Define activation first
Recognize that activation modeling starts with numerator, denominator, time window, and breakdowns.
Concept
fact-table-grain
The primary modeling idea this problem reinforces.
Requirements
2
Business needs the model must satisfy.
A collaboration product team says activation dropped after changing onboarding. They ask you to design the model, but they have not said what counts as activation.
If activation is undefined, the schema can preserve the wrong event grain and make every later metric conversation ambiguous.
- Pick the first clarification step before schema design.
- Name the metric pieces needed to choose the correct grain.
- The answer defines numerator, denominator, time window, and breakdown dimensions.
- The explanation connects those definitions to fact grain.
- Ask what qualifies a user or workspace as activated.
- A metric definition should tell you what event or state each row needs to preserve.
- Drawing tables before defining what activation means.
- Treating activation as a single universal event when the product can define it several ways.
Metric definition before schema
Define the activation numerator, denominator, time window, and dimensions before choosing the fact grain. Metrics before grain, the dbt semantic-modeling habit on a Kimball fact.
Optimizes for
- • Metric clarity
- • Correct event grain
- • Reusable semantic definitions
Trade-offs
- • Takes time before drawing the ERD
- • May expose unresolved product-definition disagreements
Try the question first.
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