“Metrics Are Answers to Questions.”
And why there is no “Ultimate List of Product Metrics You Should Know,” as stated by Saeed Khan.
By Jon Matheson and Tremis Skeete, for Product Coalition
Today many stories exist about people who’ve spent significant amounts of time creating products they believed would “revolutionize” our world. As inspiring as some of these stories are, and since there are many ways to make “revolutions” happen, we ask ourselves:
When they went through the product development process, how did they know they were on the right track towards success?
How did they know they were on track towards their business goals?
How did they know which data or resources they needed, and when?
How did they know they made right or wrong choices?
How did they know how and when to fix problems or make changes?
This is where using metrics come into play, because without metrics — not being able to answer the before mentioned questions are how many miss performance targets when they launch products.
But what is a metric? Simply put, it’s captured information designed to help one track the performance of a product or service. So if you want to know how many units sold, or how often customers use your product, or when customers stop using your product — you capture metrics designed to help you answer these questions.
Metric: captured information designed to help one track the performance of a product or service.
But here’s the catch. You have to know what you want to know. You have to know the questions you want to ask about your product, know your customers, and have in mind a range of possible answers, before you can identify the metrics that can help with that.
This sounds like a straightforward strategy, but there are many who do this the other way around, and instead, identify lists of metrics based on popular industry perspectives. This is where the concept of the “Ultimate List of Metrics” and other comparable lists are popular.
With these lists of metrics, in one sense, it’s good to know the types of models available. In principle, it’s a novel idea, but in reality — you still need to know which metrics you want, and sometimes you’ll have to create your own bespoke metrics in order to do your job. Conceivably that’s why Saeed Khan of Transformation Labs, explained via his LinkedIn post that “Ultimate Lists” create more issues than they solve.
Measuring performance to track progress won’t work if you don’t know what you’re specifically progressing towards with respect to objectives and goals. A clear strategy with definitive objectives and goals determine the kind the metric data you’ll need to capture.
Ultimate lists can arguably give you a start on formulating generic ideas for metrics, but you still need to focus efforts on your knowledge of the market and facilitate more activities into defining what makes your products, customers, and your business successful. Just ask Saeed.
Read a copy of his LinkedIn post below to find out more:
METRICS ARE ANSWERS. WHAT ARE THE QUESTIONS?
There is no “Ultimate List of Product Metrics You Should Know”.
I’ll say it again.
There is no “Ultimate List of Product Metrics You Should Know”.
I sometimes get asked questions like:
“𝘋𝘰 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘢 𝘭𝘪𝘴𝘵 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘮𝘰𝘴𝘵 𝘪𝘮𝘱𝘰𝘳𝘵𝘢𝘯𝘵 𝘚𝘢𝘢𝘚 𝘮𝘦𝘵𝘳𝘪𝘤𝘴 𝘸𝘦 𝘴𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥 𝘵𝘳𝘢𝘤𝘬?”
My response is:
“𝘞𝘳𝘰𝘯𝘨 𝘲𝘶𝘦𝘴𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯. 𝘞𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘴𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥 𝘣𝘦 𝘢𝘴𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘪𝘴 ‘𝘞𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘥𝘦𝘤𝘪𝘴𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘴 𝘥𝘰 𝘸𝘦 𝘯𝘦𝘦𝘥 𝘵𝘰 𝘮𝘢𝘬𝘦?’ 𝘰𝘳 ‘𝘞𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘲𝘶𝘦𝘴𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘴 𝘥𝘰 𝘸𝘦 𝘯𝘦𝘦𝘥 𝘵𝘰 𝘢𝘯𝘴𝘸𝘦𝘳?’ 𝘰𝘳 ‘𝘞𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘨𝘰𝘢𝘭𝘴 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘸𝘦 𝘵𝘳𝘢𝘤𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘨?’ 𝘰𝘳 𝘴𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘭𝘪𝘬𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵.”
i.e. Metrics are answers to questions. There’s no point in tracking metrics unless they provide you with information on decisions or questions or goals.
Ask yourself why there are no “Ultimate List of Questions SaaS Product Managers Should Ask” posts?
I cringe when I see the “Ultimate List of Metrics” posts. I know people respond to them and they get traction, but ultimately they’re misleading their readers.
𝐅𝐨𝐜𝐮𝐬 𝐨𝐧 𝐆𝐨𝐚𝐥𝐬/𝐎𝐛𝐣𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐞𝐬
Product Managers should be thinking about Goals/Objectives, and then defining the questions they need answers to in order to see whether they’re on track to meet those objectives.
Some of those answers will be metrics they can define and measure, or they may be proxies that can provide some insight into the situation.
Regardless, no “Ultimate List” is going to tell you — 𝐢𝐧 𝐚𝐝𝐯𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐞 — what you should measure. So ignore those articles and focus on objectives/goals and the questions to help you track your path to those goals.
After that, you can identify a SMALL set of metrics to track. This will save you time and keep your team focused on what’s important — achieving your goals/objectives.
Let me know if you have any questions.
