What are Metrics?

Metrics are like scorecards or measuring sticks. They are numbers or data points that help you understand how well something is doing. In the context of building a product, metrics help you see if your product is successful and where it might need improvements.

How Do Metrics Help in Building a Product?

Track Progress: Metrics help you see how well your product is performing over time. Are more people using it? Are they happy with it? Are they coming back?

Identify Problems: By looking at metrics, you can spot issues early. For instance, if you see a lot of people sign up for your product but then stop using it after a week, that’s a sign something might be wrong.

Make Decisions: Metrics guide you in making informed decisions. If you see that a particular feature is very popular, you might decide to improve it or add more similar features.

Set Goals: Metrics give you concrete numbers to aim for. Instead of saying, “We want more users,” you can say, “We want to increase our user base by 20% in the next three months.”

Example

Let’s say you have created a new mobile app for tracking fitness activities. Here are some common metrics you might track and how they help:

Number of Downloads: This tells you how many people have downloaded your app. If the number is high, your marketing might be working well. If it’s low, you might need to improve your app’s visibility.

Daily Active Users (DAU): This measures how many people use your app every day. If this number is high, it means people find your app useful. If it’s low, you might need to investigate why people are not using it regularly.

User Retention Rate: This tells you how many people continue to use your app over time. If people download your app but don’t stick around, it might mean there’s something about the app that’s not engaging enough.

Average Session Duration: This measures how long people stay on your app each time they use it. Longer sessions might mean they’re finding a lot of value in your app. Short sessions might indicate they’re not finding what they need.

Customer Feedback and Ratings: Looking at user reviews and ratings gives you qualitative insights into what users like and dislike. This can guide you on what features to add or improve.

Putting It All Together
Imagine after launching your fitness app, you see the following:

• 10,000 downloads in the first month (Great start!)
• DAU is 1,000 (10% of downloaders use it daily)
• User retention after one month is 30% (70% stop using it after a while)
• Average session duration is 5 minutes
• Ratings are 3.5 out of 5 stars with comments mentioning confusing navigation

Based on these metrics, you might decide to:

• Improve the app’s navigation to make it easier to use.
• Add features to increase user engagement and retention.
• Run a campaign to get more feedback on what users want.