Meaningful product analytics

A high functioning product analytics team raises the bar in delivering value to an organization. They’ll be set up for success when engineers are thoughtful about the flow and storage of data from the product, including clickstream data. But assuming the upfront legwork is complete, how does a product analytics team contribute meaningfully? Here are three ways to understand the value they bring.

PRODUCT FEATURES

Product managers responsible for the success of individual features must monitor metrics specific to those features. One example might be click-through-rates in search results to content. Another might be average time engaging with that content. A product analytics team works closely with product managers to define and maintain the descriptive reporting for feature engagement metrics, as well as to provide A/B testing support throughout the development process.

OVERALL PRODUCT

Putting the individual features together, you can think about user engagement with the product as a whole. Product analytics teams understand patterns in minimum login engagement, all the way through superuser behavior with time and variety components of the equation. From an individual user perspective, there should be a range of overall product metrics monitored.

CUSTOMER SUCCESS

Ultimately, connecting user engagement to customer value is necessary to optimize business outcomes. If it’s a B2B product, users are aggregated to a company level. Company level engagement metrics include ratios, averages, and totals of feature and overall product metrics. Product analytics teams collaborate with business analytics teams to support the downstream use of engagement metrics. The metrics can be tested as drivers in predicting purchase and renewal outcomes. As a result, driver importance can help inform which features to prioritize for development. A product analytics team is part of the cycle to improve business outcomes with data, and it’s a meaningful one.