When we sit with a board for the first time, someone almost always asks what "M3 retention" means on the chart axis. That question tells us the labels failed before the numbers did.
We recommend naming cohorts by signup month in plain language — "January 2025 signups" rather than "2025-01 cohort." Month indices belong in the analyst workbook, not on the slide heading.
For multi-plan businesses, add the plan name as a secondary label only when the chart compares tiers. A single-tier chart does not need "Pro" repeated twelve times.
The three-label rule
Every cohort chart shown to leadership should carry at most three visible labels: the cohort name, the retention percentage at the point being discussed, and the comparison baseline. Anything else belongs in appendix pages.
We engrave this convention into every atlas we deliver. Boards that adopt it spend less time decoding and more time deciding what to do about the dip at month four.