# Vanity Metrics: The Numbers We Hate to Love  ## Metadata - Author: [[Ben Yoskovitz]] - Full Title: Vanity Metrics: The Numbers We Hate to Love - Category: #articles - Summary: If vanity metrics are bad, what makes a good metric? How do I know I'm tracking the right things? (#12) - URL: https://open.substack.com/pub/byosko/p/vanity-metrics-the-numbers-we-hate?r=4b5bd&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web ## Highlights - **Understandable:** The more data we can track, the more complicated things have become. This isn’t helpful if you want to use data in your startup as a common language. A good metric is one that’s easy for everyone to understand and track. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01h0gf3pb90ggcqtsyabe248wf)) - **Comparative:** A good metric allows us to compare things. Comparative numbers—typically over periods of time—allow us to see more accurate trends. This is often what we think of when we talk about [cohort analysis](https://medium.com/@kalliagk/cohort-analysis-for-startups-101-70a1c3bd85ae). For example: *Active Users* vs. *Active Users/Month*. If I tell you I have 10,000 active users it’s difficult to know if that’s good or bad. If I tell you that last month I had 1,000 active users, that’s a 10x increase, and that looks pretty good! ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01h0gf4fxmcy6w465s7mf8rqm2)) - **Ratio / Rate:** Take a comparative number and turn it into a ratio or rate and it becomes even more valuable. Using my example above, instead of Users/Month, I should track *% Monthly Active Users*. So last month I had 1,000 active users out of 2,000 that joined my platform, which is 50% monthly active users. This month I have 10,000 active users, but out of 1,000,000 signups, which is 1% monthly active users. So I have a lot more active users (which is good) but something went horribly wrong with conversion ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01h0gf5859p1azspa0jreqpacg)) - **Behaviour changing:** We already covered this above, but as a reminder: a good metric is one that you use to make decisions. Imagine looking at a metric and thinking to yourself, *“If this goes up, stays the same, or goes down, I don’t know what I’d do differently.”* ← stop focusing on that metric. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01h0gf5phnwc2trfk5a1xt0md2)) - **outcomes over outputs.** The goal matters more than the amount of work or the speed of the work to get there. Just “getting something done” is not super valuable, unless it moves the needle. I tend to agree with this—ultimately, if you can’t deliver value to users/customers, you’re wasting your time. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01h0gf2xda5515d1zhq9ckjmjg))