In order to focus on key performance issues and obtain the biggest benefit for developer effort, profiling an application is critical to understanding that program’s performance and behavior. However, using a profiling tool can sometimes be a daunting task because it is used less frequently than other software, such as a compiler. In addition to a wealth of capability for whole program analysis across many nodes, the Cray performance tools provide a simple interface that allows users to easily obtain a rich set of information to help identify important performance bottlenecks. This presentation discusses use of the Cray perftools-lite interfaces, their ease of use and the type of information that can be obtained. Guidance for interpreting results, and some useful tips when analyzing performance of an application will also be presented.