How to measure your product's success
Lessons behind unlocking success at Airbnb, TikTok, Spotify, Slack and more. How measuring your product will lead to success as a designer & product manager.
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Q: I launched a product. What metrics can help me measure how successful my product/design is?
Product designers and product managers are tasked with creating products that customers love and that drive business results.
But how do you define success for a product, and how do you measure it accurately? In the fast-paced world of consumer tech, these questions are more important than ever.
1. What is product success?
When it comes to defining success, you should focus on identifying a clear and measurable goal that aligns with your company’s mission. This goal should be:
Specific
Achievable
Relevant to the product or service being offered
For example, a mobile app might define success as achieving a X number of daily active users within a Y time frame. Alternatively, a SaaS might define success as achieving a level of customer satisfaction or retention rate.
2. What are examples of success metrics?
Different companies will prioritize different metrics depending on their goals and business model. Here are some examples of success metrics that companies might use:
Customer acquisition: The number of new customers acquired within a specific time period.
Customer retention: The percentage of customers who continue to use a product or service over time.
Engagement: The frequency and depth of user interactions with a product or service.
Revenue: The amount of money generated from sales or other sources of income.
Net promoter score (NPS): A metric that measures customer loyalty and likelihood to recommend a product or service to others.
Lifetime value (LTV): The estimated value of a customer over the entire duration of their relationship with a company.
By focusing on these and other key metrics, you can gain valuable insights into their performance and make data-driven decisions to drive long-term growth and success.
3. What are ways to measure it?
Once you defined your goal, the next step is to measure progress toward that goal. This can be done using a variety of tools and techniques starting with:
Quantitative insights (Cohort retention, activation rate, etc)
Qualitative insights (User feedback, testing, surveys, etc)
(Quantitative) By tracking user behavior and engagement, you gain insights into how users are interacting with your product and where improvements can be made.
(Qualitative) Surveys and user testing are also effective ways to measure success, as they provide direct feedback from users on what they like and dislike.