Product Metrics to Use Instead of Vanity Metrics

Product metrics are the compass that tells a team whether it is delivering real value or just polishing a slide deck. Vanity numbers such as raw DAU or sign-ups look impressive, but they often hide churn, wasted effort, and strategic drift. The piece argues that leaders must stop treating activity counts as success and start measuring outcomes that tie directly to business health.

The article pulls concrete stories from BranchOut, Zynga, Webvan, IBM and others to illustrate how vanity metrics can fuel funding rounds, board praise, and eventual collapse. BranchOut chased DAU to 33 million while customers abandoned the product, and Zynga's focus on daily users led to shallow engagement and revenue loss. These cases prove that without context, a high number can be a warning sign, not a win.

A five-question litmus test is presented to vet any metric: does it represent real customer value, predict revenue or retention, give the product team a clear action, align with the business model, and move when the product improves? Applying these filters separates metrics that drive product decisions from those that merely satisfy ego.

The shift from activity to outcome is illustrated with YouTube's move from view counts to watch time and Microsoft's pivot from license shipments to active cloud usage. Those companies rewired their decision-making processes, forced cross-functional alignment, and built sustainable growth.

When teams adopt outcome-based metrics they gain clearer prioritization, honest conversations with executives, and a path to long-term growth. The article ends with a challenge: audit every metric on your dashboard, strip out the candy, and keep only those that help you make better product decisions.