Recovery is a product metric, not a motivational slogan

Retention dashboards usually tell us who came back. They rarely tell us whether the product helped someone return after falling behind.

For learning, fitness, finance, and any habit-shaped product, recovery deserves its own measurement: time from interruption to meaningful return, the smallest successful comeback action, and whether the product reduces guilt or adds to it.

A system that only works for perfect streaks is optimized for the users who need it least.

What does a good recovery path look like in your product?