Building a product analytics function that measures customer value

Context

Are your customers using your product, or getting value from it? Most product teams can only answer the first question.

We sell data products to suppliers and brands. The revenue is recurring, so the business depends on customers renewing. I took ownership of product analytics to give product teams and leadership a clear view of adoption, engagement and retention, and how each one ties to recurring revenue.

Challenge

When I took over, one analyst supported analytics for the whole business. Most of that work went into preparing numbers for quarterly business reviews with customers.

Product teams judged their products mostly by usage. Insights stayed inside each function, so product, sales, marketing and operations struggled to connect them. Without a systematic view of customer behavior, leadership often set direction based on anecdotal customer feedback.

We measured how much customers used our products. We could not say whether they were realizing business value from them. In a recurring revenue business, that gap shows up at renewal time.

Approach & Execution

I made three changes.

Gave analytics clear owners

I split analytics into three areas:

• Sales and marketing
• Product
• Operations

Each area got a dedicated owner. When an insight crossed areas, the owners worked on it together instead of handing it off.

Standardized how we measure product performance

I set North Star metrics and recommended KPIs for each product. I pushed product teams to measure adoption, engagement and retention, and to show how each one connects to recurring revenue.

Made product health visible

We built dashboards that connect product usage with supplier renewal indicators and customer intelligence. I also set instrumentation standards, so every product collects data the same way and the numbers can be compared across products.

Outcome

• Analytics went from one analyst preparing numbers for quarterly reviews to a structured function with dedicated owners for each business area.
• Product teams have a clearer view of product health and which products drive engagement and adoption.
• Leadership can see how product performance relates to retention and recurring revenue.

Takeaway

Usage tells you a customer is present. It does not tell you whether they are getting value. Connect adoption and engagement to retention and to the business outcomes your customers are trying to achieve. That is where renewals are decided.