Tips in Using The Right Metrics and Data

If you're starting out as a SaaS Product Manager, here's how you want to approach your relationship with data and metrics.

1. Choose the right metric.

Once you understand what the company & product strategy is, you need to brainstorm what metrics align well with them.

Ex: increasing market share? Think about MAUs, sign-ups, conversion rates, CAC.

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2. Instrument it properly.

The worst thing that can happen 2 quarters in is to discover your stats are inaccurate due to a glitch in how you measure it.

Set up your trackers or SQLs. Triple check them. Solicit help from a QA if you have to.

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3. Care about hygiene.

Be wary of biases in your data. Does your analytics tool sample data? Any exceptions when categorizing data points?

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4. Benchmark it.

Great, you have a conversion rate of 3%.

Is that good or bad? How would anyone know? Chart out industry averages or map figures to past performance.

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5. Interpret it.

What does a falling bounce rate indicate? Your CAC is down but your churn is high. Tie some conclusion (or theories) with the numbers.

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6. Learn to present it.

Never just share raw numbers with leadership. Package it, summarize it. Use visualizations that make trends apparent. Storytelling with numbers is the best way to influence.

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