The SaaS Metrics We Need to Retire (And What to Track Instead)

Read time: 3 minutes.

Welcome to the 127th edition of The Growth Elements Newsletter. Every Monday and sometimes on Thursday, I write an essay on growth metrics & experiments and business case studies.

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You don’t scale what you don’t measure.
But worse? You stall growth by measuring the wrong things.

Most SaaS teams are still tracking metrics that don’t predict velocity, profitability, or product-market fit.
They’re tracking for the boardroom, not for the battlefield.

Here’s what I mean:

[1] DAUs in Non-Daily Products → Retire It

Why it fails:
For tools used weekly or monthly (e.g. payroll, design, workflow), DAU is misleading. It creates false urgency.

Track instead:
→ Time-to-Value (TTV): How fast a user reaches their first key outcome
→ Stickiness Ratio (WAU/MAU or DAU/WAU): Measures recurring utility, not daily obsession

[2] NPS in Isolation → Retire It

Why it fails:
It measures sentiment, not behaviour.
Many users who churned rated 9s before leaving.

Track instead:
→ Expansion Rate or Net Revenue Retention (NRR)
→ Product Qualified Leads (PQLs) based on usage, not smiles

[3] CAC Payback (Without Context) → Retire It

Why it fails:
Looks great in a deck until you realise margin is never reached due to long TTV or high support cost.

Track instead:
→ Time-to-Margin: How fast a customer becomes net positive after CAC + COGS
→ Segmented CAC by ICP: Not all CAC is created equal

[4] CSAT as a Success Metric → Retire It

Why it fails:
CSAT tells you how friendly the support was.
It doesn’t show if the customer is successful.

Track instead:
→ Activation Rate: Are users getting value early?
→ Onboarding Drop-off: Where do users bail out?
→ Usage-to-Expansion Correlation: Do power users become premium users?

[5] MQLs → Kill it With Fire

Why it fails:
Marketing hands over “leads” that never convert. Sales wastes time. Everyone blames everyone.

Track instead:
→ Intent-based Conversion Triggers: Site behaviour, product interest, buying signals
→ Sales-Qualified Pipeline (SQL Velocity): What’s moving, not just generated

The Fix Isn’t Just New Metrics. It’s New Measurement Culture.

Operator questions to ask:

• Does this metric correlate with retention or revenue?

• Can we act on it in <7 days?

• If we improve this number, would our business get better?

That's it for today's article! I hope you found this essay insightful.

Wishing you a productive week ahead!

I always appreciate you reading.

Thanks,
Chintankumar Maisuria