The LTV figure in your SaaS board deck is a projection. It is not a designed outcome. I want to name that distinction clearly because the gap between those two things is one of the most expensive gaps in the commercial system you are running.
Projecting LTV tells you what the business is worth if customers behave in a certain way. Designing for LTV means building the commercial architecture, the onboarding sequence, the product experience, the re-engagement logic, the expansion revenue timing, in a way that makes that behaviour probable rather than assumed.
In a SaaS business where LTV was a number in the financial model before it was an objective in the operating plan, the acquisition machine and the retention machine are not connected by design. They are connected by hope. Marketing acquires. Customer success retains. The handoff between them is a meeting that happens occasionally and a Slack channel that is reasonably active.
The difference between a SaaS business that compounds and one that churns its way to flat growth is not product quality or market fit or even acquisition efficiency. It is whether anyone designed the system that sits between them.
Related reading