The best SaaS companies are obsessively data-driven. They do not just collect metrics -- they build dashboards that surface the right information at the right time to drive decisions. Here is how to build yours.
The Five Categories of SaaS Metrics
Organize your dashboard around five pillars: Revenue (MRR, ARR, expansion revenue, contraction), Growth (new MRR, growth rate, pipeline value), Retention (gross churn, net churn, NRR, logo retention), Efficiency (CAC, LTV, payback period, burn multiple), and Engagement (DAU/MAU, feature adoption, time-to-value).
Building the Revenue Dashboard
MRR should be broken into components: new MRR (from new customers), expansion MRR (upsells from existing customers), contraction MRR (downgrades), and churned MRR (lost customers). This decomposition reveals the health of each growth lever.
The Retention Cohort View
The most insightful chart in any SaaS dashboard is the retention cohort view. Group customers by the month they signed up, then track what percentage remain active each subsequent month. This reveals whether your product is improving for new customers and whether older cohorts are stable.
Leading vs. Lagging Indicators
Lagging indicators (revenue, churn) tell you what already happened. Leading indicators (activation rate, feature adoption, support ticket volume) predict what will happen. Build your dashboard with both, but prioritize leading indicators for daily decision-making.
Dashboard Tools
Start simple with a spreadsheet that is updated weekly. As you grow, move to dedicated tools like Chartmogul, Baremetrics, or custom dashboards in Metabase or Looker. The tool matters less than the discipline of reviewing metrics consistently.
