192 – Product Usage Does Not = Value: Why “Adoption” Metrics Are Misleading You

About this episode

Brian T. O’Neill discusses the misleading nature of adoption metrics in measuring product value and emphasizes the importance of understanding user experience.

I’ve seen this challenge again and again with teams building analytics and AI products: nobody can define what quality to the end user means or how to measure. The answer? “Adoption.” The problem is that “amount of usage” tells you nothing useful about your customer’s experience with your product beyond “it’s not zero.” So what should you be measuring instead so your buyers don’t quickly abandon once the end users get their hands on the keyboard (or agent!)? The answer is to understand through qualitative measures what users’ experiences are like now, so you have an objective baseline from which to compare future product investment. When you can define their current experience’s quality, it’s much easier to imagine their better future, and you also now have a change you can measure. Measurable outcomes are the foundation of high-value, sticky B2B analytics and intelligence products—and when your end users’ lives are improved, the sales close, and the renewals aren’t questioned. So today, I jump into “how do you measure UX?” so you aren’t surprised when the sale doesn’t close or that renewal doesn’t come through unexpectedly. Highlights / Skip to: Why I think product adoption…

People in this episode

Host: Brian T. O’Neill

Topics covered

• product adoption
• user experience
• analytics
• B2B products
• measuring value

Keywords

• adoption metrics
• user experience
• analytics products
• B2B
• measurable outcomes

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