How do you pivot your retention strategy when post-launch traffic traffic fades and churn spikes?

Our launch day was incredible hundreds of signups, high engagement, and lots of positive feedback. We thought we had cracked the market.

30 days later, the cohort retention graph took a sharp nose-dive. The surge of early adopters brought curious visitors rather than long-term users, and as the initial hype wore off, the steady stream of daily active users dried up.

For makers who have launched on platforms like Product Hunt: how do you transition from top of funnel launch momentum to consistent week over week user retention?