Metric Categories to consider
- Health metrics: Is the product available & performing in the manner that users would reasonable expect? Eg: initial load time, uptime, data loss rate, http errors, etc
- Usage metrics: How are users using the product? Eg: time-of-day/day-of-week trends, top N actions, funnel metrics, help docs usage, retention, password reset rate, etc
- Adoption metrics: Is the product (along with its key features) being used as much as we'd hope in the ways that we'd like? Eg: active users, DAU:MAU, N of M day usage, strategic feature adoption trends, free-to-paid conversions, etc
- Satisfaction metrics: What is our customer's overall sentiment towards the product or it's main features? Eg: overall CSAT, new features CSAT, support CSAT..
- Ecosystem metrics: What is the macro state of the product within the domain in which it operates? Eg: share of wallet, 3rd party integrations, industry rank, market share within target segments, % of TAM
- Outcome metrics: What overall results are we seeing from the product? Eg: revenue, margin, revenue per user, active users, marketshare, transactions, % of Fortune 1000 covered, etc
Likely will track dozens of metrics. But also define small set of (3-5) metrics that are faithful indicators of product's progress towards it's strategy and goals: (KMs - Key Metrics).
"Most products should have four high-level metrics: an acquisition metric, retention metric, engagement metric, and monetization metric. The four of these act as a system where one can influence the other. They each capture different dimension of what is happening with a product. But trying to improve all metrics at once typically isn't possible until you get to a much later stage and are able to dedicate teams to each area. Instead, leaders need to understand which which one is most important at any given moment and make sure the teams understand that and are properly resourced to make meaningful progress"
- Brian Balfour // CEO Reforge
Overall metrics / performance tracking:
- 3-5 Key Metrics & 3-5 Leading Metrics will help ensure holistic thinking about user & business value.
Criteria for Key Metrics (guide, not a rule):
Criteria for Leading metric:
- Is responsive to product changes
- is an aggregate measure of the product's value for its users
- can be readily tied to business value
- is expected to be long lasting (at least 2-3 years)
- Tracked for the next 2-3 quarters
- Specific to particular strategic feature