What's the difference between vanity metrics and actionable metrics? Which ones should I be measuring?

An actionable metric is one that ties specific and repeatable actions to observed results.

The opposite of actionable metrics are vanity metrics (like web hits or number of downloads) which only serve to document the current state of the product but offer no insight into how we got here or what to do next.

You can get drowned with vanity metrics and should only be using a handful of 3-5 actionable macro metrics to identify what needs improving. It is okay to rely on more diagnostic sub-metrics to troubleshoot deeper from there.

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