Building A Market + Beyond Installing Segment + Mixpanel’s Guide + Google Ads Malpractices (PAN #20)

I’m liking Mixpanel more and more and I think it’s a really valuable component to any product analytic’s ecosystem. I also like the ideas they contribute to what product analytics is and how to do it effectively.

Case in point is their guide to product analytics (note that you need to fill a form to access it). There are some very well structured ideas here that are worth every product owner’s time who is considering to pursue their analytical journey. For example this table of metrics that could be tracked in different user journeys.

That said, I think their take on product analytics is a bit too much framed their own product’s capabilities, which makes them cut corners a little. For example, I think their definition of product analytics is too focused on user behaviour metrics, which is perfect for tactical analysis of whether product improvements are delivering the right value.

But what about more strategic questions that relates to product-market fit. What are they KPIs that will guide you towards a product that fulfills its mission? Not sure you can track those in Mixpanel. And you won’t read about it in this guide. 🤫

Basecamp’s CEO Jason Fried stirred the pot this week by denouncing Google’s practice of placing ads in front of organic results even for a company’s brand.

The initial tweet and ensuing conversation is worth reading. But I think the ad they ran says it all.

Not only is this questionable practice, but as a user, it’s annoying. Whenever I search for something obvious such as Basecamp, why do I need to scroll down to the first organic result instead of having it at the top? Google’s revenues are more important than user experience.

Btw, if you search for Google on Google, you won’t get paid ads before organic results. Just saying. 🙄