If you work at a B2B SaaS company and need to move faster—validating ideas, understanding what users actually do, and getting new features in front of customers—this is for you. There are a million tools out there promising “insights” and “growth.” Most are either too shallow or try to do too much. Here’s what actually matters in a tool like PostHog, and how you can use it to cut through the noise and get to product-market fit faster.
Why Even Bother With a Product Analytics Platform?
Let’s get one thing out of the way: you don’t need analytics for the sake of analytics. You need to know what’s working, what isn’t, and where people are falling off. B2B companies especially can’t afford to fly blind—enterprise customers are picky, and your feedback loop is longer than in consumer software. PostHog stands out because it’s built for product teams who want answers, not dashboards for their own sake.
1. Product Analytics You’ll Actually Use
A lot of analytics tools drown you in charts but never help you answer real questions. PostHog’s bread and butter is event-based analytics—track what users do in your app (clicks, signups, feature use, etc.) and tie that back to company accounts, not just individuals. That’s key for B2B.
What you can actually do: - Map your user journeys: See where people drop off in onboarding, trial flows, or key workflows. - Track feature adoption: Know which new features are ignored, and which drive real usage. - Monitor conversion rates: See how changes to your site or app affect signups or upgrades.
Pro tip: Don’t try to track everything. Start with 3-5 events that matter (e.g., “invites sent,” “integration connected,” “report exported”), then expand if you need more.
Honest take: The reporting UI is solid, but not as “pretty” as some competitors. It’s built for teams who care about speed and detail, not for wowing execs in a boardroom.
2. Session Replay: Watch Real User Behavior
Reading a chart about a drop-off in your onboarding flow is one thing. Watching a real user fumble through it is another. With PostHog’s session replay, you can see actual user sessions—mouse movements, clicks, rage clicks, the works.
Why it matters: - Find where users get stuck: Sometimes numbers don’t tell you why someone drops off. Session replays do. - Prioritize UX fixes: See which problems are common (and worth fixing) vs. one-offs. - Support troubleshooting: If a customer complains, you can watch what happened instead of guessing.
What to ignore: Don’t try to watch every session. That’s a rabbit hole. Use replays to investigate spikes in drop-off or when users file support tickets.
Privacy note: PostHog lets you redact sensitive fields (like passwords) out of the box, but double-check your settings—especially if you sell to enterprises.
3. Feature Flags: Ship Faster, Ship Safer
Feature flags let you turn new features on or off for specific users, companies, or segments—without redeploying code. This is a huge deal for B2B teams who want to test with pilot customers or roll out changes gradually.
How this accelerates go-to-market: - Test new features with beta customers: Flag a new dashboard so only your most engaged customers see it. - Roll back bad releases instantly: If something breaks, you can kill a feature for everyone (or just one customer) in seconds. - A/B test changes: Compare two versions of a flow to see what actually works, not what you think works.
Pro tip: Don’t overcomplicate things—start with flags for major features, not every tiny UI tweak.
Caveat: Feature flag management can get messy if you don’t clean up old flags now and then. Make a habit of killing dead flags after launches.
4. Funnels and Retention: Find Out What Actually Drives Revenue
Funnels are classic, but for B2B companies, you want to look beyond “signup-to-paid.” PostHog lets you build custom funnels and track cohort retention—by company, not just user.
What you can learn: - Which steps drop users: Find out if your integration step kills deals, or if people never invite teammates. - Who comes back: In B2B, long-term retention (are people still active 90 days in?) matters more than initial signups. - Account-level insights: See if certain company types (industry, size, etc.) stick around longer—this helps refine your ICP (ideal customer profile).
What to ignore: Vanity metrics like “total events” or “pageviews.” Focus on actions that correlate with revenue—like team invites, integrations, or report exports.
5. Integrations and Data Portability
PostHog plays nicely with the rest of your stack. You can send data to your warehouse (BigQuery, Snowflake, etc.), push events to Slack, or trigger webhooks.
Why it matters: - Don’t get locked in: If you ever outgrow PostHog, you can export raw data. - Automate follow-up: Trigger a Slack alert when a big customer uses a new feature—or when they stop logging in. - Enrich analysis: Combine product data with CRM or support data for deeper insights.
Honest take: Some integrations take a bit of setup (especially self-hosted), and you may need engineering help. But you’re not stuck with a black box.
6. Self-Hosting and Privacy (If You Care)
If you deal with big enterprise customers, privacy and data control comes up all the time. PostHog lets you self-host, so your data never leaves your cloud or servers.
When this matters: - Enterprise sales: Some customers flat-out require data residency. - GDPR/CCPA: If you need to delete user data on demand, it’s easier if you control the data. - Security reviews: Being able to say “we host and own all analytics data” makes procurement less painful.
Downsides: Self-hosting means more upkeep. If your team isn’t used to running Docker, you’ll need to learn or pay for managed hosting.
7. User Feedback and Surveys
PostHog has a simple but effective tool for in-app surveys and feedback prompts. You can pop up a question for new users or after someone uses a feature.
How this helps: - Get qualitative feedback fast: Find out why users churn, not just that they did. - Validate new features: Ask “How useful was this?” right after someone tries something new. - Target surveys: Show different messages to admins, end-users, or only to users from a specific company.
Limitations: This isn’t a replacement for a full-blown survey tool. But for quick, contextual feedback, it’s plenty.
What’s Hype, and What’s Actually Useful?
Let’s be real: No tool is magic. Here’s what’s worth your time in PostHog, and what you can ignore:
- Useful: Funnels, session replays, feature flags, and company-level analytics.
- Nice-to-have: In-app surveys, integrations, self-hosting (if you need it).
- Ignore (for now): Heatmaps (fun, but rarely actionable), tracking every minor event, or obsessing over pixel-perfect dashboards.
Keep It Simple, Ship It, Then Iterate
If you’re a B2B company trying to get to market faster, the best thing you can do is keep things simple. Start by tracking the few metrics that really matter. Use session replays to spot friction, turn on feature flags to test with real customers, and don’t get lost in the weeds. Tools like PostHog are there to help you move faster—not drown you in busywork. Ship, learn, and repeat. That’s how you win.