Signal Atlas

Where the map actually is

App Analytics is often sold as a wall of charts. The Atlas is our quieter picture: four layers that have to agree, or the wall is decoration.

City map lights at dusk seen from above

1. The job

What a person is trying to finish. If you cannot say it without naming a screen, you do not yet have a job — you have a layout.

2. The event

A named occurrence that can be true or false independently of the current interface. This is the unit Event Cartography spends two weeks on.

3. The identity

Who the event belongs to across devices, roles, and shared accounts. Most “retention mysteries” die here, not in copy.

4. The reading

The chart, the meeting, the decision. A layer we treat as a craft. A pretty curve that nobody will act on is not a reading.

Why an atlas

Teams skip layers and then blame the tool

When onboarding “drops,” people open the vendor and look for a red segment. The Atlas asks which layer failed. Sometimes the job was never named, so the event is a button click. Sometimes the event is fine and identity is merging teachers with students. Sometimes the reading is a funnel whose steps cannot fail independently.

We keep this page public so that a sceptical colleague can see the frame before anyone pays a fee. If the four layers already feel obvious, you may only need the journal. If they do not, the programmes exist to practise them on a live slice.

Two colleagues reviewing code and notes at a desk

Bring a surface, not a stack

We would rather see your onboarding than your vendor list. Write with the product and the stuck question.

Write to the studio