Insights Report

An insights report is the general-purpose analysis view where one or more metrics are charted over time and broken down by event or user properties.

Three choices define the output: the measure, which can be event totals, unique users, the average of a numeric property or a formula over several metrics; the property the result is broken down by; and the time bucket. Despite the name the report finds nothing on its own and draws exactly what it is asked to draw, while automatic surfacing of unusual movement is a separate anomaly detection or alerting mechanism. Switching the measure from event totals to unique users changes the shape of the same chart, because one person can fire an event many times, and that substitution is often made without anyone noticing. Breaking down by a high-cardinality property produces dozens of thin series in which small groups swing violently, so a breakdown is readable only when the property has few values or the chart is limited to the top ones.