Guides
6 min read
How to ask a good question of your product data
A good question names one group of people, one action and one time window. Here is how to turn a vague worry into something your data can answer.
Ines Okafor
Most questions about a product start as a feeling. Signups feel slow. The new onboarding feels better. A feeling is a fine place to start, but data cannot answer it until you turn it into something you can count.
Name the people, the action and the window
A question your data can answer has three parts: who you mean, what they did, and when. "Are people using exports?" becomes "How many accounts on the Team plan exported a report in the last 30 days?" The second version has one right answer, and you can check it.
Ask for a comparison, not a number
A single number rarely tells you much. 412 exports could be great or terrible. Ask for the same count last month, or for the Free plan next to the Team plan, and the number starts to mean something.
Write down what would change your mind
Before you look, decide what result would make you act. If exports doubled, would you build more? If they fell, would you stop? Writing it down first keeps you from reading the chart to fit what you hoped.
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