Ask HN: What overlooked class of tools should a self-taught programmer look into
As a programmer, learning how to use a user analytics tool really shift my perspective on things. Profilers and debuggers are tools that tell you where to fix the code. A user analytics tool tells you where to fix the product.<p>Being able to hypothesize ideas, measure conversion, engagement, retention, A/B test, slice by cohorts and validate whether an experiment validates your hypothesis. It makes you tackle problems very systematically.<p>Being able to measure both impact and effort. Always evaluating whether the impact was worth the effort and fine tuning it.<p>The product version or tree falling in the forest joke: If you build something and no one uses it, does it really exist?