Suhail Doshi - How to Measure Your Product

TL;DR

Suhail Doshi argues that startups should simplify their analytics to three to five key metrics and a single north star, anchored by the funnel: visits → sign-ups → valuable action → retention → spread.

Key insights

• The "shark fin effect" kills companies that go viral without retention: user acquisition peaks then collapses because churn outpaces new sign-ups, and reactivation campaigns rarely work.
• Monthly active users (MAU) is becoming a BS metric; daily active users (DAU) is a much harsher but more honest indicator of engagement, and for B2B, DAU strongly correlates with reduced dollar churn.
• Email and text confirmations cause enormous drop-off (e.g., 30–40% conversion); startups without fraud problems should not optimize for security they don't have.