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>So, when you put in a new feature, don't measure "how many people used the new feature", measure "whether people who had access to the new feature were more li

>So, when you put in a new feature, don't measure "how many people used the new feature", measure "whether people who had access to the new feature were more likely to pay" I like that part. Jim Collins ("Good to Great") recommended to have one metric that "drives your economic engine". For a startup, you may not know what your economic engine is yet (still be pivoting an all that) but at least be measuring for a metric that relates to your economic, not popular, appeal.

far33d 16y ago
In most early web startups, the biggest challenge (and the most common reason for death) is acquiring and retaining customers. User metrics are completely valid as your primary metrics early on.
- joshhepworth 16y ago
  I think you're getting at a very interesting conflict here that the author of the article attempted to explain. While user metrics can gauge the success of a web startup, that's often all they can do. Those metrics will (potentially) tell the company if they're improving or declining, and if they should be taking action. However, it will not tell the company what actions to take. They're nowhere near as useful as a targeted, action specific metric in determining what to do. If my website's # of visitors drops 50% over a week, there might be something wrong, but I don't know what action to take without more information. Figuring out what engages users on the site and what keeps them coming back and measuring those things would be way more useful than simply knowing how many users are visiting.
  - far33d 16y ago
    If you track traffic sources with high granularity and get lots of traffic from ads or viral channels, you can get actionable data from traffic metrics. Overall I agree - actionable metrics are the most important. I just take issue with the idea that only revenue related metrics are important.
jdp23 16y ago
Not sure I agree. I'd say "measure both". If people use it, it clearly has value to them, and that's very interesting whether or not they're more likely to pay. There's a big difference between "useless" and "useful but not something people are willing to pay for with the current pricing/upselling scheme".

far33d 16y ago

In most early web startups, the biggest challenge (and the most common reason for death) is acquiring and retaining customers. User metrics are completely valid as your primary metrics early on.

joshhepworth 16y ago
I think you're getting at a very interesting conflict here that the author of the article attempted to explain. While user metrics can gauge the success of a web startup, that's often all they can do. Those metrics will (potentially) tell the company if they're improving or declining, and if they should be taking action. However, it will not tell the company what actions to take. They're nowhere near as useful as a targeted, action specific metric in determining what to do. If my website's # of visitors drops 50% over a week, there might be something wrong, but I don't know what action to take without more information. Figuring out what engages users on the site and what keeps them coming back and measuring those things would be way more useful than simply knowing how many users are visiting.
- far33d 16y ago
  If you track traffic sources with high granularity and get lots of traffic from ads or viral channels, you can get actionable data from traffic metrics. Overall I agree - actionable metrics are the most important. I just take issue with the idea that only revenue related metrics are important.

jdp23 16y ago

Not sure I agree. I'd say "measure both". If people use it, it clearly has value to them, and that's very interesting whether or not they're more likely to pay. There's a big difference between "useless" and "useful but not something people are willing to pay for with the current pricing/upselling scheme".