Numbers don’t tell the truth on their own

After launch, founders often start watching numbers. Sign-ups. Visitors. Downloads. Likes. Followers. The dashboard fills up. The team feels informed.

But many of those numbers don’t tell you what you actually need to know. They’re flattering instead of useful. They go up over time more or less automatically, regardless of whether the product is actually working.

Picking which metrics to pay attention to — and which to ignore — is one of the most consequential decisions you make in the early growth phase. The wrong numbers steer the team toward the wrong work. The right ones make every conversation sharper.

Vanity metrics: pretty but unhelpful

Vanity metrics are numbers that go up over time without telling you much about the health of the business.

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Metrics that matter (and the ones that don’t)