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How do you determine which metric to use?

What process do you follow to determine which product metrics to measure?
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(lively upbeat music) <v ->This one is interesting,</v> I think we’ve kind of struggled with this one a little bit, ‘cause there’s so many different ways that you can measure it. Like you can have an objective to lose weight, but, you know, the way that you define the metrics could be like, “Oh, well, if I lose weight, I could chop off my arm and meet that goal, instead of going for a jog every night and losing that weight in a healthy way.” So it’s really tricky sometimes to come up with the right metrics.
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One thing that we’ve recently tried with a new feature release that we’ve recently had like a pretty big release that we’ve had where we introduced two new solutions to our platform is that we’re trying to measure, you know, can we get some of those early adopters that start to use these new solutions to become referenceable customers for others that might be interested in these solutions. And so a lot of it is being sort of… It’s not as quantitative of a metric, but it’s a little bit more qualitative in terms of like what is their satisfaction in using the solution and would they be willing to, you know, recommend us to other colleagues?
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So we do have customer Net Promoter Score surveys that are sent out. Basically asking customers, would you recommend us to a colleague or, you know, whoever for on a scale of 1 to 10. And based off of that, we usually have some open-ended responses as well. So on top of that, so, you know, would you recommend us? There’s also like the open-ended, “Hey, give us some feedback.” And we actually use our own gear to do that, So we have a survey tool that we can collect that data from. And basically anytime there are comments about the product functionality, experience, what have you, those comments will get routed to us on the product team.
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And then we will go in and depending on the situation, depending on what the customer said, we may ask them for more information, we may follow up with them, or we may just take that as consideration for the next time we revisit that area of the platform.

Reflect on the video, What process do you follow to determine which product metrics to measure?, from Mai Nakane, Director of Technical Product Management at Galvanize, and explain in your own words how you understand product metrics for success. Post your explanation in the Comments section.

Using success metrics to inform improvement decisions

It is only possible to optimise what is measured , which means that product managers need to ensure that they are defining the correct metrics to track. Here are four questions product managers should ask themselves to determine if the chosen metrics are collecting the right data. [1]

You can consider the following questions in determining whether you can use a success metric to inform your decisions.

  1. Is the metric reflective of actual user behaviour?
  2. How are the company goals related to the metric?
  3. Is the metric aligned to the company’s broad strategic goals?
  4. Is the metric sending you any early warning signs?

Next, we will take a look at continuous improvement through product analytics.

References

  1. Balfour B. Avoiding The Wheel Of Meaningless Growth [Essay]. Brian Balfour; 2014. Available from: https://brianbalfour.com/essays/growth-principle-two-seek-authentic-growth
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