What are Product Metrics?

Product Metrics refer to data that provide insights to your product’s performance. They are, in essence, performance indicators that will help you understand your product’s strengths and weaknesses.

Examples are: ARR, MRR, DAU, MAU, Stickiness, CSAT, NPS, etc.

To be an effective product manager, your product decisions shouldn’t be based on what you think is important. Instead, it should be what current and future customers will consider critical when choosing to buy or advocate for your product.

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Why Measure?

As a product manager, one of your primary responsibilities is steering your organization towards meaningful decisions that are not only cost-effective but also highly impactful.

However, as organizations are composed of ‘people’, conflicting opinions and interests are bound to happen

To this end, it’s important as a PM that you preface and support your decisions with data. As data are objective indicators of ‘truth’, they are the best instruments in driving decisions that are rational and free from bias.

Measuring product metrics allows you and your team to understand which features garner interest, why customers convert, and how satisfied your customers are - among many others.

Having this knowledge is crucial in identifying priorities, crafting future roadmaps and strategies, and providing much-needed context that you are expected to have as a PM in order to drive growth.

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Newbie PM Pitfall: Data Worship

Many new product managers seem to have this notion that data is the cure all solution to all problems. They argue that a position backed by data should be the ultimate truth - and nothing else. This is known as data worship.

It’s imperative to understand that data is a ‘lagging indicator of new behaviors’. They are windows to the past, but not necessarily an accurate divination of the future. New product managers must combine both data and product intuition to be fully capable and effective.

Cultivating a logical ‘product gut’ is a long path filled with real-life failures and successes  - that will eventually culminate to be your valuable product experience. Until then, product launch failures will be your baptism by fire. The good news - however - is that product intuition can be trained.

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Wrapping up our Learnings

Product metrics are undoubtedly a cornerstone in understanding a product’s journey and how they resonate with users. However, the art of product management isn't just about what the numbers tell us; it's about understanding the nuances, reading between the lines, and harnessing one's product intuition towards building products that ‘make sense’.

Part of being an effective Product Manager is being able to strike a balance between data-driven decisions and product intuition.

While product metrics offer invaluable insights into our product's past performance and current state, solely relying on them can be misleading. It's essential to remember that while data provides clarity, intuition helps navigate the ambiguity and provide much-needed context.

As budding product managers, it's crucial to hone both these skills, understanding metrics deeply while also nurturing that intuitive ‘product gut’. The path to mastering both might be strewn with challenges, but as with most things in product management, the journey is where the true learning lies. Learn to pave the way for well-informed decisions that reflect not only the product's history but also its potential future.

Remember, while metrics illuminate the path behind, intuition lights up the road ahead. Embrace both, and watch your product thrive.

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Are you an aspiring Product Manager? The Co.Lab program is the perfect place to gain real-world, cross-functional experience that you wouldn’t get anywhere else.

If you want to shift to tech, especially from a non-tech background, you need to either have good domain knowledge, lots of transferrable skills, or have something to bridge the skillset you have currently and the requirements of the roles that you are looking for.

One of the programs that provide those is Co.Lab's 8-week Product Management Bootcamp, where you can get real-life work experience by building a live product of your own with a cross-functional team in an agile environment. Learn how to build your tech skills with a supportive community and pre-vetted industry mentors to carefully guide you along your tech journey.

Want to test out the waters first? Dip your toes into Product by joining the 4-week Product Management Sprint instead.

It may be difficult to make the shift into tech, but that’s precisely why you don’t have to do it alone. Be part of the community! Follow us on on Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn for the latest updates.