AMA: Cisco Director of Product Management, Yogesh Paliwal on Product Management KPI’s

True OKRs should be cross-functional and not limited to specific areas such as Product Management, Design, UX, or SRE. The "Objective" (O) in OKRs should promote alignment across teams, helping to avoid local optimizations. Key Results (KRs) can be function-specific and have asynchronous relationships with KRs from other functions. If functional OKRs are necessary, ensure that objectives remain aligned across functions. Regardless of the logistics of OKR training, Product Management can leverage OKRs to maintain alignment among cross-functional teams throughout the product lifecycle and foster a data-driven product culture. Tactical Production Objectives OKRs * Improve user experience by X%. * Increase monthly active users (MAU) and weekly active users (WAU). * Enhance performance by Y%. * Achieve scalability improvements by a specified number. * Drive revenue growth by Z%. * Strategic Innovation and collaboration OKRs * Dedicate X% of time to user research * Improve Net Promoter Score (NPS) by Y%. * Increase funnel conversion and productivity by Z% through collaboration between Product and Sales teams.

Many data-driven Product Management (PM) teams often overlook long-term strategic KPIs, such as Customer Lifetime Value (CLV), by focusing on short-term metrics like quarterly margins or one-off transactions. This approach can be detrimental, as retaining customers typically yields higher CLV and reduces churn-related costs. Another critical KPI often missed is Feature Discoverability and Time to Value. Despite having sophisticated features, users rarely utilize them due to: Difficulty Finding Features: Users struggle to locate necessary features. Longer Time to Realize Value: Understanding and realizing the benefits of these features often takes longer than competing alternatives. By prioritizing these long-term strategic KPIs, product teams can enhance adoption rates, accelerate customer value realization, and ultimately drive sustainable growth and customer loyalty.

I am not an expert in ecom, will suggest below * Compare historical and watch out for trajectory * Analyze your data for pattern 1. specific time, geo, day, specific step in transaction, specific payment method) 2. Translate error rate to business impact ( Big $$ cart v/s small one item) * Customer Impact ( Attrition, NPS) * Compare with industry peer trend if available. All above and your business strategy goal should answer for ROI in improving this rate or focus efforts elsewhere.

A product manager should prioritize addressing customer problems to create long-term value and profitability for the business. , there are several ineffective KPIs that we often fall prey to: Output-Focused KPIs Deliver X Number of Features: Emphasizing quantity over quality can dilute the value provided to users. Create Y PRDs, Processes, or Briefs: Focusing solely on documentation can lead to a lack of actionable outcomes. Tactical KPIs Cost-Cutting Metrics: Overemphasizing reductions in costs can hinder innovation and growth. Short-Term Wins: Setting goals like "Do X and win this quarter's business" may prioritize immediate results at the expense of long-term strategy. By shifting focus away from these metrics, product managers can better align their efforts with meaningful outcomes that drive sustainable success.

This could be very context specific answer, B2B and B2C applications have different trajectory. its also varies by vertical/geo specifics context. Few global factors that evolved in last few years 1. Focus on outcome (Solved specific problem) over output (x -feature delivered) 2. Customer focus KPIs ( Churn rate, Time to value) 3. Leading Indicators (Active users, pipeline health, engagement )over lagging indicators ( MTTR, bug rate etc)