I love numbers. As a product manager, numbers tell me stories. Or so I thought.
Early in my career, I chased "vanity metrics." Page views. Total downloads. Number of sign-ups. They looked great on charts!
My bosses were happy. We felt successful. But were we really?
The Danger of Looking Good on Paper
I remember launching a new feature. Sign-ups went up! We celebrated. High fives all around.
But a few weeks later, our active users hadn't changed much. People signed up, poked around, and left.
The sign-up number was a vanity metric. It didn't tell us if people found our product useful. It didn't tell us if they would pay for it.
What Should We Measure Then?
Good metrics, real metrics, tell you if you are making progress towards your actual goals.
Are you trying to make money? Then track revenue, or average revenue per user.
Are you trying to get users to use a key feature? Track how many actually use it. And how often.
These are actionable metrics. If they go up or down, you know if your changes are working.
Vanity metrics make you feel good. Actionable metrics make you make good decisions. Choose wisely.
Finding Your True North
Every product should have one or two "North Star" metrics. The numbers that truly define success for *your* product.
For a social media app, it might be daily active users who post something. Not just log in.
For an e-commerce site, it might be repeat purchase rate. Or customer lifetime value.
This North Star guides all your decisions. It tells you if you are on the right path.
Metrics I Learned to Trust:
- Retention Rate: How many users come back? This is huge.
- Task Completion Rate: Can users actually do what they came to do?
- Customer Churn: How many users are leaving? And why?
- Feature Adoption: Are people using the new things we build?
It’s Harder, But Better
Tracking real metrics takes more effort. You have to think harder. You have to instrument your product properly.
But the insights you get are worth gold. They stop you from wasting time on things that don’t matter.
So, look past the easy, flashy numbers. Find the metrics that tell the true story of your product's success.