how do you think about measuring business impact when your products aren't directly monetized?

Products must have some connection back to profitability, helping to either increase income or reduce costs. You otherwise wouldn't want to make an investment unless you're choosing to make a donation to the greater good (e.g. open source). It's OK if that connection is indirect, and in some cases, even difficult to measure. The latter requires leaders to agree that the approach to measurement is inline with the values and product principles of the company. It's easiest to use examples, and I'll ...Read More

I’ve worked with developer focused tooling for almost 7 years so I know exactly what you mean here. On almost every new feature or product our teams put into motion, we have a huge list of factors to consider such as security, legal, or billing. For developer tooling, there’s usually no change to pricing or billing, no new SKU. Does that mean these types of products don't provide value? No way! Libraries, SDKs, APIs, CLIs, and other developer focused tools are a huge part of the overall product. ...Read More

When monetization isn’t direct, you shift into “driver metrics” that link to business value: adoption rates, reliability, customer (whether internal or external) satisfaction, support case reduction, and so on. Basically, anything that shows your product is delivering value and enabling dependent outcomes. Work backwards from the business objective (e.g., fewer churns, lower delivery cost, higher usage) and map your product’s role in that chain. By doing so, you convert indirect usage into busin ...Read More

When working with products that are not monetized, it is actually more critical to measure business impact to show the value of your work. Why? Often products that are not monetized, are the first ones to get resources removed when the organizaiton finds itself in a bind. This can be a very big mistake for the organization and why it's critical to get this right. In this scenario, I'd go back to "what value does your product to your business?". And I would then tie KPIs to that value. Let's say ...Read More

There may be a number of reasons why your product does not involve monetization. Whatever the reason maybe, it is still important to have a definition for ‘success’. For example:  It may be an essential platform feature that is table-stakes for your customers, so your strategy is to not charge for the feature. In this case, you may use daily/weekly/monthly usage of the feature to validate customer engagement.  It may be a free-product that is meant to drive brand awareness and not direct revenue ...Read More

When a product isn’t directly monetized, business impact should be measured through proxy metrics that tie user value to strategic or financial outcomes. Start by asking: What behavior in my product drives broader company success? For example: Engagement impact: Does it increase active usage, retention, or ecosystem stickiness? Acquisition impact: Does it improve conversion, referrals, or satisfaction that fuels growth? Efficiency impact: Does it reduce costs, support load, or operational fricti ...Read More