Open this lesson in your favourite AI. It'll walk you through the why, explain the demo, and quiz you on the try-it list.
Individual metrics lie in isolation. CAC looks fine until you see the payback period. LTV looks healthy until you see the churn driving it. A unit economics dashboard pulls CAC, LTV, LTV:CAC, payback period, and contribution margin into one view so you can see how they move together — and catch the early signal of deterioration before it becomes a cash crisis.
A minimal unit economics dashboard tracks five metrics over time: CAC (by channel), LTV, LTV:CAC ratio, payback period in months, and contribution margin %. Trend direction matters as much as absolute values.
Use these three in order. Each builds on the one before.
In one paragraph, explain what a unit economics dashboard is, what metrics it should contain, and why tracking trends over time is more useful than snapshot values.
Walk me through how CAC, LTV, payback period, and contribution margin interact — specifically, what happens to each metric when a new expensive paid channel is added to the mix.
Our unit economics dashboard shows CAC rising 20% quarter-over-quarter while LTV is flat. Walk me through the five most likely root causes in order of probability and how you would diagnose each one.