The only five analytics events your MVP needs

The first analytics mistake is tracking everything. The second is tracking nothing and calling it focus. The useful middle is five events.

The five

1. `signup_completed` — someone created an account. Properties: source, plan, referrer.
2. `activated` — the user did the one thing that proves they understood the product. Define this precisely per product: sent the first invoice, connected the first bot, published the first page.
3. `core_action` — the repeatable thing they will do forever. Count per user per week.
4. `invited_or_shared` — the only organic growth signal that matters early.
5. `payment_started` — intent to pay, whether or not the payment succeeds. The gap between started and succeeded is a bug report in disguise.

That is it. Page views are not on the list. Neither is button clicks.

Instrumenting cheaply

An events table with user_id, name, properties jsonb, created_at and an index on (name, created_at) gets you to a few hundred thousand events without a vendor. Write to it from the server, not the browser, for anything that matters — ad blockers eat client-side events silently.

The three questions to ask weekly

• What percentage of signups activate within 48 hours?
• Of activated users, how many perform core_action in week two?
• Of users who hit payment_started, how many complete?

Each has an obvious follow-up action. Low activation means onboarding. Low week-two retention means the product is not habitual yet. A gap at payment means friction or trust.

The trap

The moment you have a dashboard, you will be tempted to add a metric because it is easy. Every added metric dilutes attention. Keep the list at five until one of them is consistently answered and boring; then, and only then, add a sixth.