Product Analytics
Measure what matters and make data-driven decisions.
North Star Metric
The ONE metric that represents customer value
yaml
Examples: Slack: Weekly Active Users Airbnb: Nights Booked Spotify: Time Listening Shopify: GMV Your North Star should: ✅ Represent customer value ✅ Correlate with revenue ✅ Be measurable frequently ✅ Rally the team
Key Metrics Hierarchy
code
North Star Metric
├── Input Metrics (drive North Star)
│ ├── Acquisition
│ ├── Activation
│ └── Retention
└── KPIs (business health)
├── Revenue
├── Churn
└── LTV
Event Tracking
typescript
// Track user actions
analytics.track('Button Clicked', {
button_name: 'signup',
page: 'homepage',
user_id: '123'
})
// Track page views
analytics.page('Homepage', {
referrer: document.referrer,
path: window.location.pathname
})
// Identify users
analytics.identify('user-123', {
email: 'user@example.com',
plan: 'pro',
created_at: '2024-01-15'
})
Funnel Analysis
yaml
Sign-up Funnel: 1. Land on homepage: 10,000 (100%) 2. Click signup: 2,000 (20%) 3. Fill form: 1,000 (10%) 4. Verify email: 800 (8%) 5. Complete onboarding: 400 (4%) Insights: - Biggest drop: Homepage to signup (80% lost) - Fix: Clarify value prop, add social proof
Cohort Analysis
yaml
Week 1 Cohort (Jan 1-7): - D1: 80% active - D7: 40% active - D30: 20% active Week 2 Cohort (Jan 8-14): - D1: 85% active (+5%) - D7: 50% active (+10%) - D30: 30% active (+10%) Insight: Onboarding changes improved retention!
Retention Curves
yaml
Good Retention: - D1: 60-80% - D7: 40-60% - D30: 30-50% - Flattening curve (good!) Bad Retention: - D1: 40% - D7: 10% - D30: 2% - Steep drop-off (bad!)
Key Metrics to Track
Acquisition
- •Traffic sources (organic, paid, referral)
- •Cost per click (CPC)
- •Conversion rate (visitor → signup)
Activation
- •Signup → first core action
- •Time to value
- •Onboarding completion rate
Retention
- •DAU / MAU (stickiness)
- •Retention rate D1, D7, D30
- •Churn rate
Revenue
- •MRR / ARR
- •ARPU (Average Revenue Per User)
- •LTV (Lifetime Value)
- •LTV:CAC ratio
Referral
- •Viral coefficient
- •Referral signups
- •NPS (Net Promoter Score)
code
## Tools ```yaml Event Tracking: - Mixpanel (best for products) - Amplitude (good alternative) - PostHog (open-source) Session Recording: - FullStory - LogRocket - Hotjar A/B Testing: - Optimizely - VWO - Google Optimize (free)
Dashboard Design
yaml
Executive Dashboard: - North Star Metric (big number) - Revenue (MRR/ARR) - Key metric trends (graphs) Product Dashboard: - Active users (DAU/WAU/MAU) - Feature usage - Retention cohorts - Funnels Marketing Dashboard: - Traffic sources - Conversion rates - Cost per acquisition - ROI by channel
Summary
Great analytics:
- •✅ One North Star Metric
- •✅ Track everything
- •✅ Regular review (weekly)
- •✅ Share insights widely
- •✅ Act on data quickly