michsindlinger/specwright/templates/skills/dev-team/po/data-analysis

Data Analysis Skill

Template for Product Owner user metrics analysis and product analytics Created: 2026-01-09 Version: 1.0.0

Skill Name

data-analysis - Expert product analytics, user metrics interpretation, and data-driven decision making

Purpose

Enable Product Owners to analyze user behavior, interpret product metrics, validate hypotheses, and make informed prioritization decisions based on quantitative and qualitative data.

When to Activate

Activate this skill when:

• Analyzing user behavior patterns
• Measuring feature adoption and engagement
• Validating product hypotheses with data
• Identifying user pain points through analytics
• Prioritizing features based on data insights
• Creating data-driven product roadmaps
• Reporting product performance to stakeholders
• Conducting A/B test analysis
• Investigating user drop-off or conversion issues

Core Capabilities

1. Product Metrics Framework

AARRR Pirate Metrics

• Acquisition: How users find your product
  • Traffic sources, signup conversion rate
• Activation: First valuable experience
  • Onboarding completion, time-to-value
• Retention: Repeat usage
  • Daily/weekly/monthly active users, churn rate
• Referral: User-driven growth
  • Viral coefficient, referral rate
• Revenue: Monetization success
  • Average revenue per user (ARPU), lifetime value (LTV)

Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)

• Engagement Metrics: DAU, WAU, MAU, session duration, feature usage
• Conversion Metrics: Signup rate, trial-to-paid, checkout completion
• Retention Metrics: Cohort retention, churn rate, customer lifetime
• Business Metrics: Revenue, customer acquisition cost (CAC), LTV:CAC ratio
• Quality Metrics: Error rates, page load time, customer satisfaction (NPS, CSAT)

2. Data Collection Strategy

Event Tracking

// Example event structure
{
  event: "feature_used",
  user_id: "user_123",
  timestamp: "2026-01-09T14:30:00Z",
  properties: {
    feature_name: "export_csv",
    context: "dashboard",
    duration_ms: 1200
  }
}

Key Events to Track

• User Actions: Clicks, form submissions, navigation
• Feature Usage: Specific feature interactions
• Conversions: Goal completions, purchases
• Errors: Failed actions, system errors
• Engagement: Time on page, scroll depth

Data Quality Principles

• Consistent Naming: Standardized event names (e.g., button_clicked, not btn_click, ButtonClick)
• Complete Context: Include relevant metadata (user type, plan, etc.)
• Privacy Compliance: Respect user consent, anonymize PII
• Validation: Test tracking before production deployment

3. Analysis Techniques

Cohort Analysis

Track groups of users over time:

Week 0: 1000 users signed up
Week 1: 650 users returned (65% retention)
Week 2: 520 users returned (52% retention)
Week 4: 400 users returned (40% retention)

Insights:

• Identify retention drop-off points
• Compare cohorts by signup date, feature, or user segment
• Validate if product changes improve retention

Funnel Analysis

Track step-by-step user progression:

Homepage Visit:        10,000 users (100%)
  ↓
Signup Page:           3,000 users (30%)
  ↓
Form Submission:       1,500 users (15%)
  ↓
Email Confirmation:    1,200 users (12%)
  ↓
Onboarding Complete:   900 users (9%)

Insights:

• Identify biggest drop-off points
• Prioritize optimizations with highest potential impact
• Measure before/after improvements

Segmentation Analysis

Compare behavior across user groups:

Free Plan Users:
- Avg session: 5 min
- Feature usage: 40%
- Retention: 30%

Paid Plan Users:
- Avg session: 15 min
- Feature usage: 85%
- Retention: 75%

Insights:

• Understand power users vs. casual users
• Tailor features to different segments
• Identify conversion drivers

A/B Testing

Compare variants to validate hypotheses:

Variant A (Control):  1000 users, 10% conversion
Variant B (New CTA):  1000 users, 14% conversion
Statistical Significance: p < 0.05 ✓

Best Practices:

• Test one variable at a time
• Ensure sufficient sample size
• Run for full business cycle
• Validate statistical significance

4. Hypothesis-Driven Development

Hypothesis Template

We believe that [change/feature]
For [user segment]
Will result in [expected outcome]
We will know we're right when we see [measurable signal]

Example Hypotheses

Hypothesis 1:

• We believe that: Adding onboarding tooltips
• For: New free trial users
• Will result in: Increased feature discovery
• We will know we're right when: Feature usage in first week increases from 40% to 60%

Hypothesis 2:

• We believe that: Simplifying the checkout flow from 5 steps to 3
• For: All purchasing users
• Will result in: Higher conversion rate
• We will know we're right when: Checkout completion rate increases from 65% to 75%

Validation Process:

1. Define hypothesis and success metrics
2. Implement tracking before building feature
3. Build and release (potentially as A/B test)
4. Collect data for defined period
5. Analyze results against success criteria
6. Decide: keep, iterate, or kill feature

[TECH_STACK_SPECIFIC] Considerations

Analytics Implementation

Common analytics platforms:

• Google Analytics 4: Web traffic, user journeys
• Mixpanel: Product analytics, funnels, cohorts
• Amplitude: Behavioral analytics, retention
• Heap: Auto-capture analytics
• PostHog: Open-source product analytics
• Custom: In-house analytics pipeline

Data Warehouse

• Ensure analytics data flows to central warehouse
• Common tools: PostgreSQL, BigQuery, Redshift, Snowflake
• Enable SQL queries for custom analysis

Dashboard Tools

• Metabase: Open-source BI tool
• Looker: Enterprise BI platform
• Tableau: Advanced visualization
• Custom: Built with Recharts, D3.js, etc.

Tools Required

MCP Servers

[MCP_TOOLS]

<!-- Populated during skill creation based on: 1. User's installed MCP servers 2. User's selection for this skill Recommended for this skill (examples): - postgres - Query analytics data from production database - fetch - Retrieve metrics dashboards and reports - filesystem - Manage data analysis artifacts and reports Note: Skills work without MCP servers, but functionality may be limited -->

Analytics Platforms

• Access to product analytics tool (Mixpanel, Amplitude, etc.)
• Web analytics (Google Analytics)
• Session recording tools (FullStory, Hotjar) - optional but valuable

Data Access

• SQL access to production database (read-only) or data warehouse
• Dashboard tools for visualization
• Spreadsheet software (Excel, Google Sheets) for ad-hoc analysis

Testing Tools

• A/B testing platform (Optimizely, VWO, LaunchDarkly, etc.)
• Statistical significance calculators

Communication

• Data visualization tools for stakeholder reports
• Presentation software for sharing insights

Quality Checklist

Before making data-driven decisions:

• [ ] Data source is reliable and recent
• [ ] Sample size is statistically significant
• [ ] Time period is representative (not holiday/anomaly period)
• [ ] Segmentation is appropriate for analysis
• [ ] Correlation vs. causation considered
• [ ] Confounding factors identified
• [ ] Statistical significance validated (for A/B tests)
• [ ] Data privacy and compliance respected
• [ ] Qualitative feedback considered alongside quantitative data
• [ ] Insights translated to actionable recommendations
• [ ] Findings documented for future reference
• [ ] Stakeholders aligned on interpretation

Metrics Dashboard Template

# Product Metrics Dashboard: [Product Name]

> Last Updated: [DATE]
> Data Period: [Date Range]
> Reporting Frequency: Weekly | Monthly

## Executive Summary
[2-3 sentence overview of current product health]

## Key Metrics

### Acquisition
- **Total Signups**: [Number] ([% change] vs. last period)
- **Signup Conversion Rate**: [%] ([% change])
- **Top Traffic Sources**:
  1. [Source]: [%]
  2. [Source]: [%]
  3. [Source]: [%]

### Activation
- **Onboarding Completion Rate**: [%] ([% change])
- **Time to First Value**: [Avg time] ([% change])
- **Feature Adoption (First Week)**: [%] ([% change])

### Retention
- **DAU**: [Number] ([% change])
- **WAU**: [Number] ([% change])
- **MAU**: [Number] ([% change])
- **30-Day Retention**: [%] ([% change])
- **Churn Rate**: [%] ([% change])

### Revenue
- **MRR**: $[Amount] ([% change])
- **ARPU**: $[Amount] ([% change])
- **LTV**: $[Amount]
- **CAC**: $[Amount]
- **LTV:CAC Ratio**: [Ratio]

### Quality
- **Error Rate**: [%] ([% change])
- **Avg Page Load Time**: [Seconds] ([% change])
- **NPS Score**: [Score] ([% change])

## Cohort Analysis

| Signup Week | Week 0 | Week 1 | Week 2 | Week 4 | Week 8 |
|-------------|--------|--------|--------|--------|--------|
| 2025-12-02  | 100%   | 68%    | 54%    | 42%    | 38%    |
| 2025-12-09  | 100%   | 70%    | 56%    | 44%    | -      |
| 2025-12-16  | 100%   | 72%    | 58%    | -      | -      |
| 2025-12-23  | 100%   | 65%    | -      | -      | -      |

**Insight**: [Interpretation of cohort trends]

## Feature Usage

| Feature | % of Active Users | Avg Uses per User | Trend |
|---------|-------------------|-------------------|-------|
| [Feature 1] | [%] | [Number] | ↑ ↓ → |
| [Feature 2] | [%] | [Number] | ↑ ↓ → |
| [Feature 3] | [%] | [Number] | ↑ ↓ → |

**Insight**: [Key takeaways on feature adoption]

## Conversion Funnels

### Signup Funnel
1. Homepage → Signup Page: [%]
2. Signup Page → Form Submit: [%]
3. Form Submit → Email Confirm: [%]
4. Email Confirm → Onboarding: [%]

**Overall Conversion**: [%]
**Biggest Drop-off**: [Step] ([%] drop)

### Purchase Funnel
1. Free User → Trial Start: [%]
2. Trial Start → Trial Engaged: [%]
3. Trial Engaged → Purchase: [%]

**Overall Conversion**: [%]
**Biggest Drop-off**: [Step] ([%] drop)

## User Segments

| Segment | % of Users | Avg Session | Feature Usage | Retention |
|---------|------------|-------------|---------------|-----------|
| Power Users | [%] | [Time] | [%] | [%] |
| Regular Users | [%] | [Time] | [%] | [%] |
| At-Risk Users | [%] | [Time] | [%] | [%] |

**Insight**: [Segment-specific observations]

## Key Insights

1. **[Insight Title]**: [Description and implication]
2. **[Insight Title]**: [Description and implication]
3. **[Insight Title]**: [Description and implication]

## Recommended Actions

| Priority | Action | Expected Impact | Owner | Status |
|----------|--------|-----------------|-------|--------|
| High | [Action] | [Impact] | [Name] | [Status] |
| Medium | [Action] | [Impact] | [Name] | [Status] |

## Experiments in Progress

| Experiment | Hypothesis | Status | Early Results |
|------------|------------|--------|---------------|
| [Name] | [Hypothesis] | Running | [Update] |

SQL Query Examples

Daily Active Users (DAU)

SELECT
  DATE(logged_in_at) as date,
  COUNT(DISTINCT user_id) as dau
FROM user_sessions
WHERE logged_in_at >= CURRENT_DATE - INTERVAL '30 days'
GROUP BY DATE(logged_in_at)
ORDER BY date DESC;

Feature Adoption Rate

SELECT
  COUNT(DISTINCT user_id) as total_users,
  COUNT(DISTINCT CASE WHEN feature_used THEN user_id END) as users_with_feature,
  ROUND(100.0 * COUNT(DISTINCT CASE WHEN feature_used THEN user_id END) / COUNT(DISTINCT user_id), 2) as adoption_rate
FROM users
LEFT JOIN feature_events ON users.id = feature_events.user_id
WHERE users.created_at >= CURRENT_DATE - INTERVAL '30 days';

Cohort Retention

WITH cohorts AS (
  SELECT
    user_id,
    DATE_TRUNC('week', created_at) as cohort_week
  FROM users
),
activity AS (
  SELECT
    user_id,
    DATE_TRUNC('week', logged_in_at) as activity_week
  FROM user_sessions
)
SELECT
  c.cohort_week,
  DATE_DIFF('week', c.cohort_week, a.activity_week) as weeks_since_signup,
  COUNT(DISTINCT c.user_id) as cohort_size,
  COUNT(DISTINCT a.user_id) as active_users,
  ROUND(100.0 * COUNT(DISTINCT a.user_id) / COUNT(DISTINCT c.user_id), 2) as retention_rate
FROM cohorts c
LEFT JOIN activity a ON c.user_id = a.user_id
GROUP BY c.cohort_week, weeks_since_signup
ORDER BY c.cohort_week, weeks_since_signup;

Conversion Funnel

SELECT
  COUNT(DISTINCT user_id) as total_visitors,
  COUNT(DISTINCT CASE WHEN signed_up THEN user_id END) as signups,
  COUNT(DISTINCT CASE WHEN onboarded THEN user_id END) as completed_onboarding,
  COUNT(DISTINCT CASE WHEN upgraded THEN user_id END) as paid_users,
  ROUND(100.0 * COUNT(DISTINCT CASE WHEN signed_up THEN user_id END) / COUNT(DISTINCT user_id), 2) as signup_rate,
  ROUND(100.0 * COUNT(DISTINCT CASE WHEN onboarded THEN user_id END) / COUNT(DISTINCT CASE WHEN signed_up THEN user_id END), 2) as onboarding_rate,
  ROUND(100.0 * COUNT(DISTINCT CASE WHEN upgraded THEN user_id END) / COUNT(DISTINCT CASE WHEN signed_up THEN user_id END), 2) as conversion_rate
FROM user_journey
WHERE visited_at >= CURRENT_DATE - INTERVAL '30 days';

Data Analysis Anti-Patterns

1. Vanity Metrics

Problem: Tracking metrics that look good but don't inform decisions Example: Total signups without considering retention or activation Solution: Focus on actionable metrics tied to business outcomes

2. Analysis Paralysis

Problem: Collecting endless data without making decisions Solution: Set decision deadlines, use "good enough" data

3. Ignoring Statistical Significance

Problem: Declaring A/B test winner with insufficient data Solution: Use proper sample size calculators, validate p-values

4. Correlation = Causation

Problem: Assuming correlation implies causation Example: "Users who use Feature X have higher retention" → doesn't mean Feature X causes retention Solution: Consider confounding factors, run experiments

5. Cherry-Picking Data

Problem: Selecting date ranges or segments that support desired conclusion Solution: Define analysis parameters before looking at data

6. Ignoring Qualitative Data

Problem: Relying solely on numbers without user feedback Solution: Combine quantitative metrics with user interviews, surveys, support tickets

Integration with Specwright

Metrics in Product Decisions

Document data-driven decisions:

specwright/product/architecture-decision.md

Include:

• Hypothesis tested
• Data analyzed
• Results observed
• Decision made and rationale

Feature Prioritization

Reference metrics in specs:

.specwright/specs/YYYY-MM-DD-feature-name/spec.md

Include:

• Current state metrics
• Expected impact on KPIs
• Success criteria post-launch

Roadmap Validation

Update roadmap based on data:

.specwright/product/roadmap.md

Adjust priorities when data reveals:

• Unexpected user behavior
• Higher/lower than expected adoption
• New growth opportunities

Success Metrics

Track data analysis effectiveness through:

• Decision Velocity: Time from question to data-informed decision
• Prediction Accuracy: % of hypotheses validated
• Stakeholder Confidence: Trust in data-driven recommendations
• Feature Success Rate: % of launched features meeting success criteria
• Data Quality: % of metrics tracked accurately and reliably

---

Remember: Data tells stories, but you must interpret them wisely. Combine quantitative metrics with qualitative insights. Question your assumptions. Test your hypotheses. And always ask "so what?" – what action does this data inform?