Lean Analytics: Use Data to Build a Better Startup Faster (Lean (O'Reilly))

you want churn below 2.5%; you want users to spend 17 minutes on your site if you’re in media or UGC; fewer than 2.5% of people will interact with content; 65% of your users will stop using your mobile app within 90 days. For many metrics, there’s simply no “normal.”

The key metric for this engine is the viral coefficient — the number of new users that each user brings on.

When it comes to sustainable competitive advantage, demand beats supply.

“In a great market — a market with lots of real potential customers — the market pulls product out of the startup.”[

Remember the One Metric That Matters. Use that principle as a way of easing people into analytics and number crunching.

“In my experience, most e-commerce startups selling either their own product or retailing others’ products can expect conversion rates of 1–3% maximum,”

Before focusing on sophisticated financial metrics, start with revenue. But don’t ignore costs, because profitability is the real key to growth.

The goal of the first Lean stage is to decide whether the problem is painful enough for enough people

Cohort experiments that compare groups like the one in Table 2-2 are called longitudinal studies, since the data is collected along the natural lifespan of a customer group.