Finance tracks MRR, churn and CAC. A product team needs a different set: numbers that move when the product changes, and that point at what to fix. These are the ones worth putting on a dashboard, with how to calculate each.
Active users
Definition. People who did something meaningful in a period: daily (DAU), weekly (WAU) or monthly (MAU) active users.
Formula. Count of distinct users with at least one qualifying event in the period.
What counts. Decide what "active" means for your product. Opening the app is weak; doing the thing the product exists for (sending an invoice, publishing a post) is strong. In LogZuno you can mark a project's active events, and the Active segment uses them.
Stickiness. DAU ÷ MAU shows how many of your monthly users come back on a given day. It is most useful as a trend in your own product, not compared with other companies.
Feature adoption
Definition. The share of active users who used a feature at least once in the period.
Formula. Users who did the feature's event ÷ active users × 100.
Events. One event per feature, named for what the user did: Report exported, Teammate invited. Add properties for variants rather than new names.
Feature usage
Adoption says how many people tried a feature; usage says how much they rely on it. Track events per active user per week, and the frequency distribution: how many people used it on 1, 2, 3 or more days. A feature used once by many and never again needs a different fix from one used daily by a few.
Power users
Definition. The people who use the product most often.
Measure it. The power-user curve: for a period, the number of users active on 1, 2, 3 and more days. A healthy product has a group on the right of the curve, using it most days. In LogZuno this is the Frequency chart, and the Power segment lists people who were active in the period with more than one event.
Power users show what the product is for. Read their event timelines before you plan the next feature.
Retention
Definition. Of the people who started in a period, the share who came back later.
Measure it. A cohort table: rows are sign-up weeks, columns are weeks since sign-up, and each cell is the share of that cohort active in that week. Read down a column to see whether newer cohorts retain better than older ones.
For paying customers, use the retention rate calculator or its opposite, the churn rate calculator.
Friction to the core feature
Definition. How hard it is for a new user to reach the moment the product proves its value.
Measure it. A funnel from sign-up to the first use of the core feature, with a conversion window, and the median time to convert. The step with the largest drop is your first fix. In LogZuno, open any funnel step to see who reached it and who didn't.
Drifting users
Definition. People who used the product but haven't been seen for longer than a set period.
Why it matters. Drift comes before churn. A list of drifting users, especially those who were once active, is a list of people to talk to.
The events to send
| Event | Properties | Used for |
|---|---|---|
User signed up | plan, source | Retention cohorts, funnels |
| One event per core action | the action's details | Active users, adoption, usage |
Plan upgraded / Plan cancelled | from, to | Revenue-related funnels |
Add a user_id to every event, and group_id if you sell to companies, so each metric can be counted per person or per account. See sending events.