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๐Ÿ“– Chapter 9: Debriefing Your Challenge โ€“ How To Make Every Round More Successful

The complete guide to professionally debriefing your first challenge

Jordan Plotkin avatar
Written by Jordan Plotkin
Updated this week

The Story That Keeps Repeating Itself

Your challenge is over.
87 people completed it out of 127 who started.

You feel good.
โ€œ68% completion rate โ€“ not bad!โ€

But then you ask yourself:

  • Why did 40 people drop out?

  • On which day did most people stop showing up?

  • Which content worked best?

  • How can I improve this for next time?

And you have no answers.

You did not analyze the data.
You did not ask your participants.

Result?

Challenge #2 will look exactly like Challenge #1 โ€“
same problems, same weak points, same mistakes.

Smart creators?

They run a deep debrief after every single challenge.

They learn from the data.
They understand what worked and what did not.

And their next challenge?
โ€‹2x better.

In this chapter you will learn:

  • How to collect data during your challenge

  • How to analyze that data after the challenge

  • How to run a debrief with your participants

  • How to identify weak points and drop off points

  • How to improve your next challenge based on real learning

  • How to turn every challenge into a continuous improvement engine


๐Ÿ“Š Collecting Data During The Challenge โ€“ What Should You Measure?

Golden rule:
You cannot improve what you do not measure.

CommuniPass already shows you who opened the content each day.
Your job is to take that data and organize it โ€“ for example, in an Excel or Google Sheet.


1. Daily Open Rate โ€“ Who Actually Opens The Content?

Export or write down how many people opened each dayโ€™s content.

Example table:

Day

Opened

Did Not Open

Open Rate

1

125

2

98%

2

118

9

93%

3

110

17

87%

7

95

32

75%

14

78

49

61%

21

68

59

54%

What this tells you:

  • Days 1โ€“3: almost everyone opens โ†’ strong start โœ…

  • Day 7: drop to 75% โ†’ turning point โš ๏ธ

  • Days 14โ€“21: continued decline โ†’ a large group dropped off โŒ

Conclusions:

  • You need to strengthen days 7โ€“10 โ€“ these are critical days.

  • Maybe the challenge is too long? You might consider shortening it (for example from 21 to 14 days).


2. Group Engagement Rate โ€“ Who Actually Participates?

What this is:
How many people actually share their tasks or post in the group.

How to collect it:

  • Each day, count how many posts/shares were made in the group.

  • Look at who shares a lot and who never shares.

Example:

Day

Shares In Group

% Of Participants

1

85

67%

2

72

57%

3

65

51%

7

45

35%

14

28

22%

21

15

12%

What this tells you:

  • Day 1 โ€“ very high engagement

  • By day 7 โ€“ down to 35%

  • By day 21 โ€“ only 12% of people are sharing

Conclusions:

  • The group โ€œdiesโ€ in the middle โ†’ you need to encourage more sharing.

  • Maybe the tasks are not interesting enough to share?

  • Maybe you should give incentives for sharing (prizes, shoutouts etc.).


3. Responses To Follow-Up Questions

What this is:
If you added follow-up questions at the end of each day, you can see who responded.

Example questions:

  • โ€œDid you complete todayโ€™s task? Yes / Noโ€

  • โ€œWhat was your biggest difficulty today?โ€

  • โ€œWhat did you learn today?โ€

Example table:

Day

Answered The Question

% Of Those Who Opened

1

95

76%

3

78

71%

7

52

55%

14

31

40%

What this tells you:

  • Day 1 โ€“ people are very engaged (76% answer).

  • Day 14 โ€“ only 40% answer โ†’ engagement clearly dropped.

Conclusions:

  • You may want to make the questions more interesting.

  • You may want to give a small incentive for people who answer every day.


5. Drop-Off Points โ€“ When Do People Leave?

What this is:
On which day did most people stop opening content?

How to identify it:

  • Look at your โ€œdaily open rateโ€ table.

  • Find the day with the sharpest drop compared to the previous day.

Example:

Day

Opened

Change From Previous Day

1

127

โ€“

2

122

-5

3

115

-7

4

108

-7

5

101

-7

6

95

-6

7

82

-13 โš ๏ธ

8

78

-4

What this tells you:

  • Day 7 is the sharpest drop: -13 people in one day.

  • Something happened around day 6โ€“7.

Conclusions:

  • Check what content and task you had on days 6โ€“7.

  • Maybe the task was too hard?

  • Maybe the content was boring?

  • Maybe this was the weekend and people were busy?

Action for next challenge:
Strengthen days 6โ€“7 with especially engaging content.


Summary โ€“ What Should You Measure During The Challenge?

โœ… Daily open rate
โœ… Group engagement
โœ… View / read time (where relevant)
โœ… Responses to follow-up questions
โœ… Drop-off points

These numbers show you what happened.
In the next part, you will see how to understand why it happened.


๐Ÿ—ฃ๏ธ Debrief With Participants โ€“ How To Get Real Feedback

The data tells you what happened.
Only your participants can tell you why it happened.

When Should You Run A Debrief?

You have two main options:

  1. During the challenge

    • Send a short survey:
      โ€œHow is it going so far?โ€

  2. After the challenge

    • Send a more complete survey:
      โ€œWhat did you think about the challenge?โ€

Recommended: do both.

  • During the challenge โ€“ you can fix things in real time.

  • After the challenge โ€“ you can improve the next round.


Whatโ€™s Next?

There is no โ€œnext chapterโ€.

Now it is time to:

  • Plan

  • Build

  • Launch your first challenge

Or your next one โ€“ but this time, with real debriefing and improvement.

Good luck. ๐ŸŽฅ

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