There are many types of metrics mobile PMs can monitor to tell them whether or not their product is hitting its goals. Because each product serves a specific, individual function, it’s important for mobile PMs to spend time understanding what metrics will really tell them how their product is succeeding, and to not get caught up in what type of metric monitoring has worked for other products. Your product is unique—your metrics should be, too!
There are 20 primary metrics you can choose from when selecting the right data to track. To help you select which metrics may work best, let’s break them down into four categories based on what they can tell us for easy selection:
- Customer/org segmentation and growth
- Onboarding and activation
- Engagement
- Conversion and retention
Each category is outlined below and includes key product questions mobile PMs should start with, along with offering metrics to choose from in order to help you answer your product questions. Remember, the metrics suggested are a comprehensive list of what typically works well for mobile PMs—not all metrics will work for every product, so be sure to select accordingly!
Metrics in this category will help you better understand what customer data you should be looking at to gauge product success and growth. Whether you look at customers by individual or by org, there is plenty of data to consider.
Questions to answer:
- What’s the profile of customers (orgs) using our system, and how do we segment them?
- How many new customers (orgs) are we adding in a given period?
- How many new collaborators are we adding in a given period?
Data to capture:
- Org name
- Tier
- Industry
- Country
- Count of collaborators by job function (e.g. product manager, marketer, developer, etc.) and role (administer, collaborator, etc.)
- Count of iOS and Android Apps
This section is all about product adoption and ease of use. It’s crucial your customers find your product easy to integrate and begin using, and data in this category will help shed light on their current perception.
Questions to answer:
- How much time does it take for customer to start using the product?
- What stage(s) is(are) taking the most time?
- Where are the drop off points in getting activated?
- Who are the early adopters and why?
Data to capture:
- Org creation date
- Integration date (if applicable)
- Time for an account to launch (if applicable)
- Time it takes main profile to add collaborators
Engagement is a massive indicator of product success. No matter your industry, the primary goal of all products is to have highly engaged customers. The data below may look the most familiar to you out of all the categories.
Questions to answer:
- How much value do we provide to customers on a regular basis?
- What does “engaged” look like?
- How frequently do customers visit our product?
- Are there consistent gaps between customer visits to the product?
- How often is a feature used by how many customers (or orgs)?
- What features are typically used in a single session?
- Where are there points of friction within the product?
- How much time are customers (orgs) spending with our product in a single session?
Data to capture:
- Downloads
- Daily Active Users (DAU)
- Monthly Active Users (MAU)
- In-app actions
- Session interval
- Time in-app
Conversion and retention may be among the most ambiguous metrics to define, but they are also two of the most important. Understanding how to retain customers once they convert is what turns good mobile products into great ones, and it’s important to consider tracking metrics around conversion and retention as early as possible to help you understand your customers’ journeys.
Questions to answer:
- What does “conversion” mean within my product?
- Are there multiple points of conversion, or one singular point?
- What does my customer journey look like?
- Which of my customers do I consider “loyal?
- What customer actions define loyalty?
- What does it cost to create a loyal customer?
Data to capture:
- Conversion rate
- Churn
- Retention
- Cost Per Loyal Customer
What other metrics have worked for you? Leave your thoughts in the comments below!