For product managers and leaders, the right KPIs can burst open the floodgates to product growth.
Product management KPIs inform decisions, help prove how well your efforts are paying off, and secure buy-in from across all parts of the business. They also reveal how to divvy out resources across departments and show you which teams need to fill in what gaps.
However, it’s not always obvious what KPIs to lean on for the biggest results. That’s why we’ve laid out the most critical product management KPIs for fast product-led growth.
How Product Management KPIs Drive Product-Led Growth
Product management KPIs are the raw materials that fuel your product-led growth machine. Beyond giving you steady tools to measure progress, product management KPIs also open up the user’s experience and reveal opportunities to connect with them on a deeper level. That hands you a massive advantage. Some reports suggest 84% of companies that prioritize customer experience see their revenue grow.
At the same time, when you act on those insights, product management KPIs show you where you went right or still need to improve. All the while, metrics unify the company under common goals across departments, maintain revenue streams as the company scales, and ensure you’re all racing toward the same core business mission.
Top Product KPIs for Product Managers and Leaders
As valuable as KPIs can be, not every metric is created equal. Here are the best product management KPIs to inspire growth:
Net Dollar Retention
Net dollar retention (NDR) describes how your organization is retaining, growing, or losing recurring revenue. It’s critical to SaaS companies because most rely on a recurring revenue model that’s built to grow from the inside out. By digging into data and driving up your NDR, you bolster the company’s bottom line and fortify relationships that fuel long-term growth.
Time to Value (TTV)
Simply put, the sooner your users see that your product is satisfying their needs, the faster your organization will see a return in revenue, upsells, and referrals. That’s one big reason why it’s critical to measure and improve your time to value (TTV). Lifting TTV naturally improves engagement and user experience—a combination that’s proven to increase product growth.
Active User Rates
The more your users are engaging with your product, the more value they’re squeezing out of it. And if users’ activity slows down, it could signal it’s time for you to step in before they churn. That’s why your active user rate metrics are so important. By working to improve active user rates, you’re simultaneously slimming down churn, speeding up TTV, and driving long-term growth.
Customer Retention Rate (CRR)
Retention is the cornerstone that anchors the modern SaaS world. And with U.S. companies losing an estimated $168 billion per year to customer churn, it’s clear why.
By measuring customer retention rates (CRR), you can determine how well your retention efforts are paying off. CRR shows you how frequently you’re keeping customers on board. If those figures are falling, you’ll know where to step up your game. At the same time, by measuring CRR, you can show all stakeholders if your moves are translating into recurring revenue and long-term success.
Customer Acquisition Costs
Customer acquisition costs measure how much money it takes to secure a customer. CAC is important because it broadens your gaze to see how customers affect the whole company. For instance, if you’re able to improve the user’s experience or focus attention on product qualified leads (PQLs), it could lead to more upsell or cross-selling opportunities. In turn, by squeezing more out of the customers you already have on board, you can lower CAC and lay the groundwork for more scalable growth.
Net Renewal Rate
Your net renewal rate measures how often customers are renewing and upgrading their contracts. It’s important because product-led growth relies on improving the experience of current users, encouraging more engagement, and springing up growth from that customer base. Your NRR not only shows you how well retention efforts are paying off, but it also unveils how your onboarding and engagement efforts are translating into long-term revenue growth.
Supercharge Your Product Experience
By drilling down into your in-product analytics and using that info to improve your user’s experience, you can build a product growth engine. And there are even more ways to fine-tune that product growth machine. Download “Mastering Product-Led Growth” to learn how to take your product growth plan to the next level.
