Design is a process based on experience, and it's hard to explain its effects to business leaders in terms of numbers or trends, which is what they understand. With the right set of UX metrics, businesses can look at their products through the eyes of their customers to figure out the value of design. The design function of every company needs metrics. Even though business key performance indicators (KPIs) like return on investment, revenue growth, revenue per client, and profit margin are good ways to measure how well a brand is doing as a whole, they don't tell you much about how users feel about the product (UX). With the right set of UX metrics, businesses can look at their products from the point of view of their customers. With UX KPIs, companies can now find and address customer pain points, features that are hard to understand, attributes that cause problems, and other areas that could use improvement. A product manager's goal should be to use the information that design KPIs can give to increase the value and desirability of the product over time. This article talks about design KPIs and why it's important for product managers to use the right metrics for their products.  

UX design KPIs

    UX design key performance indicators (KPIs) are design metrics that measure how well a product works to see how its users like it. Design KPIs turn user attitudes, behaviors, and experiences into numerical scores that can be used to find out what works and what doesn't about products and their features. With these insights, product managers can improve the product's overall UX by making it more useful, easy to use, and accessible. Product managers need to know how business KPIs are different from design KPIs and why they need to use the right KPI set to evaluate a product.  

Why it's important for product managers to measure design metrics?

KPIs like revenue, sales, return on investment (ROI), and others measure how well a business is doing in real-time. UX KPIs, on the other hand, measures how well-designed products and their user experiences are doing. Product managers can also tell if the design teams are doing their best work and if there's room for improvement by looking at the design KPIs. They can also help find product features that aren't working well and may need to be fixed right away. If a product doesn't do well, it looks bad on the team that made it and on the product manager who was in charge of its design and direction. Most of the time, managers have to deal with problems caused by bad product design. This makes product managers even more likely to make sure that all product features are regularly checked with the right UX metrics to give users the best experiences. Remember that the best design results do not come from a one-size-fits-all approach. It is important for design managers to carefully choose KPIs that capture the best feedback from users about their feelings, behaviors, and attitudes that can help the product.  

What does every product manager need to know about design metrics?

The strength of a product depends on how well its lifecycle is managed by the product manager. Leading product managers often use multiple UX KPIs at the design level to track how successful a product is. Here are some KPIs for behavior and attitude in design that product managers may find useful.

Behavioral KPIs

  Behavioral KPIs are numerical scores that show how users use your product and how they interact with it. Product managers can use the information they get from behavioral KPIs to find problems based on how customers act and fix them quickly. They can also use this information to change how the product works in the future. Some of the most common behavioral UX KPIs are:

Time on task

This metric checks how easy it is to use a product by seeing how long it takes a customer to finish a task. For example, when users take a long time to finish a task, it could mean that there are problems with that part of the product that needs to be fixed. This behavioral UX KPI makes sure that all tasks related to the product are easy, clear, and seamless for the user. In most cases, the best way to measure how well you did on a task is to make it take as little time as possible to finish. However, there are some products where the business needs the user to spend more time on the product. So, the time on task UX metric is completely based on how the product is used.

Task accomplishment rate

This UX metric looks at how customers act and measures how many of them can complete core tasks in a flow. For example, look at user flows that have a clear beginning and end, like signing up for a product page. If a lot of people start to sign up but stop in the middle, it means that there are UX pain points in the signup process that make people not want to finish the process. About seventy-five percent of all tasks that are tried should be completed, according to a rough estimate of the industry standard.

Error rate

The error rate KPI looks at how many times users make mistakes while doing a task. Keeping track of how many times users make mistakes with the product's features helps figure out how often mistakes happen and how they affect the product. For example, higher error rates could cause customers to leave, which would have a big effect on how well the product works. Slips, mistakes, and problems with the user interface (UI) can all cause user error rates. Based on the type of product, there are different ways to figure out the error rate.

Navigation

This shows how much attention your website or digital product is getting every day. Customer retention statistics also show problems with products and how to use the website. If people are visiting a website less and less, this could mean that something is wrong with the website or that the product needs to be improved. This multifaceted metric can tell UX designers a lot about how accessible and desirable a website is.

Attitudinal KPIs

Attitudinal KPIs pay more attention to how customers feel and what they think about the product at different points where they interact with it. They find out what the customer thinks about how the product is used so that they can improve it. Here are some of the UX KPIs for attitudes that product managers might want to use:  

Customer Satisfaction Score (CSAT)

This design KPI looks at customer feedback to see if the products are meeting their needs. It also tries to figure out if the brand is getting the most out of its users and if the product is meeting benchmarks for use. This metric is usually measured on a 5-point scale that goes from "very dissatisfied" to "very satisfied." It can be used to figure out how users feel about the product as a whole or about different parts of the product. The number of points on the scale may change based on the product, but the CSAT UX KPI still serves the same purpose.

Net Promoter Score (NPS)

The Net Promoter Score (NPS) is a UX metric that is often used. By asking people, "How likely are you to recommend this product to your peers?" you can learn a lot about how well a product works. This metric is a way to measure how loyal customers are to a product based on how its users feel about it. Like CSAT scores, NPS scores are measured on a scale of numbers based on what the business needs. NPS usually uses a 10-point scale to figure out how users feel, with 0 meaning they are not likely to recommend and 10 meaning they would highly recommend. Once feedback is collected, product managers can put users into three groups: passives, promoters, and detractors. These groups of customers, called "buckets" or "customer clusters," help product managers learn more about their customer base and figure out who the product is most likely to appeal to.

System Usability Scale (SUS)

This simple but useful UX metric works by asking customers ten quick questions about how easy it is to use a product. There are five ways to answer each of these ten questions, ranging from "strongly agree" to "strongly disagree." Even though it is an old, simple method and there are better UX metrics available, it is still widely used as a quick way to find out how customers feel.

Feature usage rate

The feature usage rate is a user behavior metric that gives you information about how your customers use your product and shows you which features they like the most. This UX metric is especially helpful when it comes to getting new customers. For example, the feature usage rate metric can help direct new customers to customized features that meet their needs.  

Google HEART - a design metric framework

Google's HEART framework, which stands for Happiness, Engagement, Adoption, Retention, and Task Success, is used to help businesses measure user experiences on a large scale based on five carefully chosen user-centric metrics.   In the end, it's important to remember that even products that make money and work well from a business point of view may lose customers at a faster rate than expected if they don't have UX insights. Putting innovation and user experience (UX) on the back burner is not a good way to keep a product relevant and desirable over its life cycle. Product decline happens most often when design organizations and product managers put all of their attention on business KPIs and less on design metrics. Instead, a more careful way to measure the performance of a specific product is to use UX KPIs to measure customer pain points and overall product or service problems. So, as a product manager, you should figure out which design KPI metrics work best for your products and do assessments. With the right set of UX KPIs, you can make really great products.