This post is an excerpt from my video course Master Product Metrics: Leveraging Data & Metrics To Drive Customer & Business Impact.
In this video lesson I walk through a real world example of how we identified meaningful early signals in customer behaviour that helped increase customer retention, how this insight transformed our product strategy and how you can find your leading metrics specific to your business.
🎓 Explore the full course here and use code earlysignals20 for an exclusive reader discount.
Spotting The Signals Before It’s Too Late
Most product teams spend a lot of time measuring what has already happened: monthly active users, last quarter’s revenue, customer churn from two months ago. But if we want to course correct and influence outcomes before it’s too late, we need to start measuring the right metrics early.
That’s what this video is about: the difference between lagging and leading metrics - and how spotting the right early signals can drive a more proactive product strategy and drive greater future business impact.
Being data driven isn't just about tracking outcomes. It's about giving us insight to drive our decisions - ideally before it’s too late.One of the biggest pitfalls I see is teams getting stuck in (over)analysing lagging metrics. Lagging metrics such as your past revenue or churn are still useful for understanding actual performance, but they’re not designed to help you course correct mid flight.
Leading metrics are forward looking. They help you see what’s likely to happen based on current customer behaviours. They let you catch problems early, double down on what’s working, and adjust when things aren’t. Using leading metrics effectively in your day to day is one of the most critical concepts in analytics to master if you're serious about driving long term impact as a product leader.
What you’ll learn in this video
In this 7 minute video module, I’ll walk you through:
The key distinction between lagging and leading metrics
Practical guidance for finding meaningful early signals in your own product
A real world example where identifying a true leading indicator helped us increase customer retention and shape our product strategy
Whether you’re launching a new feature or refining onboarding, these insights will help you shift from reactive tracking to more proactive, data driven decision making. If you’re ready to stop guessing and start spotting what really drives your product forward - this is a great place to start.
What early signals you have found in your product? Share your experiences in the comments and help inspire other product leaders on their journey! 💜📈
From the course: Master Product Metrics
🎓 This video is a preview of my course Master Product Metrics: Leveraging Data, Metrics & AI to Drive Customer & Business Impact.
This isn’t just theory - it’s a concise, practical course designed for product leaders who want to make smarter decisions with data. The course is an extension of my #1 Amazon New Release The Insights Driven Product Manager, diving deeper into tools and how to put your metrics strategy into practise.
You’ll learn how to:
Build confidence in defining and using the right metrics
Align your product metrics to business outcomes
Use analytics and experimentation tools to find signals that matter
Build a data driven culture in your organisation
💸 Use code earlysignals20 for an exclusive 20% reader discount:
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