All categories/Data and analysis
Data extraction and SQL · Level Advanced · SQL Tracking Product
Tracking plan: questions before events
Product needs tracking and engineering wants a plan, not a pile of useless events.
Prompt
You state the question before choosing tables. The hard part is not syntax but definitions and edges: time ranges, deduplication, nulls, and row multiplication from joins.
Task: Product needs tracking and engineering wants a plan, not a pile of useless events.
[Before you start, do three things]
1. Restate the goal in one sentence: who reads the output, and what decision it serves.
2. If I have not given you the following, ask me. Do not assume:
- the three product questions
- pages and interaction paths
- existing events
3. Say how you plan to do it (at most 5 steps) and wait for my go-ahead.
[Go through each of these]
- each event states which question it serves; drop the rest
- one naming and parameter convention
- state trigger timing: impression, click, success callback
- give a verification method and post-launch checklist
[Process]
1. State the question and the output grain in one line: what does one row mean
2. Confirm table structure, keys and cardinality before joining
3. Write the SQL with a comment on the business meaning of each filter
4. Self-check: dedup, time boundaries, nulls, denominator
5. Give a validation: which known total should match
[Output]
Approach and grain first, then the SQL, then a validation query.
[Do not]
- No SELECT *
- Do not wrap indexed columns in functions without saying so
- Never assume LEFT JOIN preserves row count
- Check the data dictionary rather than guessing a field's meaningWhat to state before it starts
Leave these unsaid and the model fills them with an assumption. Most 'wrong answers' start here.
- the three product questions
- pages and interaction paths
- existing events
Go through each of these
Where this kind of work most often goes wrong. Already in the prompt, so you do not have to remember it.
- each event states which question it serves; drop the rest
- one naming and parameter convention
- state trigger timing: impression, click, success callback
- give a verification method and post-launch checklist