“Very few people are going to be P95 on every single metric along the entire chain usually you're going to have a strength somewhere in the chain that you're the real outlier in that and that makes the business work even if you're below Benchmark on another metric.”

No company is P95 across every metric — find the one outlier strength and build around it

Tinder compensates for high churn by being best-in-class at conversion and multi-tier monetization. Duolingo ran below-average monetization for years while building an unassailable user base. Carter's prescription: be 'good enough' across most metrics (within striking distance of P50), and identify the one metric where performance is genuinely exceptional. Benchmarks help surface which lever is already winning.