What is Product Analysis?
Broadly speaking, product analysis is the practice of collecting and analyzing data related to the usage, performance, and feedback of a product.
The goal of all of this is to improve a company’s products and drive business success.
Product analysis activities are all about measuring and tracking key metrics. Examples of these metrics include:
- engagement,
- user behavior,
- revenue, and
- retention.
All of them are used in product development, marketing, and sales decisions.
You can find a more detailed definition in our first part of this ultimate content cluster on product analytics here.
Best Tips & Tricks to Effective Product Analysis
Conducting product analysis is one thing. We explained the benefits it can bring your business here.
But you know what? Conducting it in a way that is effective and brings good results (the benefits we mentioned) is something completely different.
We’ll be honest. It’s not an easy journey. Product analysis is a series of many unknowns.
However, you can significantly reduce the number of these “process mysteries” easily. How?
We come to the rescue with some of the best, well thought-out tips and tricks to effective product analysis.
You’re 1 step away (or more like 7) from nailing this process:
💯 Define clear objectives and KPIs
First and foremost, defining clear objectives and KPIs is critical to effective product analysis. Without clear goals, it's challenging to know what to measure and analyze. Right?
By setting SMART objectives (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound), you can identify the metrics that matter most to your product and track them over time.
🤓 Tip: If you're analyzing a mobile app's user engagement, for example, your SMART objective could be to increase daily active users by 20% within the next three months.
💯 Collect and analyze data from multiple sources
Secondly, you should collect and analyze data from multiple sources - always. That’s, of course, if you want to get a complete picture of how your product is performing. This data can come from various sources such as analytics tools, customer surveys, user reviews, social media, and other relevant places. Doing this will make it easier to identify patterns and trends that you may not have noticed otherwise.
🤓 Tip: Use tools like LiveSession to analyze users’ behavior, improve UX, find bugs in the product and increase conversions.
💯 Prioritize actionable insights
Once you’ve gathered your insights from the respective sources, you should sort them. When you prioritize actionable insights, you will make more data-driven decisions. After collecting and analyzing the data, you need to identify the insights that have the most significant impact on your product. You can use frameworks such as the Eisenhower Matrix to organize your insights based on their urgency and importance.
🤓 Tip: If you find that the checkout process on your e-commerce website has a high drop-off rate, you can prioritize fixing this issue before addressing other less critical ones.
💯 Continuously iterate and refine product analysis processes
Another tip we have for you is to continuously iterate and refine your product analysis process. This is the recipe for constantly meeting customer needs and market trends. And you don’t want to stay behind, do you? Not to mention, it’s an excellent way to stay ahead of the competition.
🤓 Tip: You can use A/B testing to test different product features and analyze the data to see which features are most effective.
💯 Incorporate user feedback and testing
Gaining a deeper understanding of your customers' needs and preferences requires user feedback and testing. Sadly, this is an often overlooked step. So don’t be one of those people who ignore it. Your user feedback can come in varied forms, such as surveys, focus groups, and user testing. Can you see how this can point you towards the direction of areas of your product that need improvement? And also guide you in making changes to enhance your customer experience? We hope so.
🤓 Tip: Always establish a structured feedback collection method that is going to be the best for your users, e.g. customer interviews or reviews (rewarded with discount codes for your products)
💯 Stay up-to-date with industry trends and best practices
To remain competitive in the market, it’s vital to stay on top of industry trends and best practices. And this is our next tip for you. You can use resources such as industry publications, conferences, and networking events to stay informed about emerging trends and best practices.
🤓 Tip: Try to educate yourself by attending relevant conferences to learn about the latest events and best practices, or read guides and tutorials talking about your industry trends.
💯 Use proper tools
Finally, all the tips and tricks we’ve just shared won’t matter without 1 thing. The right tools. Using proper software will help streamline the whole product analysis process and provide more accurate insights. There are many options you might want to consider. Examples include user behavior analytics software, survey tools, and user testing platforms.
🤓Tip: Use tools like LiveSession to track user behavior on your website.
CHECKLIST: did you get all the steps?
In conclusion, effective product analysis requires a strategic approach of:
- defining clear objectives and KPIs,
- collecting and analyzing data from multiple sources,
- prioritizing actionable insights,
- continuously iterating and refining the product analysis process,
- incorporating user feedback and testing,
- staying up-to-date with industry trends and best practices, and
- using proper tools.
Make sure to implement these top tricks and tips to make data-driven decisions that improve your product and enhance the user experience.
Free Gift: 20 types of questions to ask yourself during product analysis (with examples)
And now - time for the free gift we’ve mentioned at the beginning of the article.
To make product analysis even easier for you, we have prepared something special.
20 types of questions with examples that you should ask yourself during product analysis.
Copy them today for better results!
🟩 Product Features
- What are the most popular features of our product?
- Are there any features that users are not using or are not finding useful?
- What features do our competitors offer that we don't have?
🟩 Product Design
- Is our product design visually appealing and user-friendly?
- Are there any design elements that could be improved to enhance the user experience?
🟩 Product Strategies
- What are our short-term and long-term product strategies?
- Are we on track to achieve our product goals?
🟩 Product Roadmap
- What is our product roadmap, and does it align with our overall business strategy?
- Are there any changes we need to make to our product roadmap based on customer feedback or market trends?
🟩 Product Description
- How accurately does our product description reflect the features and benefits of our product?
- Are there any details that are missing from our product description that should be included?
🟩 Product Teams
- Who are the key members of our product team?
- How can we ensure that our product team is aligned with our overall business strategy?
🟩 Product Analytics Platforms
- What product analytics platforms are we currently using to collect and analyze data?
- Are there any new analytics platforms that we should consider using to improve our product analysis process?
🟩 Product Decisions
- What decisions have we made in the past that have impacted the success of our product?
- How can we learn from past product decisions to inform future product development?
🟩 Product Details
- How well do we understand the details of our product?
- Are there any details that are frequently overlooked but are important to the overall success of our product?
🟩 Product Usage
- How are customers currently using our product?
- Are there any new use cases for our product that we could explore to increase customer satisfaction and sales?
🟩 Product Videos
- How effective are our product videos in showcasing the features and benefits of our product?
- Are our videos engaging and informative enough to drive conversions?
🟩 Successful Product
- What are the characteristics of a successful product in our industry?
- How does our product compare to the most successful products in our industry?
🟩 Business Strategy
- How does our product align with our overall business strategy?
- What business objectives do we hope to achieve through our product?
🟩 Customer Reviews
- What are customers saying about our product in reviews and feedback?
- Are there any common themes or issues that we should address to improve the product?
🟩 Customer Behavior
- How are customers currently using our product?
- Are there any patterns in customer behavior that we can leverage to improve the product?
🟩 User Experience
- What are the pain points that users are experiencing with our product?
- How can we improve the user experience to increase customer satisfaction?
- Are users finding it easy to navigate through the product?
🟩 Competitive Analysis
- Who are our main competitors, and how does our product compare?
- What can we learn from our competitors to improve our product strategy?
🟩 Product Analysis Report
- What key metrics should be included in our product analysis report?
- Who will be the primary audience for our product analysis report?
- What are the key takeaways we want readers to gain from our report?
🟩 Marketing Strategies
- What marketing strategies are we currently using to promote our product?
- Are there any new marketing strategies we could implement to increase product awareness and sales?
🟩 Social Media Platforms
- How are our customers using social media platforms to engage with our product?
- Are there any new social media platforms that we should be targeting to reach our audience?
Remember: asking the right questions is key to conducting effective product analysis.
Good luck!
Over to you
Phew! Another insightful read is behind us.
We hope you enjoyed this part from our content cluster on product analytics.
Be sure to follow the best practices included in this blog post if you want to boost your efforts.
Now, let us invite you to the next part of this series. That one is going to be pretty interesting.
Remember how we mentioned the use of the right tools is key to effective product analytics?
Well, this is what our next article is going to be about - product analytics tools.
Read it now here.
Other than that, thanks for coming by!
Related topics: product performance analysis tips, competitive product analysis practices, tips and tricks for a product manager, competitor product analysis recommendations, tips before product launches, digital product analysis tricks, competitive analysis of products tips, competitive analysis of products best practices, best practices for competitor product analysis, tips for increasing customer interaction with products
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