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Home / Product Metrics / Section 02: Core Concepts

Core Concepts

Five concepts. One integrated metrics system.

Learn about the following metric frameworks: AARRR, HEART, North Star, Leading vs Lagging and Cohort Analysis to understand what it is, when to use it, and how it connects to the others.

AARRR: The Funnel Diagnostic Framework

AARRR (Acquisition, Activation, Retention, Referral, Revenue) maps the customer lifecycle from first touch to revenue. Use it to identify which stage of the funnel is broken before proposing solutions.

B2B and SaaS Metrics

Consumer metrics only cover one half of the product world. These are the B2B-specific metrics every PM working in SaaS must understand.

Debugging a Metric Drop

A 5-step framework for diagnosing metric declines

Step Action What To Check Example
1 Check Data Integrity Verify tracking, pipelines, dashboards, event collection, and timezone settings. DAU suddenly drops 25% on Monday morning.
2 Segment By User & Device Compare new vs returning users, mobile vs web, iOS vs Android. Drop appears only on mobile users.
3 Segment By Acquisition Channel Compare paid, organic, referral, email, and partner traffic. Paid search traffic declines sharply.
4 Compare To External Events Review releases, seasonality, competitor actions, or policy changes. Issue starts immediately after an app update.
5 Trace The User Journey Identify the exact action or step where user behaviour changed. Users abandon onboarding at Step 3.