Your product opens once a day if you are lucky. Slack, Notion, Google Sheets, Discord — those open every hour. When your product feeds into the tools your users already live in, leaving you means losing data they care about. That is a different kind of retention than a feature can buy.
You only need one good integration to start. Pick the right one by asking.
Before you build anything, send one message to your users:
"What tool do you wish we connected to?"
Wait for the answers. Pick the most common one. Then build the simplest possible version of that connection.
Depth is not the goal — presence is. A webhook posting key events to a Slack channel is enough. A CSV export to Google Sheets is enough. A Zapier trigger that fires when something important happens is enough. Use n8n if you want self-hosted automation, Make for a free 1,000 operations a month, or Zapier if your users already live there.
Once it works, announce it. Email everyone. Post in your community. The integration only counts when users know it exists.
The wrong question gets you a wishlist. The right question gets you commitment.
Bad: "Would you use a Slack integration?" — Everyone says yes. Nobody uses it.
Good: "If we connected to one tool tomorrow, which one would change your week?" — Now you have a real answer.
Build the answer to the second question. Skip the first.
- Building an integration nobody asked for because it sounded cool in a roadmap meeting.
- Going too deep on the first version. Ship a webhook before you ship a full two-way sync.
- Forgetting to announce it. A shipped integration nobody knows about is the same as no integration.
Ask your users which tool they want connected. Pick the top answer. Ship the simplest working version this week and announce it.
One live integration that real users can turn on, connected to a tool they specifically asked for. The integration is documented and announced to your user base.
Your product opens once a day if you are lucky. Slack, Notion, Google Sheets, Discord — those open every hour. When your product feeds into the tools your users already live in, leaving you means losing data they care about. That is a different kind of retention than a feature can buy.
You only need one good integration to start. Pick the right one by asking.
Before you build anything, send one message to your users:
"What tool do you wish we connected to?"
Wait for the answers. Pick the most common one. Then build the simplest possible version of that connection.
Depth is not the goal — presence is. A webhook posting key events to a Slack channel is enough. A CSV export to Google Sheets is enough. A Zapier trigger that fires when something important happens is enough. Use n8n if you want self-hosted automation, Make for a free 1,000 operations a month, or Zapier if your users already live there.
Once it works, announce it. Email everyone. Post in your community. The integration only counts when users know it exists.
The wrong question gets you a wishlist. The right question gets you commitment.
Bad: "Would you use a Slack integration?" — Everyone says yes. Nobody uses it.
Good: "If we connected to one tool tomorrow, which one would change your week?" — Now you have a real answer.
Build the answer to the second question. Skip the first.
- Building an integration nobody asked for because it sounded cool in a roadmap meeting.
- Going too deep on the first version. Ship a webhook before you ship a full two-way sync.
- Forgetting to announce it. A shipped integration nobody knows about is the same as no integration.
Ask your users which tool they want connected. Pick the top answer. Ship the simplest working version this week and announce it.
One live integration that real users can turn on, connected to a tool they specifically asked for. The integration is documented and announced to your user base.