Eric Ries: Vanity Metrics vs. Actionable Metrics

fourhourworkweek.com

42 points_pius4 comments

"Actionable Metrics" is quite possibly the worst business buzzword combination I've ever heard.

Hey Lawrence, when you're at work does anyone ever talk to you about "Actionable Metrics?"

No. NO. Shit, no, man. I believe you'd get your ass kicked for saying something like'gat man.

To be honest with you, I don't get it. Seems to have a pretty precise meaning to me.

Despite seeming a little jargon heavy, I was able to distill out few useful ideas.

For example, say you're considering a cool new CAPTCHA for your registration page. The article would advise doing an "A/B split test" before phasing out the old CAPTCHA.

Such a test would involve creating an alternate registration page with the new CAPTCHA, and randomly directing x% of users to the alternate page. You could then obtain registration completion % from both groups, which would drive your decision to switch to fully switch to the new CAPTCHA.

Why is cohort analysis a buzzword? It's a specific technique for doing longitudinal studies.

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