Defining and Using Success Metrics Questions
Learn to propose metrics that directly tie to business or product goals. Understand primary metrics (direct measure of success, like feature adoption rate or API call volume) versus secondary metrics (supporting indicators like latency, error rates, or user satisfaction). Practice proposing 2-3 realistic metrics for different scenarios. At entry-level, you don't need statistical sophistication, but you should understand how to measure whether something worked and why certain metrics matter.
HardTechnical
0 practiced
You observed a persistent increase in a conversion metric after a marketing campaign, but no randomized experiment was available. Explain how you would use observational causal inference methods (difference-in-differences, interrupted time series, instrumental variables) to make a defensible claim about causality. For each method, describe assumptions and limitations in the product analytics context.
EasyTechnical
0 practiced
When computing rates like conversion rate, activation rate, or feature adoption, selecting the denominator is critical. Describe your approach to choosing an appropriate denominator in three different scenarios: (1) email campaign conversion, (2) in-app feature adoption, (3) retention calculation. For each scenario explain trade-offs and how your choice affects interpretation.
HardTechnical
0 practiced
For a company with multiple products, propose a methodology to build a composite health metric that aggregates product-level metrics into a single company-level index. Describe normalization, weighting, handling missing product signals, how to test sensitivity, and how to forecast the composite for planning discussions.
MediumTechnical
0 practiced
A key metric dropped last week. As a data analyst, explain how you would determine whether the drop was caused by seasonality (e.g., weekly/monthly patterns) versus a product change (release, experiment). Describe the dataset and analyses you would run, which control groups you'd use, and how you'd incorporate recent deploy logs or experiment assignments.
MediumBehavioral
0 practiced
Describe a time when you convinced stakeholders to change the success metric for a project. What metric were they using, what metric did you propose instead, how did you present evidence, and what was the outcome? Focus on communication tactics, data used, and how you mitigated risk or resistance.
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