What is Product Analytics?

What is product analytics?

Knowing how well, or not, your customers or service users interact and engage with a product is integral to the success of your business.

Whether it’s a bed from a furniture store or a button on a website, having the insight to understand how easy it is to use or how desirable it is amongst your customer base, then enables teams to go back, tweak the product and optimise it to its full potential.

This is where product analytics comes into its own. Those working within the field – product analysts – are integral in increasing conversion rates – whether that’s purchase rates or how user-friendly a product is – using a mixture of digital customer analytics and data science. From the NHS to Ikea, product analysts are highly sought after in nearly every industry as they strive to make their services and products the best they can possibly be.

What happens if work needs to be done on a product?

Initially, product analysts would undertake testing, such as AB testing, to decipher if there is a more favourable way of presenting the product or service to their customer base. They may also look at implementing tools such as personalisation, a newer capability on the market, to target their service to a specific user, making it more relevant and therefore able to boost conversion.

Once the product analysts have gathered any insights on what would optimise the tools, products, and services, these are then taken to stakeholders to kickstart the process of improvement. From here, updates are made by teams such as those in user experience (UX), and the product is re-launched and continually monitored.

The different arms of product analytics

Product Analytics, while seemingly a straightforward division of Data & Analytics, is extremely broad and split up into a multitude of sub-divisions. So, while all teams may be integral in spotting room for optimisation, their exact role will be different to another analyst.

For example, a trend analyst will analyse trends over a specific period, learning about those patterns and then optimising products or services for those times. Tesco, for instance, will be prepared to put the purchase button of turkey, pigs in blankets, and roasting potatoes at the front and centre of its website at Christmas.

Journey analysts however will measure where customers come from to engage with a product or service, be it a banner ad, an email, or a social media post. They’ll also look at where in the customer journey purchasers or users drop off, finding kinks in the service experience that need to be ironed out.

How to get into product analytics

Like the sound of what a product analyst does? Here’s how to work your way into the industry.

Most businesses will aim to hire individuals with an extremely proficient maths or statistics background; business analytics qualifications will also stand you in good stead as will data science. Additionally, you’ll need to showcase a good understanding of SQL – the tool most frequently used within the sector.

Degrees are no longer as important as they once were, especially in the current climate where there are more vacancies than skilled candidates. Many businesses are far more open to hiring potential employees who hold a few crucial skills and then upskilling them as they go, rather than finding the polished product.

However, the division doesn’t usually see graduate-level talent enter, it can take up to 18 months of work until candidates can think about becoming a product analyst. However, once you’re there you can expect a starting salary of £35,000+ and the opportunities to reach up to £120,000 per year.

Product Analytics is a relatively new division within data and analytics, but one that is gaining traction at rapid rates. By 2028, the area is predicted to be worth $16.69bn as it gains popularity across businesses worldwide, helping them to both streamline and optimise their products and services.

If you are interested in entering the world of product analytics, please speak to one of our team today or take a look at our vacancies here.