Who This Helps
You're a Product Manager drowning in product questions. Every week, you face a pile of possible experiments. Which one moves the needle? The Metrics & Dashboards Basics course is built for exactly this moment. It helps you turn vague hunches into measurable decisions.
Mini Case
Meet Maya. She manages a SaaS product with 20 metrics tracked by her team. Last month, she ran three experiments. One improved activation by 12%. One did nothing. One actually hurt retention by 5%. Maya wasted two weeks on the loser. She needed a system to pick the winner before investing time.
Using the Weekly Scoreboard mission from Metrics & Dashboards Basics, Maya defined her North Star metric and three supporting metrics with targets. Now she scores each experiment idea against those targets. Her last experiment choice boosted activation by 18% in 7 days.
Do This Now (5 Steps)
- Pick your North Star metric. Choose one primary number that captures the value you deliver. For Maya, it was weekly active users completing a core action.
- Define three supporting metrics. These are leading indicators. Maya picked sign-up completion rate, first feature use, and 7-day retention.
- Set realistic targets. Don't guess. Use past data. Maya set a 10% improvement target for each supporting metric over 30 days.
- Build a weekly scoreboard. List your North Star and supporting metrics. Update them every Monday. Keep it to one page.
- Score each experiment idea. For every potential experiment, estimate its impact on each supporting metric. Multiply by confidence (1-5). Pick the idea with the highest total score.
Avoid These Traps
- Tracking 20 numbers. You'll freeze. Stick to four metrics max.
- Setting vague targets. "Increase engagement" is not a target. Use specific numbers like "+10% in 30 days."
- Running experiments without a scoreboard. You'll pick based on gut, not data.
- Ignoring guardrails. Set alerts for metrics that drop below a threshold. Maya uses a 5% drop alert to catch problems early.
- Changing metrics weekly. Consistency matters. Review your scoreboard every Monday, not every day.
Your Win by Friday
By Friday, you'll have a one-page scoreboard with your North Star metric, three supporting metrics, and targets. You'll score your next experiment idea and know exactly which move to prioritize. That's one less guess, one more win.