Founders often report traction as a single number in a deck. But traction is not one screenshot. It is a repeated behavior pattern over time.
Useful traction questions
- Are users returning without a reminder?
- Is value discovered faster over each release?
- Are support tickets getting more specific and less fundamental?
When the answers trend in the right direction, you have traction worth scaling.
If you're a PM moving into a startup for the first time, this context shift matters. And once you have traction, small iterative experiments are how you compound it without breaking what works.