Analytics tools for Product Managers
The BARC Research and Eckerson Group Study found that in the years to come, 69% of companies will increase their usage of analytics tools.
As product people, we’re always trying to determine what we need to build next in order to deliver the greatest bit of value to our organizations, so having a range of analytics tools available will allow us to focus our energies in the right place.
The question is, which tools should we be using?
Google Analytics
Google Analytics is the web analytical tool created in 2005 by Google to track website traffic and although primarily used as a digital marketing tool, it is immensely important for product managers, who can use it to track the behavior of users and visitors on a website.
For me, I find it useful not just in figuring out what people DO, but also what they DON’T DO. Which pages of your site or features of your product do users not actually use very much, which raises questions of why, or does this feature even matter?
Mixpanel
Mixpanel makes the work of a PM easier because it helps to track the timeline of users and it comes with custom dashboards! The segmentation and funnel features on the app are what make it loved by product managers all over.
Their approach is to ensure that you have a ‘tracking plan’, which you use to ensure that you’re tracking the right things in the right way, which means you get the analysis that you want on the things that really matter.
Action: Read some Mixpanel customer stories to understand the difference it can make to an organisation’s tracking ability
Baremetrics
Baremetrics is one of the most famous SaaS analytics tools, created specifically for the needs of subscription businesses, so if your organization gets a large part of its revenue from subscriptions, it’s worth paying them a visit.
Baremetrics offers a global dashboard with essential subscription metrics such as refunds, annual recurring revenue, and annual run rate, as well as detailed dashboards for each of these metrics. This tool also gives you customer profiles, so you know who and how interacts with your products, and forecasts for three categories: Future number of customers, estimated recurring revenue based on your current churn rate, and the estimated cash flow for the next year.
Action: They offer great content, so sign up to their Business Academy to get insight direct to your inbox
Profit Well
ProfitWell is a data-backed SaaS subscription tool that can be used by companies and subscription-based products to achieve revenue growth faster.
Its focus on subscription based models all expertise to help a product manager know where the product is doing great or not. It helps to optimize pricing, and it provides free revenue reports.
Action: Head to their live demo to see the tool in all its glory
Don’t forget about Excel
Sometimes, rather than using an analytics tool, PMs like to just get the raw data and do some digging around themselves. That’s where a good understanding of the power of Excel comes into play.
There are hundreds of functions in Excel, and it can be overwhelming trying to match the right formula with the right kind of data analysis. The most useful functions don’t have to be complicated and can provide some real insight relatively quickly, and cheaply.
Action: Head to this blog post to see 15 data analytics you can use in Excel
