Product Management: Foundations to Practice · Product Analytics and Metrics
Avoiding Vanity Metrics
A number that looks impressive is not the same as a number that means anything. This chapter gives a concrete test for telling the difference.
A vanity metric is a number that looks impressive and trends upward easily but has a weak or unclear connection to actual business health, such as total registered users regardless of whether they are active, or total downloads regardless of retention. Vanity metrics are seductive precisely because they almost always go up, which makes them satisfying to report even when they reveal nothing about whether the underlying business is actually improving.
Key Takeaways
- A vanity metric looks impressive and trends upward easily but has a weak connection to actual business health.
- AARRR and North Star Metrics both emerged specifically as reactions against reliance on vanity metrics.
- Test a metric by asking whether it can be inflated without improving the customer's experience or business health.
- Prefer actionable metrics, tied to a specific repeatable action, over vanity metrics that are easy to move but meaningless.