saas-analytics

SaaS Product Analytics

Capability

Implement product analytics for understanding user behavior, tracking key metrics, and making data-driven decisions. Covers event tracking, user identification, cohort analysis, and integration with analytics platforms like PostHog, Mixpanel, or custom solutions.

Use Cases

• Track user actions and feature usage
• Measure activation and retention metrics
• Identify power users and at-risk accounts
• A/B test experiments tracking
• Funnel analysis and conversion tracking
• Custom dashboard metrics

Patterns

Analytics Service Abstraction

When to use: Provider-agnostic analytics with consistent API

Implementation: Abstract analytics behind unified interface for easy provider switching.

// Analytics interface
interface AnalyticsService {
  identify(userId: string, traits: Record<string, unknown>): Promise<void>;
  track(userId: string, event: string, properties?: Record<string, unknown>): Promise<void>;
  page(userId: string, name: string, properties?: Record<string, unknown>): Promise<void>;
  group(userId: string, groupId: string, traits: Record<string, unknown>): Promise<void>;
}

// PostHog implementation
class PostHogAnalytics implements AnalyticsService {
  private client: PostHog;

  constructor(apiKey: string, host?: string) {
    this.client = new PostHog(apiKey, { host: host || 'https://app.posthog.com' });
  }

  async identify(userId: string, traits: Record<string, unknown>) {
    this.client.identify({
      distinctId: userId,
      properties: traits
    });
  }

  async track(userId: string, event: string, properties?: Record<string, unknown>) {
    this.client.capture({
      distinctId: userId,
      event,
      properties: {
        ...properties,
        timestamp: new Date().toISOString()
      }
    });
  }

  async page(userId: string, name: string, properties?: Record<string, unknown>) {
    this.client.capture({
      distinctId: userId,
      event: '$pageview',
      properties: { $current_url: name, ...properties }
    });
  }

  async group(userId: string, groupId: string, traits: Record<string, unknown>) {
    this.client.groupIdentify({
      groupType: 'organization',
      groupKey: groupId,
      properties: traits
    });
    this.client.capture({
      distinctId: userId,
      event: '$groupidentify',
      properties: { $group_type: 'organization', $group_key: groupId }
    });
  }

  shutdown() {
    this.client.shutdown();
  }
}

// Usage
const analytics = new PostHogAnalytics(process.env.POSTHOG_API_KEY);

// Identify user
await analytics.identify(user.id, {
  email: user.email,
  name: user.name,
  plan: user.plan,
  createdAt: user.createdAt
});

// Track event
await analytics.track(user.id, 'project_created', {
  projectId: project.id,
  projectType: project.type
});