If you care about how people actually use your app—not just vanity numbers—this guide’s for you. Whether you’re a founder, product manager, or just the person who gets stuck doing analytics, you know that tracking product usage can get overwhelming fast. June.so promises to make it simple, but no tool is magic on its own. Here’s how to set up June.so, figure out what’s worth tracking, and get metrics you’ll actually act on.
Why Track Product Usage? (And Why Most People Mess It Up)
You want to know: Are people using your product the way you hoped? Where do they drop off? What features are sticky? But here’s the problem—most teams either track too much (and end up drowning in dashboards) or too little (and fly blind). The goal isn’t to have the fanciest charts. It’s to answer real questions and make decisions.
Step 1: Get June.so Connected to Your Product
First things first—if you haven’t heard of June.so, it’s a product analytics tool aimed at making tracking and understanding product usage simple, especially for SaaS teams. It’s built on top of Segment (but can handle other data sources too), and it prides itself on being plug-and-play.
Here’s how to get started:
- Sign Up and Pick a Workspace
-
Create your account. June will nudge you to pick a workspace—think of this like your company or product.
-
Connect Your Data Source
- June pushes you to connect Segment, which is the simplest way if you already use it. If not, you can set up the June SDK for direct integration (JavaScript, React, and backend flavors available).
-
Pro tip: If you’re not technical, get a dev friend to help. It’s a 10–15 minute job for most setups.
-
Track Basic Events
- The bare minimum: “Signed Up”, “Logged In”, and “Performed Key Action” (like “Created Project” or “Sent Message”).
- Don’t overthink this. You can always add more events later, but missing these basics will leave you in the dark.
What works: The onboarding is genuinely straightforward. Most teams are up and running in less than an hour.
What to ignore: Don’t get distracted by the long list of possible integrations or custom events right away. Focus on getting the basics live first.
Step 2: Decide What to Track—And Why
Here’s where people get in trouble. It’s tempting to track everything (“what if we need this later?”), but more data isn’t better if you never look at it.
Pick 3–5 Core Metrics: - Activation: What does a new user do that signals, “they get it”? (e.g., created their first project) - Engagement: Who’s coming back? What features do they use most? - Retention: How many users stick around after a week, month, etc.? - Feature Adoption: Are users trying that shiny new thing you spent a sprint on? - Conversion: Are trial users upgrading or paying?
Tip: If you can’t imagine making a decision with it, don’t track it (yet).
Examples: - For a project management tool: “Created Project”, “Invited Teammate”, “Completed Task” - For a messaging app: “Sent Message”, “Joined Channel”, “Started Call”
What works: Keeping it simple at first. You’ll learn what matters as you go.
What doesn’t: Tracking 50 events before you know what questions you actually have. That’s a fast way to get dashboard fatigue.
Step 3: Set Up Metrics and Reports in June.so
Okay, you’ve hooked up your data and picked your key events. Now, let’s actually get something useful out of June.
- Use June’s Built-in Templates
-
June offers out-of-the-box reports for activation, retention, feature adoption, and more. These templates save time and give you a starting point.
-
Create Custom Reports
- Need something specific? Build a custom report by picking events and filters that matter to you.
-
Example: Want to see how many users invite teammates in their first week? That’s a few clicks.
-
Set Up Segments
- Break down users by plan (free vs. paid), company size, or whatever matters to your business.
-
Segments help you answer questions like, “Are paid users actually using that new feature?” instead of just guessing.
-
Schedule Reports to Your Inbox
- Don’t rely on remembering to log in. June can send you weekly (or daily) digests of key metrics.
- Pro tip: Only subscribe to metrics you’ll actually act on. Otherwise, it’s just more email noise.
What works: The default reports are actually useful, not just fluff. The UI is cleaner than most analytics tools.
What doesn’t: June’s customization is good for most SaaS use cases, but if you want truly wild, multi-dimensional analysis, you’ll hit its limits. (In that case, you probably need something heavier—and a full-time analyst.)
Step 4: Interpret the Data (Without Overthinking)
Seeing a graph is easy. Figuring out what it means is harder. Here’s how to avoid common traps:
- Look for trends, not blips. Ignore one-off spikes or dips—focus on week-over-week or month-over-month changes.
- Ask, “So what?” If you see retention drop, do you know why? If not, dig deeper.
- Compare cohorts. June lets you see how different groups behave—new users vs. old, paid vs. free.
- Get feedback. Numbers are starting points, not answers. When you spot something weird, ask real users.
What works: Using dashboards to spot “something changed”—then following up with user interviews or other qualitative research.
What doesn’t: Treating every graph like gospel. Analytics are just one piece of the puzzle.
Step 5: Turn Insights Into Actions
Metrics are only useful if they change what you do.
- Set up alerts. June can let you know if something important (like signups or retention) suddenly changes.
- Share insights with your team. Don’t keep metrics to yourself. Share the story, not just the chart.
- Run experiments. If you think a new feature will move the needle, use metrics to confirm or reject your hunch.
- Iterate. If your metrics aren’t helping you make decisions, tweak what you track.
Pro tip: Review your core metrics monthly. If you’re not acting on a metric, either change your process or stop tracking it.
Honest Pros and Cons of Using June.so
Pros: - Fast setup, especially if you already use Segment. - Good-looking, straightforward reports—less time fiddling. - Great for SaaS teams that want answers, not data dumps. - Affordable compared to enterprise analytics platforms.
Cons: - Not as customizable as heavyweights like Amplitude or Mixpanel. - Some advanced analysis (funnel breakdowns, retroactive event tracking) is limited. - If your product isn’t “typical” SaaS (marketplaces, mobile-heavy, etc.), you may need more tweaks.
Who should use it: Early- and mid-stage SaaS teams who want to understand user behavior without hiring a data scientist.
Who shouldn’t: Teams with truly weird data needs, or who love building custom dashboards for everything.
Keep It Simple, Ship, and Learn
Tracking product usage isn’t about collecting every possible metric—it’s about consistently watching what matters and using it to make better decisions. June.so (and tools like it) can save you a ton of time, but only if you keep things focused and iterate as you go.
Set up the basics, watch the trends, and don’t be afraid to cut what’s not useful. Metrics aren’t magic—they’re just a tool to help you build something people actually want. Now get tracking, and don’t let the dashboards distract you from real progress.