Goals, Signals, and Metrics in Product Design

Measuring success in product design is quite a challenge, but without it, it’s almost impossible to win support. Many teams launch features and hope for the best without clear criteria for evaluating their impact and results. That’s where Goals, Signals, and Metrics, GSMs, come in. This framework provides an approach to defining what success looks like, how to observe progress, and how to measure results. We need to apply it as early as possible during the design process.

Often, sometimes product teams struggle with vague goals, misleading data, or misaligned KPIs. GSM is supposed to minimize guesswork by pushing teams to track better indicators to make data-driven decisions.

Let’s look at the use of Goals, Signals, and Metrics with different examples from SaaS — document management, eCommerce, payment systems, and telemedicine platforms. Diverse enough.

What?

GSM is a three-tiered framework:

↘️ Goals — Define the desired outcomes for the business and users.

⬇️ Signals — Identify observable behaviors that indicate progress toward goals.

➡️ Metrics — Turn signals into quantifiable data points for analysis.

Many companies track metrics without first defining goals and signals. Because why…