To create a valuable product that resonates with customers, many characteristics need to be considered. Also, competing goals need to be resolved, including:

• Business objectives vs. customer needs,
• Short-term benefits vs. long-term benefits,
• Strategic considerations vs. tactical considerations,
• Existing market segments vs. new target segments, and
• Customer experience vs. additional features.

Practitioners require this information to compare and contrast, and then make the right decisions. Each of these can be the difference between product success or failure.

From a POA perspective, metrics can be categorized based on the level of impact for the product:

• Strategic Measures: Determine the effectiveness of a product vision or strategy and are directly tied to business objectives.
• Product measures: Outline customer acceptance and the popularity of the product for the intended customer base.
• Delivery measures: Indicate team performance and outline the team's ability to develop a cohesive product.

Common measures to consider and track as KPIs include:

Strategic	Product	Delivery
Return on Investment (ROI): Ratio of total revenue to the cost of investment.	Net Promoter Score (NPS): A 10-point scale used to gauge customers' likelihood to recommend the product.	Iteration Goal Success: An agreed set of objectives for an iteration.
Monthly or Annual Recurring Revenue per user (MRR/ARR): Ratio of product revenue generated per month/ annum to a number of total users.	Customer Effort Score (CES): Evaluates the level of customer effort required to achieve their objectives, usually on a 5-point scale.	Escaped Defects: A count or a ratio of defects that are uncovered by the customer per release.
Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC): Total cost of acquiring a new customer for the product.	Adoption Rates: Measures customer adoption of the product over a period.	Defect Density: Number of defects per line of code (or story point or per sprint).
Net Present Value (NPV): The discounted cash flow generated from the product minus cost incurred over the product lifetime.	Feature Usage Rate: A measure of which features within the product are used most often.	Scope Change Rate: Ratio of additional effort included in the iteration scope vs. the original effort estimated.
Total Cost of Ownership (TCO): Total cost incurred throughout the product lifetime, including direct and indirect cost.	Retention/Churn: Number of product users retained or churned during a specific period. Either metric can be used, but not necessarily both.	Burndown Chart: Burndown chart indicates the difference between the actual and planned effort over iterations or releases.
Internal Rate of Return (IRR): Rate of return or the discount rate when applied equates the net present value to be zero.		Team Velocity: A measure that evaluates the total number of story points delivered per iteration.
Time-to-Market (TTM): Time taken for the product, set of features, or single feature to be available and usable by customers.

To successfully use the insights provided by these metrics, a framework is needed that aligns the signals from these metrics to assess the product goals. Practitioners can use the HEART framework for this purpose.

HEART Framework

HEART is an acronym that stands for:

• Happiness
• Engagement
• Adoption
• Retention
• Task Success

HEART assesses customer experience and value. It consists of customer goals categorized into areas that are assessed through signals that outline a specific insight based on metrics.

For example:

Framework	Goal	Signal	Metric
Happiness	Improve customer satisfaction	Reduction in the effort spent on completing a user goal	Customer Effort Score (CES).

Frameworks allow POA Practitioners to organize and plan how the product needs to evolve by providing a structure to think about the key metrics.

POA Domain
Applying Foundational Concepts	Metrics and KPI's provide direction for the product. Strategic metrics play a significant role in measuring the alignment of the product to the business goals. Product metrics signify if the product is poorly defined or not. Delivery metrics signify the effectiveness of the product team.
Cultivate Customer Intimacy	Since the customer pool can be large, individual feedback or surveys might not completely assess how customers perceive a product. Metrics such as NPS, CES, Adoption Rate, and Retention Rates are used to better understand the customer perspective. Although metrics indicate a measurement, the analysis or insights from those measurements require the Practitioner to utilize their knowledge of customer groups and personas, to derive useful insights.
Engage the Whole Team	Strategic metrics are commonly adopted by the: Product team, Business leaders, and The product management functions where the POA Practitioners have a significant stake. Product metrics can impact several areas in an organization. For example, they may prompt the team to focus attention on evolving specific features and drive marketing decisions. Delivery metrics must be debated and agreed- upon by the product team. All involved stakeholders need to take part in determining such measures.
Make an Impact	Typically, metrics are measurable and create a direct and evidence-based impact. Practitioners should Avoid introducing vanity metrics that only embellish the ongoing work, and Focus on the value delivered.
Deliver Often	Metrics that are usually predetermined and Agreed-upon are measured as often as needed to provide direction to the product team. Depending on specific scenarios, some metrics may get prioritized or deprioritized. For example, a short-term metric, such as Churn Rate, may be ignored when the cost of acquisition rises because of a reprioritized strategy.
Learn Fast	Practitioners are required to understand metrics and adapt the following as needed: Product goals, PBI priorities, and Effectiveness of the team. A framework like HEART may accelerate the learning process.
Obsess About Value	Metrics are one of the ways to evaluate product value and direct customer feedback. Primary and secondary analysis may also provide significant insights to improve product value. Some metrics may provide conflicting insights that require the team to assess how best to proceed.