a chronological feature list.

Practical Action Plan for This Week:

1. Tag Your Backlog: Go into Jira, Linear, or Trello and add tags: [Acquisition] and [Retention].
2. Audit the Mix: Look at your upcoming sprint. If you are 100% focused on one and 0% on the other, ask yourself if that aligns with your current business goals.
3. Define Your Metric: For every Acquisition feature, name the entry metric (e.g., New Signups). For every Retention feature, name the exit metric (e.g., Churn Rate or Time spent in app).

To help me give you more specific advice on balancing these two, I’d love to know:

• What stage is your product in? (MVP, growing rapidly, or an established legacy product?)
• What is your primary KPI for the next 6 months? (e.g., hitting a specific user count or reducing churn?)
• Do you have a separate team for "Growth," or does one team handle everything?