# Engagement Drop Diagnosis

Investigate measurement, audience mix, intent, content quality, usability, distribution, product behavior, seasonality, and external causes of decline.

## Usage note

Confirm that the decline is real and comparable before changing content. A lower metric may reflect tracking, audience, channel, season, product, or task changes rather than worse editorial quality.

## How to use this template

1. Define and validate the metric, affected scope, comparison period, and data quality.
2. Segment the decline and locate when, where, and for whom it appears.
3. Inspect discovery, audience, product, usability, content, distribution, and external causes.
4. Rank competing hypotheses and choose direct repair, research, test, or monitoring.
5. Save baseline, annotate changes, remeasure with guardrails, and record the conclusion.

## Blank template

### Signal validation

- **Metric and definition version:** [Enter]
- **Affected pages/content:** [Enter]
- **Observed period and comparison:** [Enter]
- **Magnitude and uncertainty:** [Enter]
- **Segments:** [Device/channel/country/audience]
- **Instrumentation or consent change:** [Enter]
- **Data lag or quality issue:** [Enter]
- **Signal valid:** [Yes / No / Uncertain]

### Timeline and context

- **First observed change:** [Date]
- **Content releases:** [List]
- **Product/site releases:** [List]
- **Campaign/referral changes:** [List]
- **Search/indexing changes:** [List]
- **Seasonal/external events:** [List]
- **Audience mix changes:** [List]
- **Known incidents:** [List]

### Hypothesis card

Duplicate for each possible cause.

- **Hypothesis:** [Enter]
- **Layer:** [Measurement / Discovery / Audience / Product / UX / Content / External]
- **Evidence for:** [Enter]
- **Evidence against:** [Enter]
- **More evidence needed:** [Enter]
- **Impact if true:** [Enter]
- **Test or repair:** [Enter]
- **Owner and priority:** [Enter]

### Decision and follow-up

- **Confirmed breakage:** [Enter or None]
- **Chosen action:** [Repair / Research / Experiment / Monitor]
- **Baseline reference:** [Enter]
- **Changes and release date:** [Enter]
- **Outcome and guardrails:** [Define]
- **Review dates:** [Enter]
- **Conclusion/confidence:** [Enter]
- **Next decision owner:** [Enter]