Who This Helps
You are a founder operator juggling product and ops. You need faster decisions without drowning in data. The Metrics & Dashboards Basics course is built for exactly this.
Mini Case
Maya runs a 12-person startup. Her team tracks 20 numbers every week. She spends 3 hours in meetings debating what matters. After building a Weekly Scoreboard dashboard, she cut decision time by 40% and caught a 12% drop in activation within 7 days.
Do This Now (5 Steps)
- Pick your North Star Metric – Choose one number that captures the core value you deliver. Maya picked "weekly active users completing core action."
- Define 3 supporting metrics – These are leading indicators. For Maya: sign-ups, first action rate, and retention at day 7.
- Set realistic targets – Use last 4 weeks of data. Maya set a target of 15% growth in sign-ups per week.
- Build a weekly scoreboard – List your North Star, supporting metrics, and targets in a single view. Update every Monday.
- Add guardrails – Set alerts for metrics that drop below 80% of target. Maya got a Slack alert when activation dipped below 10%.
Avoid These Traps
- Tracking too many numbers. Stick to 4-6 max.
- Changing metrics every week. Commit to one set for 30 days.
- Ignoring data quality. Define each metric clearly so everyone measures the same way.
- Making dashboards pretty but useless. Focus on decisions, not colors.
- Waiting for perfect data. Start with what you have and improve.
Your Win by Friday
By Friday, you will have a one-page Weekly Scoreboard with your North Star metric, 3 supporting metrics, and targets. You will make your next product decision in 10 minutes instead of 60. And you might even enjoy Monday mornings a little more.