4 ms·

Mixpanel Now Funnels Into The Past

34 points by lightcatcher 15y ago

endlessvoid94 15y ago
What's the business need for tunneling into past data?
- dangrossman 15y ago
  Today's conversion may be the result of an ad click 2 months ago. Now you can create the funnel that starts at that ad click and see that. The new report looks identical to KISSMetrics' funnels.
  - sudonim 15y ago
    And that's a shame. I'd love to see a different way to look at funnels. It looks more like a feature added to remove objections from using mixpanel vs. kissmetrics rather than one that was more organically grown.
    - suhail 15y ago
      Nope, we surveyed around and 10 out of 11 of are big funnel analysis customers liked a greyscale version of the horizontal funnels. This had nothing to do with removing objections =)
- ethank 15y ago
  There might be emergent funnels that you didn't instrument, but appear after seeing an app in the wild. You also sometimes get funnels that emerge off of deep-link referrals that you didn't predict for. Anyhow: this is super smart, and having been on the side of the table where we were trying to get Omniture to do things like this, I'd much prefer a light and agile product like this than that behemoth.
  - petrohi 15y ago
    Would it be cool if the tool could detect/suggest/visualize such emerging funnels based on aggregation of all clickpaths?
    - ethank 15y ago
      Self organization is always cool. I imagine if you fed click paths into a Kohonen algorithm as different dimensions you'd get some interesting maps.
staunch 15y ago
They're getting close to completely solving my problems. I just need "aggregate" or "meta" events. On Hacker News for example you could do: "Vote" OR "Submit URL" OR "Comment" = "User Contribution"
- suhail 15y ago
  Does Segmentation solve this problem for you? http://blog.mixpanel.com/2011/07/20/introducing-much-better-segmentation/ http://blog.mixpanel.com/2011/07/20/introducing-much-better-...
  - staunch 15y ago
    I don't think so. I want to treat any of N events as one virtual event and still treated like just one step on the funnel. Don't think I can do that with segmentation, can I?
    - suhail 15y ago
      Ah, our backend supports that but our UI does not.
      - staunch 15y ago
        I hope you add it! I think KISSmetrics has it (which I don't like for other reasons).
pitdesi 15y ago
Is it just me or does this look EXACTLY like Kissmetrics? It seems like it is a complete replica down to minute details, like how it's shaded, where dropdowns are placed, etc. For reference: Kissmetrics UI (this is slightly old, mixpanel actually looks more like it now): http://s3.amazonaws.com/entp-tender-production/assets/0a7aa9032214d716f1b78108dd5c54a17c5ee8b8/kissmetrics_three_normal.png http://s3.amazonaws.com/entp-tender-production/assets/0a7aa9... Mixpanel: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/3446069/Screenshots/7o.png http://dl.dropbox.com/u/3446069/Screenshots/7o.png EDIT: wow, thanks for the downvotes... care to explain?
- dangrossman 15y ago
  I didn't downvote you, but it's not EXACTLY alike in any way... just clearly inspired, and I don't think there's anything wrong with offering the same report as another reporting tool.
- deleted 15y ago
  [deleted]
- suhail 15y ago
  Design is always about the details. Email me suhail@mixpanel.com and I'll be happy to give you a run down of 10 things that make our UI substantially different. Alternatively, feel free to play with both products and get a sense of it yourself.
- sahillavingia 15y ago
  It turns out that certain elements just work best for certain things. A bar chart is probably just the best way of showcasing that kind of data. This happens all the time. People like standards (like logo on the top left). It makes the user feel more comfortable = win for UX! I know founders of both companies. I don't think they mind the similarity if it means their users are better off.
- tuhin 15y ago
  This was the first thing that came to my mind after reading about it. I guess has to do more with the particular format working best.
guiseppecalzone 15y ago
Bridging the gap between good data and good UI is a massive challenge. I'm genuinely impressed by what they built here.
krosaen 15y ago
Funny, and kissmetrics added cohort analysis this past week. Glad to see the competition between kissmetrics and mixpanel creating better products for us!
- porterhaney 15y ago
  This is a really good point outside the UI argument. Even the big players don't offer true cohort analysis without all sorts of data manipulation/

34 points by lightcatcher 15y ago

endlessvoid94 15y ago

What's the business need for tunneling into past data?

dangrossman 15y ago
Today's conversion may be the result of an ad click 2 months ago. Now you can create the funnel that starts at that ad click and see that. The new report looks identical to KISSMetrics' funnels.
- sudonim 15y ago
  And that's a shame. I'd love to see a different way to look at funnels. It looks more like a feature added to remove objections from using mixpanel vs. kissmetrics rather than one that was more organically grown.
  - suhail 15y ago
    Nope, we surveyed around and 10 out of 11 of are big funnel analysis customers liked a greyscale version of the horizontal funnels. This had nothing to do with removing objections =)
ethank 15y ago
There might be emergent funnels that you didn't instrument, but appear after seeing an app in the wild. You also sometimes get funnels that emerge off of deep-link referrals that you didn't predict for. Anyhow: this is super smart, and having been on the side of the table where we were trying to get Omniture to do things like this, I'd much prefer a light and agile product like this than that behemoth.
- petrohi 15y ago
  Would it be cool if the tool could detect/suggest/visualize such emerging funnels based on aggregation of all clickpaths?
  - ethank 15y ago
    Self organization is always cool. I imagine if you fed click paths into a Kohonen algorithm as different dimensions you'd get some interesting maps.

staunch 15y ago

They're getting close to completely solving my problems. I just need "aggregate" or "meta" events. On Hacker News for example you could do: "Vote" OR "Submit URL" OR "Comment" = "User Contribution"

suhail 15y ago
Does Segmentation solve this problem for you? http://blog.mixpanel.com/2011/07/20/introducing-much-better-segmentation/ http://blog.mixpanel.com/2011/07/20/introducing-much-better-...
- staunch 15y ago
  I don't think so. I want to treat any of N events as one virtual event and still treated like just one step on the funnel. Don't think I can do that with segmentation, can I?
  - suhail 15y ago
    Ah, our backend supports that but our UI does not.
    - staunch 15y ago
      I hope you add it! I think KISSmetrics has it (which I don't like for other reasons).

pitdesi 15y ago

Is it just me or does this look EXACTLY like Kissmetrics? It seems like it is a complete replica down to minute details, like how it's shaded, where dropdowns are placed, etc. For reference: Kissmetrics UI (this is slightly old, mixpanel actually looks more like it now): http://s3.amazonaws.com/entp-tender-production/assets/0a7aa9032214d716f1b78108dd5c54a17c5ee8b8/kissmetrics_three_normal.png http://s3.amazonaws.com/entp-tender-production/assets/0a7aa9... Mixpanel: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/3446069/Screenshots/7o.png http://dl.dropbox.com/u/3446069/Screenshots/7o.png EDIT: wow, thanks for the downvotes... care to explain?

dangrossman 15y ago
I didn't downvote you, but it's not EXACTLY alike in any way... just clearly inspired, and I don't think there's anything wrong with offering the same report as another reporting tool.
deleted 15y ago
[deleted]
suhail 15y ago
Design is always about the details. Email me suhail@mixpanel.com and I'll be happy to give you a run down of 10 things that make our UI substantially different. Alternatively, feel free to play with both products and get a sense of it yourself.
sahillavingia 15y ago
It turns out that certain elements just work best for certain things. A bar chart is probably just the best way of showcasing that kind of data. This happens all the time. People like standards (like logo on the top left). It makes the user feel more comfortable = win for UX! I know founders of both companies. I don't think they mind the similarity if it means their users are better off.
tuhin 15y ago
This was the first thing that came to my mind after reading about it. I guess has to do more with the particular format working best.

guiseppecalzone 15y ago

Bridging the gap between good data and good UI is a massive challenge. I'm genuinely impressed by what they built here.

krosaen 15y ago

Funny, and kissmetrics added cohort analysis this past week. Glad to see the competition between kissmetrics and mixpanel creating better products for us!

porterhaney 15y ago
This is a really good point outside the UI argument. Even the big players don't offer true cohort analysis without all sorts of data manipulation/