Stop 04 · Data & Metrics for PMsTopics · 9/12

Analytics Tools (Amplitude, Mixpanel, GA4)

In short

Analytics tools record what users do in your product and turn it into funnels, retention charts and dashboards, without writing SQL every time.

Product analytics platforms that let you build funnels, cohorts and retention charts without writing SQL — Amplitude and Mixpanel are common in product-led companies, GA4 is more marketing-oriented.

The purple blob opens a toolbox next to a scooter, holding a spanner and a tyre gauge.

Think of it like this

The mechanic's toolbox

A mechanic doesn't use one tool for everything. A spanner for bolts, a gauge for tyres, a tester for the battery. Analytics tools overlap, but each is better at certain jobs. Pick the one that fits the question.

Watch it happen

How one tap becomes a chart

App

Analytics SDK

Tool

event: purchase

1/5The user pays. Code in the app fires an event with details like amount and currency.

The big ideas

What you need to know

Everything is an event

Each action, like "Lesson Completed", is an event with properties. All three tools work this way.

Amplitude and Mixpanel

Built for product teams: funnels, retention and user paths inside apps.

GA4

Google's free analytics, strong for websites, marketing channels and links with Google Ads.

Tracking plan first

List events and property names before coding. Messy names make every chart unreliable.

See it in code

Walk through the code

1// GA4: send a purchase event from a website2gtag("event", "purchase", {3  transaction_id: "T_10482",4  value: 249,5  currency: "INR",6});

1/2"purchase" is a GA4 recommended event name, so built-in reports understand it.

GA4 has a recommended "purchase" event. Engineers usually add this code, but PMs define which events and properties to track.

Save yourself the pain

Common mistakes

Oops

Tracking every click with names like btn_click_2.

Do this instead

Track meaningful actions with clear names like "Order Placed", agreed in a tracking plan.

Oops

Picking a tool because a famous company uses it.

Do this instead

Pick by your questions: in-app behaviour, marketing channels, budget and team skills.

Your mission

Explore real analytics data

~30 min

Quick check

Why write a tracking plan before adding analytics code?

Go deeper

1Sign up for a free-tier account and explore a demo dataset in one of these tools.
2Build a simple funnel report and a retention report inside the tool.
3Learn the practical difference between event-based analytics and page-view analytics.