# developer-churn

**Why developers leave and how to win them back** — understanding, preventing, and recovering from churn.

## What It Does

Helps you understand the real reasons developers churn, build early warning systems to identify at-risk users, conduct effective exit interviews, and run win-back campaigns that respect developer intelligence.

## When to Use

- Churn rate is higher than you'd like
- Need to understand why developers are leaving
- Building an at-risk user detection system
- Creating win-back campaigns
- When you say "why developers leave," "churn rate," "at-risk users," or "win-back"

## Quick Start

```
/developer-churn

Help me understand why developers are churning from our API product.
We've had 15% churn last month and I need to figure out the causes.
```

## The 6 Reasons Developers Churn

| Reason | Actionable? | Your Move |
|--------|-------------|-----------|
| DX Issues | Yes | Fix docs, SDKs, quickstarts |
| Pricing Friction | Yes | Adjust pricing, add free tier |
| Superior Alternatives | Partially | Compete on value, not FUD |
| Project Death | No | Accept it, move on |
| Integration Failure | Yes | Add integrations, improve guides |
| Involuntary (Payment) | Yes | Better dunning, card updater |

## Key Principles

1. **Developers don't leave because of price — they leave because of friction**
2. **Support tickets are warning signs, not engagement**
3. **Don't try to win back project-death churners**
4. **Lead with value in win-back, not discounts**
5. **Fix involuntary churn first — it's often 20-40% of total**

## Files

| File | Description |
|------|-------------|
| `SKILL.md` | Full skill instructions |

## At-Risk Detection

Build a health score from:
- API call trends (30%)
- Login frequency (20%)
- Feature adoption (20%)
- Support sentiment (15%)
- Billing health (15%)

## Templates Included

- Exit survey email
- Exit interview questions
- Win-back sequence (3 emails)
- Dunning sequence (4 emails)
- At-risk alert format

## Tools

- **[Octolens](https://octolens.com)** — Monitor competitor switches and developer sentiment
- **Segment** — Usage tracking for health scores
- **Amplitude** — Cohort retention analysis
- **Stripe** — Dunning management

## Related Skills

- `developer-audience-context` — Understand alternatives
- `developer-email-sequences` — Re-engagement emails
- `competitor-tracking` — Monitor competitive landscape
- `developer-onboarding` — Prevent churn at the source