Who This Helps
You're a growth marketer juggling channels, campaigns, and a dozen dashboards. Every week, you need to decide which experiment to run next. But with so many numbers, it's easy to get stuck or chase the wrong metric. The Metrics & Dashboards Basics program is built for exactly this moment.
Mini Case
Meet Maya. She manages growth for a SaaS product with 5,000 active users. Her team tracks 20 different numbers every week. Last month, she ran three experiments: a new email sequence, a landing page test, and a referral incentive. The email sequence boosted activation by 12%, but the landing page test showed no lift. Maya was about to run another landing page test when she paused. She realized she had no clear way to compare the impact of each experiment. So she built a simple weekly scoreboard using the Weekly Scoreboard mission from the program. She picked one primary metric (weekly active users), defined three supporting metrics (sign-ups, activation rate, referral rate), and set realistic targets. Now, every Monday, she looks at her scoreboard and asks: "Which metric is furthest from its target?" That's her next experiment priority. In two weeks, she focused on the referral incentive, which lifted referral rate by 18%.
Do This Now (5 Steps)
- Pick your North Star metric. Choose one number that represents the core value your product delivers. For Maya, it was weekly active users.
- Define three supporting metrics. These are the levers you can pull. For example, sign-ups, activation rate, and referral rate.
- Set realistic targets for each. Use past data or industry benchmarks. Maya set a 10% increase in activation rate over 30 days.
- Build a weekly scoreboard. List your metrics, targets, and current values. Update it every Monday.
- Identify the biggest gap. The metric furthest from its target is your next experiment. Run one test at a time.
Avoid These Traps
- Tracking too many numbers. More than 5 metrics per scoreboard leads to noise. Stick to 4-5.
- Changing your North Star too often. Pick one and stick with it for at least 90 days.
- Running multiple experiments at once. You won't know what moved the needle. Test one change per week.
- Ignoring guardrails. Set alerts for metrics that drop below a threshold. Maya set a guardrail for sign-ups: if they fall below 100 per week, she pauses all experiments and investigates.
- Using vague targets. "Increase engagement" is not a target. Use numbers: "Increase weekly active users by 8% in 30 days."
Your Win by Friday
By the end of this week, you'll have a one-page weekly scoreboard with your North Star metric, three supporting metrics, and clear targets. You'll know exactly which experiment to run next. No more guesswork. Just calm, focused decisions. And maybe a little extra time for coffee.