Who This Helps
You're a Product Manager who stares at a list of possible experiments and feels stuck. Every idea sounds good. But you need one move that actually moves the needle. The Metrics & Dashboards Basics course is built for exactly this moment.
Mini Case
Meet Maya. She manages a SaaS product with 20 tracked metrics. Her team wants to run three experiments next sprint. Maya uses the Weekly Scoreboard mission from the course to pick one. She looks at her North Star metric—weekly active users—and sees it dropped 12% in 7 days. She picks the experiment that directly targets user re-engagement. No debate. No long meetings.
Do This Now (5 Steps)
- Pick your North Star metric. Choose one number that tells you if your product is healthy. Keep it simple.
- List your supporting metrics. Pick 3 metrics that feed into your North Star. For Maya, that was sign-ups, daily active users, and retention rate.
- Set realistic targets. Write down where each metric should be in 30 days. Use past data if you have it.
- Build your weekly scoreboard. Every Monday, update those 4 numbers. No more. No less. This is your decision tool.
- Rank experiments by impact. For each idea, ask: "How much will this move my North Star?" Pick the one with the biggest expected lift.
Avoid These Traps
- Tracking 20 numbers. You'll freeze. Stick to 4.
- Chasing vanity metrics. Page views feel good but don't tell you if users stay.
- Skipping targets. Without a number to hit, you can't tell if you're winning.
- Changing metrics every week. Pick your North Star and keep it for at least 3 months.
- Running three experiments at once. You won't know what worked. Run one, learn, repeat.
Your Win by Friday
By end of week, you'll have one clear experiment to run. No more "maybe this, maybe that." You'll know exactly which move gives you the best shot at moving your North Star. And you'll have a simple scoreboard to repeat this every week. That's the calm, focused decision-making you deserve.