Most new product launches fail within their first year—not because they're bad products, but because founders don't know what success actually looks like. After working with countless startups through their MVP launches, I've watched brilliant ideas crumble simply because teams were measuring the wrong things or, worse, measuring nothing at all.
You've spent months building your minimum viable product. You've tested it with users, refined the features, and finally pushed it live. Now what? The real work begins. Success isn't just about getting downloads or sign-ups—it's about understanding whether your product solves a real problem for real people in a way that can sustain your business.
The metrics you choose to track in your first 90 days will determine whether you build something people actually want or just something that looks good on paper.
This guide will walk you through the MVP metrics that matter most, helping you separate the vanity numbers from the data that drives real decisions. We'll cover everything from setting up proper analytics before launch to knowing when your data is telling you to pivot. By the end, you'll have a clear framework for measuring success and making informed choices about your product's future.
What Are MVP Metrics and Why Do They Matter
I've launched quite a few MVPs over the years and I can tell you that the excitement of going live quickly turns into panic when you realise you have no idea what's actually happening with your app. Are people using it? Do they like it? Are they coming back? Without proper metrics, you're basically flying blind—and that's a recipe for disaster.
MVP metrics are simply the numbers that tell you how your app is performing after launch. Think of them as your app's health report card. They show you what's working, what isn't, and most importantly, what you need to fix or improve. The key word here is "minimum" though; you don't need to track everything under the sun, just the metrics that matter most to your specific goals.
The Foundation for Smart Decisions
Here's the thing about metrics—they're not just nice-to-have numbers that look good in presentations. They're your decision-making toolkit. When you know exactly how many people are downloading your app, how long they're staying, and where they're dropping off, you can make informed choices about what to build next. Without this data, you're just guessing, and guessing with your limited MVP budget is expensive.
The beauty of tracking metrics from day one is that you start building a baseline. You'll know if that new feature you added actually improved user engagement or if it made things worse. Trust me, you'll be surprised how often our brilliant ideas don't translate into better user behaviour!
Setting Up Your Analytics Before Launch
Right, let's talk about something that most people get completely wrong—setting up your product analytics before you launch your minimum viable product. I've lost count of how many clients have come to me weeks after their MVP launch saying "we need to track everything now" when they should have done this months earlier. It's like trying to measure how fast you ran a race after you've already crossed the finish line!
The truth is, once your MVP is live and users start pouring in, you've already lost valuable data. Every single user interaction, every tap, every swipe, every moment of confusion—that's all gold dust for understanding your MVP metrics. But if you haven't set up your analytics properly, it's gone forever.
What You Need to Track From Day One
Before your MVP sees its first real user, you need these analytics tools configured and ready:
- Google Analytics or Firebase Analytics for user behaviour tracking
- Crashlytics or Bugsnag for technical performance monitoring
- Mixpanel or Amplitude for detailed event tracking
- App Store Connect Analytics for download and conversion data
- Customer support tools like Intercom for user feedback collection
Here's what I tell all my clients: spend at least two weeks before launch testing your analytics setup. Send dummy data through your systems, check that events are firing correctly, and make sure your KPIs are being measured accurately. Trust me, finding out your conversion tracking is broken after 10,000 users have already used your app is not a conversation you want to have with your stakeholders.
Set up your analytics tracking with both staging and production environments so you can test everything thoroughly before real users arrive—this simple step will save you countless headaches later.
The Big Three: User Acquisition, Engagement, and Retention
When I'm reviewing MVP performance with clients, I always focus on three core metrics that tell the real story of your app's success. These aren't just numbers—they're the heartbeat of your product. User acquisition shows how many people are discovering your app, engagement reveals what they're actually doing with it, and retention tells you if they're sticking around.
Let's start with acquisition. This is straightforward: how many new users are downloading and signing up for your app each day, week, or month. Don't get caught up in vanity metrics here; focus on quality downloads that convert to active users. Track your acquisition sources too—are users coming from social media, search, or word of mouth?
Measuring What Matters
Engagement metrics vary wildly depending on your app type, but here's what I always recommend tracking:
- Daily and monthly active users (DAU/MAU)
- Session length and frequency
- Feature adoption rates
- User actions per session
Retention is where most apps fail. Your day-1 retention might look decent, but day-7 and day-30 retention rates will show if your MVP actually solves a real problem. I've seen apps with 80% day-1 retention drop to 5% by day-30—that's a clear signal something needs fixing.
Revenue and Conversion Metrics That Actually Count
Right, let's talk about the metrics that actually put money in your pocket. After years of building MVPs, I can tell you that vanity metrics like downloads mean nothing if they're not converting into revenue. The real question is: are people willing to pay for what you've built?
Start with your conversion funnel—track how many users move from signup to paying customer. This tells you where people are dropping off and what needs fixing. For subscription apps, focus on monthly recurring revenue (MRR) and average revenue per user (ARPU). These numbers give you a clear picture of your app's financial health.
The Money Trail
Customer acquisition cost (CAC) is massive here. If it costs you £20 to acquire a customer who only pays £5 per month, you've got a problem. Compare this against customer lifetime value (CLV)—the total amount a customer pays over their entire relationship with your app.
The best MVP metrics are the ones that directly correlate to your bank balance
Don't forget about churn rate either. Losing 10% of paying customers monthly might seem small, but it adds up quickly. Track payment failures, refund rates, and upgrade/downgrade patterns. These conversion metrics will guide your product decisions far better than any engagement stat ever will.
Technical Performance Indicators You Cannot Ignore
I'll be honest with you—technical metrics aren't the sexiest part of measuring MVP success, but they're absolutely critical. Your app could have the most brilliant features in the world, but if it crashes every five minutes or takes forever to load, users will delete it faster than you can say "one-star review".
App crash rate is your number one priority here. Anything above 2% is cause for concern, and if you're hitting 5% or more, you need to act fast. Users have zero tolerance for buggy apps these days, and word spreads quickly when something doesn't work properly.
The Performance Metrics That Really Matter
Load time is another make-or-break metric—apps should launch within 3 seconds maximum. After that, you're losing people. Battery drain matters too, especially for apps that run in the background or use location services heavily.
- Crash rate (aim for under 2%)
- App launch time (under 3 seconds)
- Memory usage and battery consumption
- Network error rates
- API response times
Don't forget about network performance either. Track how your app behaves on different connection speeds—not everyone has lightning-fast WiFi. Poor network handling can make your app feel broken even when the code is perfect.
When to Pivot Based on Your Data
Here's the thing about MVP metrics—they don't just tell you how well you're doing, they tell you when you need to change direction completely. I've worked with countless founders who've been staring at their analytics dashboard for weeks, wondering if those numbers mean they should keep pushing forward or try something different entirely.
The truth is, your data will give you clear signals when it's time to pivot. Low user retention rates after multiple product iterations? That's your app telling you something isn't working. High acquisition costs with poor conversion rates? Your market might be telling you they don't actually want what you're offering.
Red Flags That Signal a Pivot
- User retention drops below 20% after day one, consistently
- Customer acquisition costs exceed your lifetime value by 3x or more
- Users aren't engaging with your core features despite trying everything
- Technical performance issues persist despite multiple fixes
- Revenue growth has flatlined for three months straight
Don't panic if one metric looks bad—look for patterns across multiple KPIs before making any big decisions about your product direction.
Making the Pivot Decision
The hardest part isn't reading the data; it's accepting what it means. When three or more of your key metrics consistently underperform for eight weeks running, that's when you need to seriously consider a pivot. Your MVP has done its job—it's shown you what doesn't work so you can build something that does.
Conclusion
After years of helping companies launch their MVPs, I can tell you that measuring success isn't a one-time thing—it's an ongoing conversation between you and your users. The metrics we've covered throughout this guide will give you the foundation you need, but don't get caught up trying to track everything at once; that's a recipe for overwhelm and frankly, not very useful.
Start with your core metrics: user acquisition, engagement, and retention. These three will tell you most of what you need to know about whether your MVP is hitting the mark. Once you've got those sorted, layer in your revenue metrics and technical performance indicators. The data will start painting a picture, and sometimes that picture might not be what you expected—that's perfectly normal.
What I've seen time and again is that the most successful MVPs aren't the ones with perfect metrics from day one; they're the ones where the team actually listens to what the data is telling them. Whether that means doubling down on what's working or making those tough pivot decisions, your metrics are your compass. Keep measuring, keep learning, and keep iterating. Your users will thank you for it.
