Summary

This chapter provides a strategic framework for defining, monitoring, analyzing, and acting on performance metrics to maximize product success. It emphasizes the immense value of metrics for enabling data-driven product management.

We cover the strategic importance of performance metrics in areas such as quantifying product health, mitigating risks, focusing innovation on validated needs, increasing team alignment, speeding up iteration, optimizing user journeys, and fueling data-driven decisions. Best practices for defining the right metrics are then explored, including connecting metrics to business objectives, avoiding vanity metrics, keeping the quantity focused, and leveraging analytics platforms.

Effective monitoring and analysis techniques are discussed, such as automating dashboards, segmenting users, identifying trends and outliers, running cohort analysis, and connecting data to user outcomes. The chapter explains how to actively use metrics insights to build...