Understanding Customer Product Usage

As a product manager one of the nice aspects of web-based software is that you can easily understand customer usage. The idea is to track which modules and features customers use in order to make more intelligent decisions. Here are a few notes when thinking about how customers use a product:

• Consider embedding Google Analytics tracking code in the app (run it in async mode to minimize performance issues)
• Categorize types of customers based on size and vertical industry in order to segment their usage patterns (e.g. small vs. medium vs. large customers with verticals like governments, IT, healthcare, and higher education)
• Client advocates should ask customers directly what modules they use most often and record this information in custom fields in the CRM
• Customer usage information should help in product management to focus development efforts and provide objective information during debates

Accessible product usage information is a valuable benefit of building web-based software. My recommendation is to incorporate product usage information into your startups processes.

What else? What other ideas do you have for understanding customer product usage?