Operational KPIs to Track for a Healthy Product

I have discussed my favorite revenue and sales KPIs, so next up are operational KPIs. These tell you how your product is performing in the real world from an installation and support perspective and can help identify areas where improvement is needed, whether in process or product improvements.

My Top KPIs

• Book not billed revenue trends aka work in progress (WIP): This KPI tracks the amount of revenue that has been booked by sales but not yet billed or installed. I like to also include the average time to install as well. The information gathered can help you to identify bottlenecks in the quote-to-cash processes and improve the overall efficiency.
• Top 10 customer WIP: This KPI tracks the top 10 customers with the most dollars tied up in WIP. This information can help you to identify important customers and to ensure that they are getting the attention they need.
• Support Tickets Count and/or time spent on product set versus rest of product mix: This tracks the number of support tickets and time spent on each product set, as well as how that compares to the rest of your product mix. This information can help you to identify product sets that require a lot of support resources and to make decisions about how to improve the overall product and support experience.
• NPS/Customer Satisfaction: I am sure we are all very familiar with Net Promoter Score and customer satisfaction scores, so there is really no need to explain, but if you are not tracking these, you want to start.

I’ve mentioned these before, but it’s worth reiterating a few things

• KPIs are not the end goal. They provide insight so that you can start digging in and improving your product.
• Track your KPIs over time to see how your performance is changing.
• Set goals for each KPI and track your progress towards those goals.
• Use your KPIs to identify trends and patterns.
• Use your KPIs to make data-driven decisions about how to improve your product.

I hope you are enjoying this series, I have one left where I will discuss my top  SaaS/Web App/Portal KPIS.