The purpose of this research was to identify consistency across metrics in various products and locate possible areas that Salesforce Product Managers and Product Marketers can improve/focus on when they are measuring the success of existing products or determining the potential success of new product launches.
Since Salesforce is a large company with many different products, it is crucial to clarify what metrics are most useful in determining the success of a product. Success can vary across products, this research allows for a deeper dive into the processes of Product Managers and Marketers to ascertain their needs and outlooks when developing a product while they are launching a product and after a product has been launched.
Through a standardized set of metrics, Salesforce will be able to implement core metrics that will allow both Product Managers and Product Marketers to easily determine the success of multiple products during each launch stage.
- Product Managers
- Product Marketers
- Internal or external Saleforce
- From Organzations larger than 100 employees
- With more than 5 years work experience
According to the pre-research and the data we collected from interviews, survey, and card sorting, we listed all metrics that PMs and PMMs are usually tracking. Since different products have different properties and missions, the metircs we listed may not cover all applicable metircs. We sorted them to 9 categories to cover as much metrics as possibile.
Pre-launch Marketing and Product Performance Metrics (Task completion, product performance) were the most important overall launch process metrics.
Revenue Metrics (AOV, ACV), Product Performance Metrics, Product Adoption Metrics (E.g. Product Usage, Product activation etc.), and Product Engagement (e.g. Click through rate, Drop-off/Dismiss rates, Time in product) were most commonly tracked as part of the pre to post-launch process for new products. For product managers and marketers, metrics are various and usually determined by product features and company cultures.
The most common metrics used in the pre-launch phase to determine if a product is ready to launch were Product Adoption Rate and Performance Metrics for Product Managers.
Product Adoption Rate (E.g. Product Usage, Product activation etc.) was Product Managers most important metric to determine the success of a new product launch within the first year whereas metrics related to the ecosystem the product is in were considered the least important metric.
For product marketers, revenue (AOV, ACV) is the most important metric to determine launches’ success. When revenue data is not available, other prompt data that can estimate revenue will be used. This includes metrics that can factor into revenue like Product Adoption.
Product marketers also focus more on the pre-launch stage to estimate the success of launch and post launch. In the pre-launch stage, they use metrics that are more within their power to measure which include Pilot studies data, Market attributes, Upsell data, and CAC (customer acquisition costs).
For product marketers, Customer NPS/ User satisfaction metric is more useful in the first year of launch because that is something that can be more easily tracked at that time and is the best indicator of how well the product is doing at that phase of the product launch.
Other metrics PMMs are using include Customer stories, Customer Lifetime Value, Conversion rate, Churn, and Monthly Active Users.
Even though revenue is an important metric for both PMs and PMMs, it is a lagging indicator in practical work. This means that it can take up to a couple of years after the product is launched to see if it is truly successful in terms of revenue since revenue needs time to be acquired based on the product and the contract associated with it. Both PMs and PMMs usually track other prompt metrics when revenue is unavailable.
Product Adoption Rate is a metric used by both PMs and PMMs to help determine success during the first year of launch and is a versatile metric to be used across different products. Revenue and Product Engagement are the 2nd and 3rd most efficient metrics to determine success during the first year.
Product managers determine the exact success metrics they want to target, create possible hypotheses to address their problem, and rely on qualitative customer feedback throughout a launch.
Product marketers rely on pre-launch activities/metrics to estimate success while using post-launch metrics of enablement and adoption that influence revenue metrics.
1. Pre-launch metrics should focus on Adoption Rate and Performance metricsrather than revenue.
2. Performance metrics involves customers satisfaction, which can affect Adoption Rate. Understanding customers needs is vital since it can affect revenue in the long run.
3. Specifically, within the first year of launch, Product Adoption, Revenue, Product Engagement, and User Satisfaction should be the metrics to focus on based on product managers and marketers.
