Ask HN: What role do data and analytics play in product management?

[hey-fk]

Hey all, I'd like to ask for your feedback on a topic. I'm curious to know your opinions on the role of data and analytics in product management, and how these tools can be leveraged to make better decisions about products. I'm building Notion Standup (https://notionstandup.com/) and I believe that seeking out the perspectives of others is crucial for the growth of my product, and I'm eager to hear your thoughts on this subject. So, if you have any insights, tool recommendations or experiences that you'd like to share, I'd love to hear from you!

[benkan]

I recommend setting goals first. If you know what is important to you (your goals), how will you know that you're moving towards your goals? You need to measure that somehow. These are your KPIs, and data, or analytics. Check out the OKR framework for a popular version of goal setting and measurement.

Furthermore, if you decide on core fatcs about your product, you should monitor whether you notice any changes. Is the display of the footer your third-level page important? Maybe not. Is the number of conversions on your home page important? Probably so. So you should monitor the latter just to see changes early enough.

If you change somethings, you can make experiments and compare historical data to experimental data. Does data change for the better or for the worse?

[kostarelo]

It’s all about “listening” to the users with quotes because it doesn’t necessarily means face to face communication. Although f2f is best for relation building, it can’t really scale.

Data are everywhere these days and you should be gathering as much as you can(emphasis in can, it can be expensive). Take Google Analytics for example added to a blog, you can see your most read articles and write more of those, see where people exit and take action, setup interaction tracking and see what buttons are working best. You can do AB tests and compare results between two comment forms.

Same logic applies to a product as well.

But then it’s not just analytics and valuable information can be extracted from everywhere. Look at your DB and see what people have been storin (being cautious on prívacy laws). Gather NPS and see what feedback you’re getting from there.

Big companies usually have departments focused on data gathering and analysis, but even for smaller products, I would say that the best thing you can do is being data driven. Try to base your decisions with data that make sense.

All the best

[hey-fk]

Thank you for your insightful response and good wishes. I completely agree that "listening" to user behavior is essential for success. We need to collect and make sense of all the data we can. Being data-driven can lead our product to greater success. All points you've mentioned are pretty valuable. It's easy to say, but not much easy to do.