How do you figure out why developers drop off?

Genuinely asking—not rhetorical.

You ship. Developers sign up. Some activate. Most don't come back. And you're left with dashboards that tell you where they left but nothing about why.

The obvious moves: reach out to churned users (they don't respond), check your docs analytics (not enough signal), run user interviews (you get the survivorship bias crowd who made it through), watch session recordings (hours of footage with no clear thread).

Every founder I've talked to in this space has their own version of this. Some build elaborate cohort analyses. Some do "developer empathy" sessions. Some just keep shipping and hope something moves the needle.

Here's what I've learned after years in this: most teams are optimizing based on feedback from the developers who stayed. The ones who dropped off aren't in your Slack. They're not responding to your email. They're not in your customer calls.

That's the gap Built for Devs exists to close—we match dev tools with fresh developers who fit the profile you're trying to win, capture everything that happens when they actually try your product for the first time, and deliver a findings report with a prioritized action plan.

But I'm curious what's working (or not) for you.

How are you diagnosing developer drop-off right now? What have you tried that actually gave you useful signal?