Building a Custom Lead Scoring System for Dev Tools

The Story of PostHog's Lead Scoring Evolution

In 2020, PostHog faced a common challenge among dev tool companies - they were getting significant traffic and signups, but struggled to identify which users were most likely to convert to paying customers. Their team initially relied on gut feelings to prioritize leads, until they built a custom lead scoring system that increased their conversion rate by 3x.

Why Traditional Lead Scoring Fails for Dev Tools

Most lead scoring systems are built for traditional B2B products. They often miss crucial developer behaviors and signals that indicate genuine interest in technical products. A custom approach considering developer-specific actions is essential for accurate scoring.

Key Components of Developer-Focused Lead Scoring

Your lead scoring system needs to track actions that truly matter for developer tools. While building your product usage analytics system, focus on these key metrics:

• API call frequency and patterns
• Documentation engagement depth
• GitHub repository interaction
• Technical content consumption
• Support ticket quality

Implementation Steps

1. Define Your Scoring Model

Start by creating a technical customer health score system that assigns points based on:

• Integration attempts (15 points)
• API documentation reads (10 points)
• GitHub star or fork (5 points)
• Technical blog engagement (5 points)
• Support questions quality (1-10 points)

2. Track Technical Engagement

Implement real-time user metrics APIs to capture:

• Time spent in technical documentation
• Code sample copy events
• API endpoint testing frequency
• Integration progress markers

3. Build Attribution Intelligence

Create a custom attribution model for dev tools to understand:

• Traffic sources value
• Content engagement impact
• Community contribution weight
• Technical resource utilization

Advanced Scoring Techniques

Behavioral Patterns

Use cohort analysis to identify patterns that indicate higher conversion probability:

• Weekend vs weekday activity
• Technical documentation reading order
• API testing sequences
• Integration completion rates

Team Engagement Metrics

Track multiple users from the same organization using developer marketing dashboards to measure:

• Team member adoption rate
• Cross-team platform usage
• Collaborative feature usage
• Integration depth across teams

Continuous Improvement Process

Regular Calibration

Keep your scoring system accurate by:

• Analyzing conversion patterns monthly
• Adjusting scoring weights quarterly
• Validating scoring accuracy
• Incorporating new behavior patterns

Integration with Growth Systems

Connect your scoring system with activity-based growth triggers to:

• Automate engagement responses
• Trigger personalized outreach
• Scale customer success efforts
• Optimize resource allocation

Extra Tip: The Developer Journey Map

Create a developer journey map that tracks scoring changes throughout the customer lifecycle. This helps identify critical conversion points and opportunities for intervention. Remember to adjust scoring weights based on where developers are in their journey with your tool.

Start With Documentation

Create a simple system to document every support interaction. Use minimum viable processes to ensure consistency without overwhelming your team.

Build Support-Development Bridges

Set up regular meetings between support and development teams. Share support insights using customized dashboards to keep everyone aligned.

Test Solutions Quickly

Use feature flags to test solutions with small user groups before full rollout. This reduces risk and accelerates learning.

Measure Impact

Track how your solutions affect support volume and user satisfaction. Implement customer health scoring to measure improvement.

Start With Documentation

Create a simple system to document every support interaction. Use minimum viable processes to ensure consistency without overwhelming your team.

Build Support-Development Bridges

Set up regular meetings between support and development teams. Share support insights using customized dashboards to keep everyone aligned.

Test Solutions Quickly

Use feature flags to test solutions with small user groups before full rollout. This reduces risk and accelerates learning.

Measure Impact

Track how your solutions affect support volume and user satisfaction. Implement customer health scoring to measure improvement.