If you’ve ever opened a product analytics dashboard and scrolled past dozens of unlabeled metrics, charts with no viewers, and events no one can explain—welcome to the world of metric sprawl.
In my roles at a MAANG company and a remittance fintech, I’ve seen product teams obsessed with instrumenting everything: every click, every scroll, every hover, every field. The thinking is, “Better to have it and not need it than need it and not have it.”
But there’s a hidden cost to this mindset. And it’s time we talk about it.
I personally tend toward wanting as much information as possible, though Lenard makes good points around the friction that adds, as well as potential degradations in user experience.