Metrics That Don’t Matter: What to Ditch in 2025
More Metrics Create More Confusion
Because surface-level numbers won’t save your product... or your credibility.
You open the dashboard. There’s a mountain of data.
Some of it looks impressive. But most of it? Useless.
It’s easy to fall in love with numbers that look good on slides... even if they don’t drive actual decisions.
That’s the trap of vanity metrics… they give the illusion of progress, but not the substance.
Today, we’re diving into what to stop tracking, what to measure instead, and how to connect your metrics to real business value.
The Problem with Vanity Metrics
What to Stop Tracking in UX and Product
What to Measure Instead (That Stakeholders Actually Care About)
Why More Metrics Create More Confusion
Resource Corner
UXCON25 Spotlight: Metrics That Lead to Action
🚨 The Problem with Vanity Metrics
Vanity metrics are the kind of numbers that feel good to share... but don’t help you make better decisions.
Think:
Page Views
Bounce Rate
Likes
Time on Page
These metrics are often too broad, too shallow, or too disconnected from user behavior.
They rarely answer the question, “So what?”
The result?
Your team feels busy. Your reports look full. But your product doesn’t get better.
Real metrics guide real action.
Everything else is background noise.
🗑️ What to Stop Tracking in UX and Product
Not all metrics are bad… but some have outlived their usefulness. Let’s look at five you can safely retire in 2025.
1. Session Duration
More time spent doesn’t always mean more engagement.
It could just mean the user is stuck, confused, or multitasking.
Without context, this number tells you nothing useful.
2. Click-Through Rate (on its own)
A high CTR is meaningless if it doesn’t lead to meaningful action afterward.
Clicks without conversion don’t equal success — they signal curiosity, not commitment.
3. Number of Research Sessions
You ran 30 interviews. Great. But did those insights change a product decision?
Impact matters more than volume. If you’re not tying insights to outcomes, you’re just collecting data.
4. Time Spent on a Feature
Users spending a long time on a feature isn’t always a good sign.
It might indicate a confusing flow or poor usability.
Watch out for misinterpreting this one as engagement.
5. NPS Without Context
Net Promoter Score is a nice high-level signal... but without follow-up questions, it’s a dead end.
If someone scores you a 6, you need to know why or the number is just a number.
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back to where we stopped..
✅ What to Measure Instead
Shift your focus to metrics that reveal outcomes, not just activity. These are the numbers that help teams build better products and earn trust.
1. Task Completion Rate
Can users actually complete what they came to do?
Track the success rate of specific actions, not just movement through screens.
2. Drop-Off Points in Key Journeys
Where are users abandoning flows and why?
Understanding friction in critical paths (like sign-up or checkout) helps prioritize real fixes.
3. Time to First Value
How long does it take a user to reach their “aha” moment?
This is crucial for activation, onboarding, and reducing early churn.
4. Support Tickets by Feature
Which parts of your product are causing the most confusion or frustration?
Patterns in support tickets often point to design or UX debt.
5. Design-to-Deployment Time
How long does it take to ship a UX improvement after research or validation?
This shows how well your team moves from insight to execution.
Why More Metrics Create More Confusion
More data doesn’t mean more clarity.
In fact, too many metrics can bury the insight you actually need.
You track 20 numbers
Only 3 of them connect to product decisions
The rest distract stakeholders and dilute your message
Good metrics focus attention.
They make conversations sharper, not fuzzier.
If you’ve ever watched a team argue over three different definitions of “engagement,” you’ve seen what happens when the signal gets lost in the noise.
📌 Tip: Create a short list of core metrics tied to your product goals and revisit them quarterly.
📚 Resource Corner
Final Thought
The point of a metric isn’t to decorate your next team update.
It’s to shape a conversation. Drive a decision. Move the work forward.
So ask yourself:
If this number changes, will we change what we do?
Will this metric clarify something for my stakeholders?
Is it helping or hiding the truth?
Because great UX isn’t just about good design.
It’s about proving that design is working.