Core Events Overview
Tagging allows you to collect valuable data on your entire product but not all tagged features, pages, and events are equal. Core events are the key features, pages, and track events that drive value for your product. It's important to tag features, pages, and track events throughout your application to get a detailed picture of user behavior and do robust analysis of workflows, but it's easy for critical user behavior to get lost in the noise. A core event is what a user does when they're demonstrating meaningful use of your app. It could be an action like "Follow" or "Share", viewing an important page like "Account Statement" or "Report", or completing a key workflow with "Save", "Submit", or "Publish". By using that feature they've realized the value of your app and are more likely to come back and continue using it.
To filter your core events from the rest of your data, make an educated guess on what your core events are, validate that usage of those core events results in above average retention with the Account Retention by Usage widget, and monitor when users interact with those core events with the Core Events Time to First Use widget. Core events are surfaced throughout Pendo to help you analyze core events in all Pendo analytics tools. The process of continuously evaluating your core events, gauging if their usage correlates with sustained activity, and then driving users to core events sooner in the user journey helps you focus on developing and promoting the things customers love about your product.
Set Up Core Events
Designate up to 10 features, pages, and track events per app as your core events to separate them from the rest of your tags in Insights and analyze them with two core events widgets on the Dashboard. Core event setup is accessible from the Features, Pages, and Track Events pages.
Learn how to set up Core Events
Validate Core Events
The Core Events: Account Retention by Usage widget on the Dashboard shows the rate of retention for accounts if they use a core event in the first 30 days. Your core events should be the actions that lead to happy users habitually returning to your application. Using a core event in the beginning of an accounts lifecycle should result in above average retention when compared to the control line. The control line is the average retention for accounts who have any events.
If this widget doesn't show that core event usage leads to above average retention over time, it's possible you selected the wrong core events and the accounts you're retaining are using different features. Replace the below average core event with a different feature, page, or track event that may produce better retention. Accounts must use a core event in the first 30 days of their activity and have an account start date during the account retention date range to be eligible for this analysis.
Learn more about the Core Events: Account Retention by Usage Widget
Drive Users to Value
The Core Events: Time to First Use widget shows the average time it takes users to use a core event for the first time. After confirming that using a core event results in above average retention, you want users to discover those features as soon as possible. The widget shows the mean, median, minimum, and maximum time to first use for all qualifying users. Steer your messaging, onboarding, and product design towards improving time to first use and see if using your core events improves retention for more of your accounts. Users must use a core event after their first visit to be included in this analysis.
Learn more about the Core Events: Time to First Use Widget
Surface Core Events in Analytics
Core events are prioritized in dropdown menus and highlighted in lists for ease of use and accurate selection of core events throughout Pendo. It's important to use core events in the other analyses you do in Pendo. There's value in all roles in the organization tracking core event usage and adoption, not just Product Managers. Customer Success Managers can track their accounts' core event usage to make sure they're finding the value of your product. Data scientists can look for patterns around core event usage and non-usage. Designers can build guide experiences that direct the user journey to core event usage.
Core Events in People and Behavior Analytics
Core events are separated from other features, pages, and track events when selecting a target feature, page, or track event in Data Explorer, Paths, Funnels, Segments, and anywhere else you can select them in a list.
Data Explorer
Segments
Visitor and Account Reports
Core Events in Product Analytics
Core events in the Features, Pages, and Track Events pages in the Product section have a core badge and core event column that distinguish them from other tagged features, pages, and track events in the list. Column sorting helps you quickly find all core events in the list filtered by your selections in the Filter header.
Core Events and Non-Core Event in Features
