The Importance of Transparency and Engagement in Product Metrics

Kazuki

Hatched by Kazuki

Sep 25, 2023

4 min read

0

The Importance of Transparency and Engagement in Product Metrics

In today's digital age, social media platforms like Twitter have become an integral part of our lives. Twitter serves as an open service where diverse people, perspectives, ideas, and information coexist. The company's purpose is to facilitate the public conversation, ensuring that individuals have a free and safe space to express themselves. Transparency is highly valued at Twitter, with the belief that simplicity is good, but straightforwardness is even better. The product, behavior, and work habits of the company should all be transparent and to the point. Additionally, Twitter encourages its employees to be themselves and have fun while fulfilling their roles.

However, while Twitter focuses on creating a conducive environment for conversation, many consumer product metrics face significant challenges. It is common for a typical product to experience a high percentage of users refusing to sign up. Even those who do sign up often become disengaged and inactive over time. This is particularly true for mobile apps, which may have better engagement metrics but lower upfront conversion rates. On the other hand, if we consider the homepage, we would expect signup rates to be much higher. The traffic to the homepage usually comes from word of mouth, resulting in signup rates of 10% or higher as people actively seek out the product.

Engagement is a crucial aspect of product success, yet it is often difficult to achieve. Many users, often over 90%, are not engaged on a daily basis and instead churn or are only active a few days per month. A success case can be defined as having more than 10% of total users returning every day, but more often than not, the percentage is much lower, sometimes as low as 5% or even less. To improve engagement, it is essential to tie the product into someone's pre-existing behaviors rather than asking them to adopt new ones. Understanding user behavior and incorporating it into the product experience can significantly impact engagement.

A fascinating example of a product that achieved explosive growth and engagement is Instagram. Surprisingly, 65% of Instagram users were disconnected from anyone else on the platform. This highlights the challenge of creating a healthy and dynamic news feed when a significant portion of users does not have connections within the service. To address this, platforms must backfill users' feeds with content from a single source or impersonal content. It becomes evident why creating a vibrant community and engaging news feed is so challenging when only a few percentages of users actively contribute content, known as the 1% rule.

Improving product metrics and user experience is an arduous task. Many users either refrain from signing up altogether or, if they do sign up, fail to fully utilize the product or have a positive experience. However, despite the difficulties, there are actionable steps that companies can take to enhance transparency and engagement.

  • 1. Prioritize transparency: Follow Twitter's example by ensuring that your company's purpose, principles, and leadership are transparent. This transparency should extend to your product, behavior, and work habits. By being open and straightforward, you build trust with your users, which can lead to increased engagement.
  • 2. Understand user behavior: Invest time and resources in understanding how your target audience behaves. Identify their pre-existing behaviors and find ways to align your product with those behaviors. This alignment will make it easier for users to adopt your product and increase their engagement.
  • 3. Foster community: Recognize the importance of building a strong and connected community within your platform. Encourage users to connect with one another, share content, and engage in conversations. By fostering a sense of belonging and connection, you increase the likelihood of users returning to your platform regularly.

In conclusion, transparency and engagement are essential factors in the success of consumer products. Twitter exemplifies the value of transparency by creating a safe space for public conversation. However, many product metrics face challenges, with high percentages of users refusing to sign up or becoming disengaged over time. Overcoming these challenges requires a deep understanding of user behavior and aligning the product with pre-existing behaviors. Additionally, fostering a strong community within the platform can significantly impact engagement. By implementing these actionable steps, companies can enhance their product metrics and create a more engaging user experience.

Hatch New Ideas with Glasp AI 🐣

Glasp AI allows you to hatch new ideas based on your curated content. Let's curate and create with Glasp AI :)