Day 6: Product Analytics for Engineering Leaders
Be Better Engineering Leader, a 30 Days Series
This is the second week of a series of daily lessons on how to Be a Better Engineering Leader. I recommend spending up to an hour on each lesson to gain insights into Product, Technology, and People—areas critical for every Engineering Manager.
As an engineering leader, your responsibility extends beyond delivering code and features. Your true objective is to achieve measurable product outcomes such as increased user engagement, improved conversion rates, or smoother user experiences.
A user-centric approach is one of the strongest predictors of organizational performance, as highlighted in DORA research.
Today, let's explore how to utilize product analytics to make your team more effective and outcome-driven, regardless of whether you're leading a product development or platform team.
Why Product Analytics Matters for Engineering Leaders
A deep understanding of how your product is used is crucial. Without it, you’re disconnected from the true impact of your work. You should be the first to know if something goes wrong or when usage patterns change.
Relying solely on product managers or analysts to provide insights is an outdated model that lengthens the feedback loop.
Here are example core metrics you should be familiar with:
User Volume & Events: Monitor how many users interact with your feature and what they do. Daily, weekly, and monthly active users are good starting points.
Seasonality: Identify patterns like peak usage times or days. This helps in planning and resource allocation.
User Flow: Understand the journey users take through your feature. Are they completing desired actions, or dropping off?
Critical Events: Track key actions (conversions) like signing up, purchasing, or completing forms.
Errors & UX Issues: Don’t just look at technical errors. Pay attention to UX problems that might be hindering user experience.
A/B Test Success Metrics: What are the clear metrics for any experiments you run, and track them closely.
Action Points for Today
Check Your Metrics:
Do you have access to metrics for your product or feature?
Look at daily active users, conversion rates, and any existing dashboards.
If you don’t have this information, take the first step to gain access. Talk to your product manager or data team if needed.
Review Product Goals:
What are the primary goals for your team’s work? Increased user engagement? Reduced drop-offs?
Check these metrics daily to understand progress and identify issues early.
Define Success for Current Projects:
For the features and tasks your team is currently building, what are the success metrics?
Determine how you will measure them and who will be responsible for checking these metrics regularily.
Create a Simple Analytics Dashboard:
Use your product analytics tool (e.g. Mixpanel or Amplitude) to create a basic dashboard.
Include key metrics such as page views, click events, and conversion rates.
Share the dashboard with your team and use it as a reference in daily stand-ups or meetings.
Resources for Further Learning
Product Analytics for Engineering Leaders: A comprehensive guide on implementing product analytics.
Key Insights for Engineering Leaders from DORA research: Understanding how a user-centric approach drives performance.
Full DORA Research: Explore the detailed findings of the 2023 State of DevOps Report.
Measure What Matters A great resource for understanding the impact of measurable goals and metrics on team performance and product outcomes.
Taking these steps today will help you lead your team toward more impactful, user-centered outcomes. Empower your engineers with data, and watch as they transform from code contributors into product owners.
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