Measuring Time to First Value: Tracking User Engagement Metrics

An important metric we are trying to measure is "Time to first value". The point of this metric is to see the average time it takes for a new user to get meaningful value from our product. There are several different tracked events that would qualify for this. Although we can easily track time to convert from event A to B, we're not sure how we can best go about tracking time to convert from event A to (B or C or D).

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kapa.ai
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Hi Jarrah A., Please stand by as I search the Mixpanel knowledge base for an AI-powered answer. I normally take about 15 seconds or so. In case AI cannot answer your question, feel free to reach out to Mixpanel support at mixpanel.com/get-support. If you have follow-up questions for this thread, please tag me again with your question: @kapa.ai <follow-up question> 👋
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kapa.ai
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Tracking "Time to First Value"—where the "value" can be achieved by any of several events (e.g., B, C, or D)—is a common need, but the knowledge sources do not explicitly describe a built-in Mixpanel feature for measuring time to convert from event A to the first occurrence of any event in a set (B or C or D) in a single funnel step.Mixpanel’s Funnels report allows you to measure time to convert between specific steps (e.g., A → B), and you can select a "Time to Convert" aggregation to see how quickly users move through those steps. However, each funnel step is defined by a single event, not a group of alternative events. The documentation describes measuring time to convert between steps, but does not mention configuring a step as "any of these events" (B, C, or D) out of the box. You can break down time to convert for a specific step range, but the step itself must be a single event type, not a set of alternatives Funnels Advanced Concepts.Workarounds: - If you can create a custom event or property in your implementation that fires when any of B, C, or D occurs, you could use that as the second step in your funnel (A → "First Value Event"), and then use the "Time to Convert" measurement. - Alternatively, you could create separate funnels for A → B, A → C, and A → D, and then analyze the time to convert for each, but this would not give you a single metric for "first value" across all three events.Summary: Mixpanel’s funnel analysis is powerful for measuring time to convert between specific events, but does not natively support a funnel step defined as "any of these events" (B, C, or D). Implementing a custom event to represent "first value" is the recommended approach for this use case Funnels Advanced Concepts.If you need more detailed guidance on how to implement this custom event, let me know!
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