Editors Note: Lenny Rachitsky is the Co-Founder and CEO of Localmind and one of 60 Canadian startups invited to participate in Day 1 of the GROW Conference being held Aug 17th in Vancouver, Canada.
If you’ve ever received an email from Dan Martell (founder of the one and only Maple Butter), you’ve probably seen the following quote in his email signature, referring to the importance of gathering metrics around your product:
“In God we trust, all others bring data.” — W. Edwards Deming
Easier said than done. Gathering data is a bitch. You have to figure out all of the metrics you’ll want to look at, build the infrastructure to capture those metrics, present those metrics in an understandable way, and make sure those metrics are accurate at all times. This takes time away from focusing on your core product, your never ending list of features and fixes, and everything else your startup needs to do. In spite of all this, well thought out reliable metrics are pretty much critical to your startup’s success. I want to share how we gather metrics at Localmind, where we try to find that balance between getting the metrics we need while doing as little as possible.
