Instrument for questions, not for completeness
Unit 5 of 8 · Lesson 3 of 4Index
Write the question first, then the event
- 01Write the questions first
Write the questions first
Did anyone use it? Who? Did they come back? Did it break? Did it move our number? These come up in week one almost every time.
- 02Then add only what answers them
Then add only what answers them
Each question needs one or two events, with the properties you will want to split by, like platform or bank.
- 03No question, no event
No question, no event
If an event does not answer a question, delete it, however cheap it seems to add.
- 04Tracking everything is noise
Tracking everything is noise
Every extra event costs money to store and time to wade through. A short plan gets read. A long one gets ignored.
Doing it with AI, and where it breaks
Generate an event plan from your spec, then delete every event you cannot attach to a question.
It produces an exhaustive list of every click and hover. That is noise you pay to store and never query.
Here are the five questions we must answer in week one, and the feature spec. Propose the smallest set of events that answers them. For each event give: name, when it fires, properties, and which question it answers. Include nothing that answers no question.
Build it
A tracking plan where every event is tied to a written question.
Plausible, PostHog or GA4
The worked solution
Stuck, or want to compare?
There is a worked solution. Try the build first. Reading it before you have attempted anything is the fastest way to learn nothing.
Checkpoint
If you did the build, these take two minutes. If you cannot answer one of them, that is the part to go back to.
Moving on marks this lesson complete. Finish the build first, it is the part that counts.