Building a digital product that reaches half a million users is an accomplishment. Keeping those users engaged and ensuring they see long-term value is another challenge entirely. Many companies assume that scale solves problems when, in reality, it amplifies them. The product that worked flawlessly for 5,000 users often struggles at 50,000. At 500,000, those cracks can become gaping holes. Adekunle Kadri, who has spent years refining product analytics and growth strategies in financial services and beyond, has seen how companies that scale successfully focus on more than just acquisition.
“Growth without retention is a leaky bucket. You can pour as much traffic as you want into the top of the funnel, but if users aren’t staying, none of it matters,” Adekunle said in a phone interview. “The mistake many teams make is celebrating sign-ups like they mean something on their own. What matters isn’t how many people create an account.it’s how many people find value in the product and keep coming back.”
User acquisition is the easiest part of the equation. Paid ads, influencer partnerships, and referral programs can drive numbers up quickly. But what happens after the initial burst? If the product isn’t delivering on its promise, growth stalls, and companies start throwing money at marketing without fixing the real problem.
Adekunle points out that sustainable scale is always tied to retention, and retention is tied to how quickly users get to their first moment of value. Some companies spend years tweaking their onboarding experience because they realize that a confusing first interaction doesn’t just delay adoption,it kills it.
The transition from thousands to hundreds of thousands of users brings technical and operational challenges that can derail even the best products. Infrastructure that felt solid under moderate traffic can buckle under the weight of exponential growth. Features that seemed well thought out suddenly don’t work at scale.
“If a company is still handling support queries manually at 10,000 users, they will be drowning at 100,000,” Adekunle Kadri explained. “Scalability isn’t just about architecture and server capacity. It’s about making sure that the systems supporting growth,customer support, analytics, even internal processes can handle the pressure.”
Pricing models also get tested at scale. A subscription model that seemed sustainable in the early days may not work when thousands of users churn every month. Companies that succeed at scale don’t treat pricing as an afterthought. They run experiments, analyze willingness to pay, and ensure that their pricing strategy aligns with user behavior. Some shift from fixed pricing to usage-based models to reduce friction, while others introduce tiered plans that allow users to start small and grow into higher-value offerings.
Adekunle’s experience in product analytics has shown him that many of the best scaling decisions come from data—but only when companies know how to interpret it. “People get obsessed with vanity metrics. Monthly active users, downloads, total sign-ups—they all sound great in investor meetings, but they don’t tell you anything about whether the product is actually working,” he said. “If you want to understand how well a product is scaling, look at cohort retention. Are users still engaged six months in? Are they spending more time in the product over time, or less? Those are the questions that matter.”
Scaling is never just about doing more of the same thing. It requires rethinking what worked at the early stages and adapting to the realities of a larger user base. The best teams anticipate this and make decisions proactively instead of reacting when things start breaking.
“Growing a product to 500,000 users isn’t about luck. It’s about designing for scale from the start, making tough decisions early, and always, always keeping an eye on retention,” Adekunle Kadri said. “It’s not the flashiest part of growth, but it’s the part that actually determines long-term success.”
