Who This Helps
This is for growth marketers who juggle ten channel ideas and need one clear winner. If you've ever run an A/B test that moved nothing, or spent a week optimizing a channel that barely budged, this is your reset. The Metrics & Dashboards Basics course gives you a system to stop the guesswork.
Mini Case
Maya runs growth at a SaaS startup. She had three experiments lined up: a new email sequence, a landing page tweak, and a paid ad refresh. Her team tracked 20 numbers but had no single metric to decide what mattered. After building a weekly scoreboard (one of the course missions), she saw that email open rates were flat at 12%, while landing page conversions had dropped 7% in two weeks. She killed the ad refresh and focused on the landing page. Result? Conversions recovered in 5 days.
Do This Now (5 Steps)
- Pick your North Star Metric. This is the one number that tells you if your growth is healthy. For Maya, it was weekly active users.
- Define three supporting metrics. These are leading indicators. Maya chose email open rate, landing page conversion, and ad click-through rate.
- Set realistic targets. Don't guess. Use last month's average. Maya set a target of 15% for email opens.
- Build a weekly scoreboard. List your North Star, supporting metrics, and targets. Update it every Monday.
- Add guardrails. If a metric drops below a threshold, pause that channel. Maya's guardrail was a 10% drop in landing page conversions.
Avoid These Traps
- Tracking too many numbers. If you have more than five, you're not prioritizing. Cut ruthlessly.
- Changing metrics every week. Stick with your North Star for at least a month. Consistency beats cleverness.
- Ignoring guardrails. A drop of 5% might be noise, but 10% is a signal. Act on it.
- Forgetting to celebrate wins. When you hit a target, take a moment. It keeps the team motivated.
Your Win by Friday
By Friday, 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 second-guessing. Just calm, data-backed decisions. And maybe a little extra time for coffee.