In a famous example, Facebook found that users who add at least 7 friends in their first 10 days on the app tended to be more engaged and stay with the product longer. This led them to set an Objective of getting more new users to add more friends right away. The product team then went about testing various changes to the onboarding experience to encourage adding friends early.
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This is an example of a proxy metric, a metric that is different from the metric we care about, but may be more useful because it is easier to measure and quicker to change.
Any fun proxy metrics you follow? At work or at play? Tell us a story.
Reads
Our friend Steve Portigal has come out with the second edition of Interviewing Users: How to Uncover Compelling Insights. He covers the methods and details behind asking questions — super helpful for product people.