Analytics Strategy

Analytics Strategy

Design measurement frameworks that produce decisions, not just dashboards. Stack-agnostic. Tool-agnostic.

This skill is for measurement planning. For conversion optimization, use cro-optimization. For SEO measurement specifically, use seo-onpage and adjacent SEO skills.

When to use

• Setting up analytics on a new product or site
• Auditing existing analytics setup
• Designing dashboards for a team or business
• Defining KPIs and a north star metric
• Building event taxonomies for product analytics
• Designing attribution models for marketing
• Translating business questions into measurement plans

When NOT to use

• Conversion testing or optimization (use cro-optimization)
• SEO performance measurement (use SEO skills)
• Pure data infrastructure decisions (different domain)

Required inputs

• The business or product context (what does success look like)
• The audience for the analytics (who needs to make what decisions)
• The current measurement state (existing tools, tracking, gaps)
• The questions the team needs to answer

The framework: 4 layers

A complete measurement strategy covers all four. Each layer feeds the next.

1. North star and KPI hierarchy

The single metric that captures the most important outcome, plus the supporting metrics.

North star metric:

• One metric. Singular.
• Captures customer-perceived value.
• Leads to revenue, but isn't revenue itself (revenue is too far downstream).
• Examples: weekly active users, completed jobs, revenue-generating sessions, hours of value delivered.

Underneath the north star, the KPI hierarchy:

North star metric
├── Acquisition KPI (how new users enter)
├── Activation KPI (when new users get value)
├── Engagement KPI (how often users return)
├── Retention KPI (how many stick over time)
└── Monetization KPI (how value translates to revenue)

This is the "AARRR" or "pirate metrics" framework. It works because it covers the full lifecycle.

2. Event taxonomy

The vocabulary the product uses to describe what users do.

Event design principles:

• Verb + noun. signed_up, created_project, completed_checkout. Past tense, snake_case.
• One event per discrete action. Not "interacted_with_modal" - too vague. Specifically opened_modal_X, closed_modal_X, confirmed_in_modal_X.
• Properties capture context. Each event has properties (key-value pairs) for context. signed_up has properties like signup_method, referrer, plan.
• Standardize property names. user_id everywhere, not userId here and id there.
• Document everything. A tracking plan that lives nowhere is a tracking plan no one follows.

Event coverage:

• All key user actions tracked
• All conversion points tracked
• All errors tracked
• All page views tracked (with consistent properties)
• All button clicks that matter (not all button clicks - that's noise)

Anti-patterns:

• 500+ events with no documentation
• Inconsistent naming (buttonClicked, Button Clicked, clicked_button)
• Property keys that vary across events
• Events fired client-side that should be server-side (and vice versa)
• PII in event properties (privacy issue and tooling issue)

3. Dashboards and reports

The interface between data and decisions.

Dashboard design principles:

• One audience per dashboard. Executive dashboard != product team dashboard. Different metrics, different cadence.
• One question per chart. A chart should answer one question, not three.
• Annotations matter. Note launches, experiments, holidays, outages. A spike means nothing without context.
• Context comparisons. "10,000 signups this month" - compared to what? Last month, last year, target?
• Lead with the action. What does this dashboard help someone decide?

Common dashboard types:

4. Attribution and segmentation

How to connect cause and effect.

Attribution models:

• First-touch. Credit the first interaction. Useful for awareness understanding.
• Last-touch. Credit the final interaction before conversion. Default in many tools, often misleading.
• Linear. Spread credit equally across touches. Avoids over-crediting any single channel.
• Time-decay. Recent touches get more credit. Reasonable middle ground.
• Position-based. First and last get more credit, middle touches less.
• Data-driven (algorithmic). Tools like Google Analytics 4 use ML. Black box but increasingly the default.

For most businesses: pick one primary attribution model, use multiple secondary models for validation.

Segmentation principles:

• Segment by what causes different behavior, not by what's easy to track
• Useful segments: source/channel, plan tier, geography, device, cohort (signup date)
• Less useful: demographic guesses without behavioral validation