(2014-01-24) Torres How To Set Goals That Drive Product Success

Teresa Torres: How to Set Goals (Goal Setting) That Drive Product Success - Product Talk

Hopefully, you identified a user outcome that indicates they’ve had success on your site. (Metric)

*How do you know when you’ve found the right measure of success?

Ask yourself, so what?*

The user got more than 2 local replies to their listing. So what? The user probably sold their stuff.

The user confirmed they sold their stuff. So what? Hurray, we solved their problem.

you have a theory of how users will have success on your site.

Compare the people who are having success to the people who aren’t having success.

Now that you’ve identified your success funnel, what goal should you set?

You need to understand your points of leverage.

Suppose we want to triple the number of people who sell stuff.

we can’t triple the number of people who add a photo, because we are already at 50%

So what should you pick?

It’s a judgement call. And only you can make it.

The point here is to make sure that you play with the numbers. Mix and match target conversion rates to get the outcomes you need. Then ask yourself, are those conversion rates possible?