Separate acquisition from product behavior
Web traffic and campaign questions differ from activation, funnels, retention and feature adoption. Decide which questions are primary.
Google Analytics, Plausible, Mixpanel, Amplitude and PostHog overlap, but their operating models and ideal owners differ.
Write an event contract
Define event name, trigger, properties, identity behavior, consent and owner before implementation. Include examples that should not produce the event.
Validate events against source records. A dashboard cannot repair an ambiguous or duplicated event stream.
Test one decision
Choose a known funnel or retention question and reproduce it in each candidate. Ask a stakeholder to interpret the result without coaching.
Measure setup, query flexibility, collaboration and how easily a suspicious number can be traced back to events.
Plan volume, privacy and portability
Estimate events, recordings, users and required history. Review consent, deletion, regional hosting and access controls.
Test exports or warehouse access. The organization should retain analytical options as questions and tools change.