Your method for picking the metrics that show a product or feature is working

Explain how you go about deciding which metrics will show that a product or a feature is succeeding. ```hint Start before the metrics Pin down what the product is supposed to change, for its users and for the business, before you name a single number. ``` ### Clarifying Questions - Should I describe a general method, or apply it to a specific product, either one I pick or one you name? - Is the case a new launch, a feature inside an existing product, or a mature product line? The stage changes which part of the funnel matters most. - Are these metrics for tracking health over time, for judging an experiment, or both? ### What a Strong Answer Covers - How the goal and the value delivered to users and to the business are established before any metric is chosen - A path from the user journey to a short list of candidate metrics, each defined precisely enough to compute - Criteria for choosing the primary metric, and how the product's stage shapes that choice - Supporting and counter-metrics that expose gaming or harm elsewhere - How targets are set and how the metric set is reviewed and revised ### Follow-up Questions - Your primary metric is rising while revenue is falling. How do you work out which signal to trust? - How would you set metrics for a feature whose value only shows up months later? - How do you keep a team from improving the metric at the user's expense?