Choosing the right metrics ensures teams measure what truly matters for both business success and user satisfaction. Key performance indicators (KPIs) should align with product goals while avoiding vanity metrics that look impressive but provide little actionable insight.

Here's an example of vanity metrics versus meaningful metrics:

• Vanity metric: Total number of app downloads — looks impressive but doesn't tell you if users are actually engaging with your product
• Meaningful metric: Monthly active users or retention rate — shows how many people actually find value in and continue using your product.

Product teams often also make the mistake of tracking too many metrics, creating noise that obscures meaningful signals. Core metrics like retention rates, task completion times, and user satisfaction scores provide a foundation for measurement. Secondary metrics like bounce rate and feature adoption rate can then be chosen to dive deeper into specific aspects of the product experience.

Also, remember that different product stages require different metrics focus. Early-stage products might prioritize activation and engagement metrics, such as sign-up rates or feature usage. In contrast, mature products focus more on retention and revenue metrics, such as churn rate or average revenue per user. Regular metric review sessions help teams adapt their measurement strategy as products evolve and business priorities shift.