Like most other startups using the lean startup methodology, we’ve become pretty obsessed with tracking data. We track all kinds of stuff, from internal product metrics to external referrals to conversions via the various funnels we’ve set up. We rely on these numbers to help us make key product decisions, to tell us where we should focus our marketing efforts, and generally to find out what’s working and what’s not. For a company still wiggling our way into product/market fit, these numbers are our currency, and it’s important that we get them right.
We use several sets of tools to measure data, and each has its own strengths and weaknesses. In order to ensure validity, we often cross-reference these data sets against each other to make sure we’re getting the most accurate numbers possible. While I often wish there were a single solution to this problem that could provide reliable and accurate data in one place, I do find some sort of sick comfort in knowing that outliers and tracking errors can be mostly avoided by the built-in redundancy in our tracking methods. But however much satisfaction, validation, and useful insight comes from looking at the compiled data sets, there’s no doubt that tracking and gathering data can be a huge pain in the ass.
Here’s a rough outline of what we track and how:
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We’ve had amazing discussions around article content on Pinyadda this week. The ideas and knowledge being shared is incredible, and underscores how our information system can really advance the power of the collective mind, while at the same time highlighting individuals’ thoughts and ideas (a by-product of the base problems Pinyadda solves). I also had the pleasure of listening to Mikolaj Jan Piskorski (Misiek) speak this week, who emphasized one of the ways I’ve always thought Pinyadda might be useful to drive innovation, communication, and community in the workplace. [click to continue…]
Last Wednesday, amid a sea of reporters and a blinding array of flash bulbs, we opened Pinyadda registration to the public. OK, so that’s not exactly how it went down. 
We did quietly open up registration last week and so far the results have been great. Thanks to everyone who’s signed up; we look forward to hearing from you in the coming weeks about your experience with Pinyadda and how we can make it better. [click to continue…]
On the day of Apple’s Tablet announcement, I got to thinking: what current e-reader is more popular? Outside of sales, which would probably skew in the favor of Amazon’s Kindle because Barnes & Noble’s Nook was only released in November, I thought a good gauge of popularity would be to track online media mentions of each e-reader. For the data, I went to Pinyadda’s index and scanned article titles for “Kindle” and then “Nook”. The results were somewhat surprising to me: [click to continue…]
After a couple weeks of learning lean startup methodologies, I’m left wondering about the value of comparing user first impressions to developed use (and doing so across customer archetypes) in order to discover and validate our customer base.
The business opportunity Pinyadda has recognized is the need for an information system that leverages an individual’s unique social graph to filter the firehose of news articles and blog posts published each day and deliver only the ones that would be most valuable. The Pinyadda team has built a base product that addresses this opportunity and which we believe solves several problems.
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