Who This Helps
You're a product manager who wants to turn product questions into measurable decisions. You have ideas for experiments but no clear way to pick the one that matters most. The Metrics & Dashboards Basics course is built for exactly this moment.
Mini Case
Meet Maya. She's a PM at a small SaaS company. Her team tracks 20 numbers every week. Last month, they ran three experiments at once. One improved activation by 12%. Another did nothing. The third confused the team because no one agreed on the goal.
Maya felt stuck. She had questions but no system to turn them into decisions. So she built a weekly scoreboard using the course's method. Now she picks one experiment per week and knows exactly what success looks like.
Do This Now (5 Steps)
- Pick your North Star metric. Choose one number that tells you if your product is working. For Maya, it was weekly active users.
- Define three supporting metrics. These are the levers that move your North Star. Maya picked sign-ups, activation rate, and retention.
- Set realistic targets. Don't guess. Use last month's data. Maya set a 5% increase in activation as her target.
- Build a weekly scoreboard. List your metrics, targets, and current values. Update it every Monday. This is your decision tool.
- Prioritize one experiment. Look at which metric is farthest from target. That's your highest-impact move. Maya ran a single onboarding experiment and saw activation jump 8% in two weeks.
Avoid These Traps
- Tracking too many numbers. Stick to four or five. More than that and you'll freeze.
- Changing metrics every week. Pick your North Star and supporting metrics. Keep them for at least a month.
- Running multiple experiments at once. You won't know what worked. One experiment, one metric, one week.
- Ignoring guardrails. Set a minimum acceptable value for each metric. If it drops below, stop and check.
- Forgetting to celebrate. When you hit a target, take five minutes to say "nice work." It keeps the team motivated.
Your Win by Friday
By Friday, you'll have a weekly scoreboard with your North Star metric, three supporting metrics, and targets. You'll know exactly which experiment to run next. No more guessing. No more wasted effort. Just a clear, measurable decision.
And honestly, it feels great to stop the chaos and focus on one thing that actually moves the needle.