AMA: Zendesk Senior Director of Product Management, Growth and Monetization, Farheen Noorie on Product Management KPIs

Rates: To me without absolute numbers, rates may paint a false picture. Let me explain with an example. Lets say you have a trial experience for your product and you are responsible for the cart experience and thereby conversion rates which is measured by number of paid customers/number of trialers. I would suggest that instead of rates the north star metrics should be a combination of number of paid customers as well as Average Deal Size (ADS) per paid customer. A conversion rate is a good numb ...Read More

+1 to arbitrary! I think setting goals for both new and existing markets may feel like excel magic, some numbers that are based on mainly assumptions and the product manager's gut. Its uncomfortable and may feel unscientific but I think all forward planning is like that.  I would address some uncertainity in the following way Make sure I am tracking the right metrics, New markets could mean new metrics, the business is starting from scratch and may be different from the metrics that a mature mar ...Read More

Product Management is a bit hard to list skills for because product managers wear so many different hats and each company has a different way on how they think of product management. But I do think there are some broad skills that PMs should have or build as they think of their career.  Hustle - This is the number 1 skill that I look for. If you have this everything else follows or can be built. Empathy - Understanding your customer and being able to put yourselves in their shoes Storytelling - ...Read More

I'd suggest dont split the KPIs. Here is why Product Management and Product Marketing are two different ways to accomplish the same outcomes. The difference is one is in product and the other is outside of product but both the experiences are touching the same customer and driving the same north star outcomes.  But in some cases that may not be possible either because of the org structure or just how your company functions. If that is the case I would suggest to map out both the in product and o ...Read More

Usually I would begin with understanding What are the key customer pain points that I am trying to solve for your customer? Those are my metrics in 9 out of 10 cases Why is my product team funded? What problems am I solving for the business?  Once I have the initial list, just like all things product management I PRIORITIZE. What matters the most vs what is not as important.  Now for every item in the list its also crucial to think through what are the counter metrics. A crude example would be, ...Read More