This is the industry leveraging product analytics to the fullest

In the face of persistent global economic uncertainty, companies are prioritizing doing more with less and shoring up their bottom line. With budgets and headcount still frozen or shrinking, it’s never been more important to cut costs, save and grow revenue, and operate as efficiently as possible. But what does that look like in practice?

In a groundbreaking new report, Pendo and Mind the Product in partnership with RevOps Squared have found that organizations are increasingly turning to product analytics as a crucial tool for driving better business outcomes. From expanding existing accounts and combating churn to prioritizing the product roadmap, product analytics helps orgs weather change. And yet when zooming in on the specifics, we find that some industries are more forward-looking than others in ways that might surprise you. 

How insurance companies ensure resilience

One key finding in the report is that the companies taking the most ambitious and aggressive approach to product analytics are in industries typically considered “traditional” rather than tech-savvy. Consider insurance, which leads industry segments on several fronts. For one, it’s the only industry in which 100% of respondents answered that product analytics was important or very important to their decision making (compared to 74% of SaaS respondents and 79% of business services ones, for example).

What’s more, insurance is the industry that most fully leverages analytics to grow their business. 89% of insurance respondents reported they use product analytics to identify expansion opportunities for existing accounts, while financial services placed distant second (47%). In contrast, only 39% of SaaS companies surveyed use product analytics in this way.

Why SaaS companies risk falling behind

Account expansion isn’t the only area in which SaaS companies are seriously underutilizing analytics. Consider: Software companies are seeing an average 24% less net new revenue than they were a year prior. And yet at a moment when it’s imperative to preserve as much existing revenue as possible, just 33% of these companies are using product analytics to predict churn. 

Even when it comes to the traditional use cases most associate with product analytics, SaaS companies are lagging behind their peers. Just 48% of industry respondents are using product analytics to even identify performance or experience issues, for example. This is a use case many may have assumed was foundational. In a similar way, just 59% of SaaS companies said they incorporate product analytics into making roadmapping decisions (e.g., to prioritize what they build vs. what they retire or shift focus away from). By not leveraging analytics to align their own priorities with those of their customers, these businesses are wasting time and money at a time when they can least afford to do so.

Make the most of a powerful tool

As the insurance industry is showing the world, product analytics can fundamentally transform a business for the better. Why risk doing nothing while other organizations harness this crucial tool to the fullest? With the right product analytics solution and strategy, you can start seeing business results you never thought possible.

Curious how the full set of industries stack up? Want to learn the other ways in which the right product analytics solution can transform your business for the better? Get the full product benchmarks report here.