You're tracking 47 metrics.

Page views, bounce rate, session duration, scroll depth, button clicks, feature usage, funnel conversions, cohort retention, NPS scores, and dozens more.

How many of them have changed a decision you made?

Probably very few.

The Metric Trap

More data feels better:

"We should track that." Every possible metric gets added, just in case.

Dashboards multiply. Another chart, another graph, another number to watch.

Tools stack up. Google Analytics, Mixpanel, Amplitude, Hotjar, PostHog. Each one tracking something.

The result: data overload, analysis paralysis, and no better decisions.

What Actually Matters

For most early-stage products, you need three categories:

Are people finding you? Traffic, signups, acquisition. The top of the funnel.

Are people using it? Activation, engagement, core feature usage. The middle.

Are people paying/staying? Revenue, retention, churn. The outcome.

That's it. Everything else is noise until you've nailed these.

The Core Metrics

Keep it simple:

Monthly recurring revenue (MRR). The number that matters. Is it going up?

Churn rate. Who's leaving? Why? This tells you if the product works.

Activation rate. Of people who sign up, how many experience value? The first session matters.

Acquisition source. Where do customers come from? Double down on what works.

Four metrics. Maybe five. That's enough to run a solo business.

What to Ignore (For Now)

These metrics can wait:

Vanity metrics. Total users, page views, social followers. Numbers that grow but don't mean revenue.

Micro-conversions. Every tiny step in a 12-step funnel. Optimize when you have traffic worth optimizing.

Behavioral details. Heat maps, session recordings, scroll depth. Useful when you have patterns. Noise when you don't.

Cohort complexity. Sophisticated retention analysis is great. But not until you have significant cohorts to analyze.

Track less. Understand more.

The Weekly Review

What to look at:

Once a week: MRR, new signups, churn. Ten minutes maximum.

Once a month: Acquisition sources. Activation rate. Where's the funnel leaking?

Quarterly: Step back. Trends over time. Is the direction right?

More frequent than this is fidgeting, not analysis.

Actionable vs. Interesting

A useful test for any metric:

If this number changed, would I do something different?

No? Then stop tracking it.

Can I affect this number directly?

No? Then it's an outcome, not something to obsess over.

Metrics should drive action. If they don't, they're decoration.

The Minimum Analytics Stack

You don't need five tools:

One product analytics tool. Mixpanel, PostHog, or Amplitude. Pick one.

One web analytics tool. Google Analytics or Plausible. Basic traffic and sources.

Your payment processor. Stripe, Paddle, LemonSqueezy. They track revenue and churn already.

Three tools. Maybe two if you're really focused. More than this is procrastination disguised as professionalism.

When to Go Deeper

Add complexity when:

You have traffic to optimize. Funnel optimization needs volume. Otherwise, it's noise.

You have patterns to investigate. Something is working or not working. Now dig deeper.

You're making decisions that need data. A specific question, not vague curiosity.

Analytics expands to match the complexity of your problems. Early problems are simple. Early analytics should be too.

The One Metric That Matters

If you could only track one thing:

Are people paying you more over time?

Revenue. That's the ultimate validation. Everything else is proxy.

Focus there. The rest will follow.

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