To unpack all things product data, we’re putting together a report covering just that. Wanna get involved? 👇
Responses have been flooding in and we’ve come across some really interesting findings already, but the more responses we get, the deeper we can go, and the better your results will be.
What is product data?
Product data can be loosely defined as all the usable and measurable information about a product.
This information will come from a variety of sources, primarily:
- Internal teams (sales/marketing/customer success, etc.)
- Customer feedback
- Product usage
- Competitive Intelligence
These sources of information about your product will provide both qualitative and quantitative product data. It’s important to get a mixture of both, as numbers are crucial to informing broader product development, but qualitative data can often explain the ‘why’ behind those numbers.
Another key point to note is that product analytics doesn’t just refer to your product. It’s important to be able to benchmark your product performance alongside others in the industry, hence competitive intelligence also comprises an important aspect of product data.
The most accessible data source is often product usage, as this should be the easiest to track and collate. Some key metrics product usage should provide include:
- How often your product is used
- Which features are used the most (and the least)
- How long it takes users to complete actions
- Friction/drop-off points
Why is product data important?
“Half of my marketing budget is wasted. The problem is I don’t know which half.” - John Wanamaker, Marketing Pioneer
As the 19th century US Postmaster General’s quote suggests, understanding what is making consumers tick, and buy your product, was previously a process made up of guesswork and without a guiding light.
Product analytics allows for the development process to have grounded and established referral points for which to base vital decisions. It’s basically impossible to know what to improve if you don’t have the data to tell you what needs improving!
That’s why collating information from both internal sources, such as your teams and the product usage stats, as well as external sources through customer feedback and competitive intelligence, is important.
A well-chosen set of data sources, with purposeful metrics and good quality customer feedback, can revolutionize a product’s lifecycle and drive growth by improving the product and tailoring it to users’ needs.
How is product data put into action?
Product analytics is the process of measuring, presenting, and actioning on insights the data provides.
Product analytics can be owned solely by the product team, but depending on the nature of the product, other teams who may be involved in the process are:
- Marketing
- Product marketing
- Dev team
- Centralized analytics function
Collecting the necessary data, the key metrics, and qualitative insights require one of the teams who own product analytics to translate all of it into actionable tasks.
Whether it be re-establishing your KPIs with a better understanding of how your product is solving problems, or adapting your organization’s workflow to be focused on the key insights provided by the data, product analytics should empower your organization and set it up for growth.
Why are we building this report?
Now that we’ve established why product data and product analytics are important, the meta-trend of understanding its usage across different organizations and industries should also be apparent.
Focussing solely on your own processes can lead you down the wrong path, with others getting the jump by understanding the broader environment.
Our report aims to collate information from far and wide in order to understand the changing landscape.
- Have key data sources shifted?
- What is the structure of data organizations within product teams?
- Are the same metrics that were important a year ago still carrying the same weight?
Let us know how your organization is using product data and help us create an awesome report.
