Segmenting without overreach
Behavioral segments get powerful fast, which is exactly when you should slow down. A field guide to drawing audience rules that age well.
The first segment everyone builds is “users who did X in the last seven days.” It works. The second is “users who did X but not Y.” Also fine. By the time you reach the seventh segment, you have a tangle of overlapping rules, and nobody is sure who is in what bucket.
Three rules of thumb
We have made every mistake here. The patterns that survived:
- Name segments by intent, not condition. “High-intent trial users” outlives “users with 3+ sessions and
last_seen < 2d.” Conditions change. Intent persists. - Bound the timeframe. A segment without a time bound silently grows forever. Always include a window, even if it is “lifetime.”
- Audit reach before launch. Every new segment should show you its size before you can target an engagement at it. A segment of zero users is a deploy bug. A segment of every user is a different deploy bug.
What good targeting looks like
The best targeting is the kind a product manager can read aloud in a planning meeting and have everyone immediately understand. If your segment needs three lines of explanation, simplify it. If you cannot simplify it, the engagement is probably wrong for the audience.
When to break the rules
Compliance-driven engagements (security prompts, legal notices) need to hit the exact right population, even if the rule is ugly. In that case, write the ugly rule and add a comment explaining why. Future you will need it.
- #targeting
- #segmentation
- #product
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