AMA: Microsoft Principal Product Manager, Virgilia Kaur Pruthi on Product Management KPIs

Interestingly enough I see two trends in the types of KPIs product teams miss.  1) Aligning with the larger's organization or business goals - Ensuring that your product roadmap is actually impacting the success metrics (OKRs, KPIs) of the business itself is critical to knowing if you are invest...more

What a terrific question! This is one takes time and depending upon your organization will require patience. The best way I have learned, is to ask "why" a particular feature is being prioritized, and the "impact" it is bringing to the customer. The best way to create change is to start with you...more

I would recommend first building a relationship with your technical lead/engineering counterpart. Have them show you how your e-commerce platform (or product area) works end to end, from the backend perspective. Make sure that you first understand the end to end flow and specifically the systems ...more

If you are lucky enough to have a PMM partner, then I would create a very transparent RACI chart which showcases who is: R - responsible A - accountable C - consulted I - informed  about the various pieces of work. In my experience, depending upon the size of the team/company roles and respo...more

This could really range based upon the company, your users, your target goals, where you are in your business lifecyle, etc. The most basic ones are: acquisition, activation, retention, revenue, referral You could also be measuring customer lifetime value.  Again this will really depend upon w...more

This is a hard one as I am sure there are a ton of layers to unpack here. Whenever there is a question around metrics, I would first look to the customer and understand what customer pain points your product area is solving for. Then see how those needs and your business goals align, and how your...more

It really depends on what type of business it is. For instance, a product feature or product should be so frictionless that it allows users to onboard (adopt) easily once they are in the experience. Product marketing is responsible for bringing users to that experience. So it is almost eyeballs v...more

This could really range based upon the company, your users, your target goals, where you are in your business lifecyle, etc. The most basic ones are: acquisition, activation, retention, revenue, referral You could also be measuring customer lifetime value In regards to the worst KPIs, honestly...more

Product teams in my opinion consist of product, engineering, and design (at a minimum). With that said, product KPIs should always be shared with engineering since what they are building essentially impacts the KPIs of the product in question. All the work that product teams do should always buil...more

Don't think of it of what you should and should not own. Think about what makes sense to the customers you are focusing on. Then think about where you are in the customer/product lifecycle and product/market fit. What does the overall business care about at this time (e.g. retention vs. acquisiti...more

Such a great question! When you first set a KPI especially if you are in a new market and/or in a new product/customer space, it can feel uneasy. The best way I have learned is by setting something and tracking it over time, seeing if there is any measurable change. If not start by marking out th...more

Wonderful, congrats! Get into a rhythm by understanding the business/company goals. Then understand how the tech works (look at the customer/user interface first and then make sure you understand how the system behind the UI works). Begin collecting data in a transparent way and share your learn...more

I'd love to learn more about what you mean by this. In reality they shouldn't change, your customers would just be internal that's all. You could still measure activation, activation, retention, engagement, resolution time, etc. On the other hand, you could measure self help vs. those who still a...more

Creating the right mechanisms to manage your stakeholders is critical to managing up and across. Allowing your stakeholders to stay on the pulse of your product while having access to updates really helps in building trust. Creating mechanisms like brownbag/learning sessions on a frequent basis (...more