/analytics

name: analytics
description: "Use this skill when the user needs to set up analytics, design event tracking, define key metrics, build funnels, or instrument their SaaS product for data-driven decisions. Covers event naming conventions, tracking strategy, funnel analytics, and data quality."

Analytics & Instrumentation

Track decisions, not dashboards. This skill helps you set up analytics that answer the questions that matter — without drowning in data.

Core Principles

• Every metric should connect to an action you'd take differently based on the result.
• Instrument events at build time, not as an afterthought. It's 10x easier.
• More data ≠ better decisions. Focus on 5-10 key metrics per stage.
• Data quality matters more than data quantity. One clean funnel beats fifty broken ones.

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Choosing an Analytics Tool

You don't need to write code to track events. Pick a tool, add the snippet, and configure in the UI.

Recommended by Stage

| Stage | Tool | Why | Cost | |-------|------|-----|------| | Pre-revenue | **PostHog** | Product analytics, funnels, session replay. Built for SaaS. | Free (1M events/mo) | | Pre-revenue | **Plausible** | Simple, privacy-first traffic analytics. | $9/mo | | $0-5K MRR | **PostHog** or **Mixpanel** | Deeper funnel analysis, cohort retention | Free tier or ~$200/mo | | $5K+ MRR | **Amplitude** or **Heap** | Advanced analytics, experimentation | $500+/mo |

**Recommendation for solo founders:** Start with **PostHog** (free tier). It covers product analytics, funnels, session recordings, and feature flags — all things you'll need.

For basic traffic analytics (where visitors come from), add **Plausible** or **Google Analytics 4** (free).

Setup

**Tell AI:**

Set up PostHog analytics:
1. Create a PostHog project and get the API key
2. Add the PostHog JavaScript snippet to our app (in the <head> or layout component)
3. Verify it's tracking page views by checking the PostHog dashboard
4. Configure: exclude admin/test accounts from tracking

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What to Track (By Stage)

Pre-Launch (Just These 3)

1. Landing page visits (traffic source) 2. Waitlist/signup conversions 3. Where visitors drop off

0-$1K MRR (Add These)

4. Signup → activation rate (completed key action) 5. Time to activate (hours from signup to key action) 6. D7 retention (% returning after 1 week) 7. Free-to-paid conversion

$1K-$10K MRR (Add These)

8. Feature adoption (% of users using each feature weekly) 9. Cohort retention curves (track each month's signups over time) 10. Expansion revenue triggers (what behavior precedes upgrades) 11. Churn rate and reasons

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Event Naming Conventions

Use a consistent schema so events make sense to anyone reading them.

**Format:** [Object] [Action] in past tense, Title Case.

| Event Name | When It Fires | |------------|--------------| | Signup Form Submitted | User completes registration | | Project Created | User creates their first/any project | | Dashboard Viewed | User visits the main dashboard | | Report Exported | User downloads or shares a report | | Subscription Upgraded | User moves to a higher plan | | Invite Sent | User invites a teammate |

**Rules:**

• Object first, then action (makes grouping in tools easier)
• Past tense (the event already happened)
• Be specific: "Signup Form Submitted" not "Form Submitted"
• Never include personal data in the event name

Event Properties

Every event should include context:

"Project Created"
  template_used: "blank" | "marketing" | "engineering"
  source: "dashboard" | "onboarding" | "api"

"Subscription Upgraded"
  from_plan: "free"
  to_plan: "pro"
  billing_period: "annual"
  trigger: "usage_limit" | "feature_gate" | "self_serve"

**Tell AI:**

Set up event tracking for our core funnel:
- Track these events: [list your key events from the table above]
- Include these properties with each event: [relevant properties]
- Set user-level properties on identify: plan, signup_date, role
- Verify events are firing correctly in PostHog/Mixpanel

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Core Metrics Framework

The 5 Metrics That Matter

| Metric | What It Tells You | How to Calculate | |--------|------------------|-----------------| | **Signup rate** | Is your marketing working? | Visitors → Signups | | **Activation rate** | Is your onboarding working? | Signups → Completed key action | | **D7 retention** | Does your product deliver ongoing value? | % of users returning 7 days later | | **Free-to-paid** | Is your product worth paying for? | Free users → Paying users | | **MRR** | Is your business growing? | Sum of all monthly subscription revenue |

Setting Up Your Dashboard

**Tell AI:**

Create an analytics dashboard with these 5 charts:
1. Daily signups (line chart, last 30 days, by source)
2. Activation rate (% of signups who [completed key action], last 30 days)
3. D7 retention (% of each week's signups who returned 7 days later)
4. Free-to-paid conversion rate (last 30 days)
5. MRR (line chart, all time)

This should be the first thing I see when I open analytics.

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Funnel Instrumentation

Define your core funnel and track every step:

Typical SaaS funnel:
  1. Landing Page Viewed
  2. Signup Form Viewed
  3. Signup Form Submitted
  4. Onboarding Started
  5. [Key Activation Action] Completed
  6. Second Session (returned next day/week)
  7. Upgrade Page Viewed
  8. Subscription Created

**The biggest drop-off between steps = your biggest opportunity.** Fix that first.

**Tell AI:**

Instrument our conversion funnel:
- Track these events in order: [list your funnel steps]
- Build a funnel visualization showing drop-off between each step
- Set up an alert if any step's conversion drops below [X]% week-over-week

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Privacy and Compliance

Add these before you launch:

• [ ] Add analytics tool reference to your Privacy Policy
• [ ] Add cookie consent banner if required (depends on tool and geography)
• [ ] Enable "anonymize