8 ideas on SaaS metrics & growth — week of Mar 8

This week, I learned about growing SaaS companies (mostly from a product perspective) and how to measure that growth along the way.

Other 8 ideas posts I’ve written:

• 8 ideas on drawing & sketching — week of Mar 1
• 8 ideas for PMs building machine learning products— week of Feb 23
• Week of Feb 16
• Week of Feb 9

🏆 Top 3

1. How to pick a north star metric + good & bad examples

Thanks to Peter Drucker, everyone knows “you can’t manage what you can’t measure.” So the question becomes what to measure and how to avoid those landmines we call vanity metrics.

Good north star metrics…

• Are operational, like the number of minutes a day your product actually gets used or how long it took for a user to get service.
• Answers the question, “Are our customers getting good service?”
• Predict and zero in on the earliest act of service — they’re leading metrics, not lagging
• Represent results or active engagement, not mere exposure

Some vertical-specific tips and examples: