How do you choose the key metrics and milestones for your presentation?

Select Wisely, Present! ???? I'd choose key metrics and milestones for presentations by first understanding their definitions and importance. The right metrics and milestones align with our strategic goals, resonate with the audience, and demonstrate progress or impact. Presenting them involves clarity, context, and visual aids for understanding. Continuously optimizing these metrics and milestones ensures that they remain relevant and effectively guide and communicate our journey's progress and success.

Metrics are specific, quantifiable measures used to track progress and assess the performance of a project or business initiative. They provide insights into key areas like revenue growth, customer acquisition, or operational efficiency. Milestones, on the other hand, are significant checkpoints or events within a project timeline that mark the completion of major phases or deliverables. To choose the right metrics, focus on what is most critical to the success of your project, aligning them with your overall goals. For milestones, identify key stages in the project where significant progress can be evaluated, ensuring they are time-bound and achievable.

Metrics are quantitative measures that help you track the performance and progress of your startup. They include financial indicators like revenue growth, customer acquisition cost, and retention rates, as well as operational metrics such as user engagement and product usage. Milestones are significant achievements or goals that mark progress in your startup's journey, such as completing a product development phase, securing funding, or reaching a user growth target. Choosing the right metrics and milestones involves selecting those that best reflect your startup’s performance and strategic objectives.

“Not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted.” - Albert Einstein Metrics are quantitative measures used to assess the performance and progress of your startup. They include key indicators like revenue growth, customer acquisition cost, user engagement, and market share. Milestones are significant achievements or goals reached during your startup journey, such as product launches, funding rounds, or reaching a specific number of users. Selecting the right metrics involves identifying those that reflect your startup’s success and progress. Milestones should represent major accomplishments or strategic goals that demonstrate your startup’s development and potential.

Don't choose the first thing you find on whatever startup blog website. Every business is completely different and you are the expert that should determine what is the most relevant metric at any stage of the startup. You should listen to investors, so that feedback can help you identify what's important. But at the end of the day, you should stick to the signals that you believe are the ones relevant to determine your success. Investors say "no" 99% of the time and they have their own playbook, so don't change your business based on the opinion of others, use it instead to polish your thesis. Same applies for your milestones.

“A goal without a plan is just a wish.” —Antoine de Saint-Exupéry Metrics and milestones are crucial for illustrating your startup’s progress and potential to stakeholders. Metrics provide a snapshot of performance and help in assessing whether your strategies are working. They offer concrete evidence of growth and efficiency, making your presentation more compelling. Milestones highlight key achievements and strategic goals, showcasing your startup’s progress and future trajectory. They help in demonstrating your ability to meet objectives and make significant strides, reinforcing your credibility and the viability of your business plan to investors, partners, and other stakeholders.

There are various reasons why metrics and milestones are significant. They assist you in assessing and refining your startup using feedback and data.

Metrics and milestones provide a clear framework for assessing progress and success, helping to communicate your startup’s value and potential to stakeholders. They offer tangible evidence of your achievements and growth, which is crucial for building credibility and gaining support. By highlighting relevant metrics and milestones, you can demonstrate how your startup is meeting its goals, addressing challenges, and delivering on its promises. This approach not only strengthens your presentation but also helps align your team’s efforts with the overall vision and strategic objectives.

Metrics and milestones: Your startup's dynamic duo. They refine, harmonize, enchant investors, and paint your market masterpiece

???? ?????????? ???????? ????????????????????: Start by ensuring your metrics directly reflect your business objectives. If growth is your goal, focus on user acquisition rates or revenue growth. ???? ???????? ???? ????????????????: Not all metrics are created equal. Prioritize those that offer real insights into your progress and potential for success. Vanity metrics might look good on paper, but they won't fool savvy investors. ???? ?????????????????? ??????????????: Set milestones that are ambitious yet achievable. They should serve as checkpoints that guide your startup toward its long-term goals. Beware of overly optimistic milestones—they can backfire, showing a lack of realism in your planning.

Choose the metrics that help you tell a clear story and build a strong narrative for your company. If you are raising a Series A and your story is that you need funds to accelerate growth then you should be focused on your churn rate, marketing channels, conversion rate, customer acquisition cost, etc. If you are a pre-seed company trying to pitch a new solution to a problem, you should be focused on testimonials, user numbers, market size and any other figures that talk about the risk and potential of the venture.

The metrics & milestones will be heavily dependant on who are you pressing it to. An angel investor isn’t looking at seeing IPO details, nor is a PE looking for PMF in a series D. Your customers care more about what problems you are solving for them, and not how fast you have grown. So the choice will be basis your audience and what are their expectations. Having said that, clarity of metrics and their objectivity is extremely important. If you choose a metric where you cant be objective, you cant control how your audience will react to it.

Less is more. Find 2-3 core metrics that will tell you if your product is doing the job that customers expect it to do and demonstrate whether you are/aren't growing. Having a 'North Star' metric that keeps all departments (e.g. sales, marketing, product and finance) aligned and allows all teams to pour their efforts into a joint cause.

There are four types of critical metrics to include in your success-driven pitch deck. Financial metrics, such as revenue growth and profitability, provide a snapshot of financial health. User engagement metrics, like acquisition rates and retention stats, showcase customer satisfaction. Operational metrics, such as efficiency and scalability, demonstrate the project's viability. Marketing metrics, including conversion rates, highlight the effectiveness of your outreach. Tailor these metrics to your industry and audience, ensuring they reflect the story you want to tell. Define clear milestones that align with your business timeline, emphasizing progress and future projections.

I find it particularly helpful to present our metrics as a continuous story: i.e. we came from x in January 2024, tested these 3 assumptions, and reached Y in June 2024. for instance, a graph, with lines indicating the tests: it's easy to see if it had an impact, of how much: and from there we can assess if it was successful or not. For the future, this is also how we present our ideas: measured, timed, with what we are testing around

Three things: Be transparent - don't hide the data that lets people know something is underperforming. Let them know upfront and present recommendations for remedying the issue. Tell a clear story - numbers are unhelpful when they're all lumped together. Break it down in a way that makes sense (e.g. funnel top to bottom, customer journey stage, new vs long-term users). Make the presentation simple + talk through the details - presentations are visual aids that help people digest information. Overcrowding a slide with text, images and numbers can unravel a great story. Keep the presentation design as simple as you can. Just be prepared to talk through the detail and send a written follow-up afterwards.

Craft a compelling narrative around your metrics and milestones. Utilise all the necessary AI that are helpful in breaking down and simplifying the data to enhance understanding would come in handy here. Clearly articulate the relevance of each metric and milestone to the overarching goals. Without understanding, there will not be any engaging conversations. Tailor your presentation to your audience, focusing on what matters most to them.

It's very simple - Transparently and easy to read. I've got an idea how to test if you are doing it right. Show it to your friends, dont explain the numbers - let them feedback you. If they undestand, you are on the right track. If not, change it.

Authentic. Don't try to misrepresent your data, use overly high contrast, log scales, or missing Y-axes to make your graphs look steeper. A good metric can be read, interpreted, and understood with just a glance.

You should always keep an eye on these metrics at regular intervals. This will ensure that you are connected to nitty gritties of the startup and you will also keep getting new insights for your startup as well.

First thing is to define which metrics would make sense to the presenter. You need to define the most meaningful ones for your specific product and within your industry. It will also depend on the stage you are at. If you are at pre-seed stage you need to focus on product performance: user retention, weekly and monthly growth rate, CAC. If you are at seed - add % of paying customers at on top of those.

???? Focus on Impact: Select metrics that directly reflect your business's core objectives. If growth is your goal, prioritize user acquisition rates over mere website traffic. ???? Stay Agile: Set milestones that are achievable but flexible. The startup world moves fast, and your targets need to adapt to unforeseen challenges and opportunities. ???? Benchmark Wisely: Compare your performance against relevant industry standards, not just any competitor. This keeps your goals realistic and your strategies competitive.

Testing the impact of metrics and milestones allows you to gauge their effectiveness in achieving your goals. By systematically evaluating how each metric influences outcomes, you can validate assumptions and hypotheses, refining your approach to optimize product-market fit. This iterative process not only informs strategic decisions but also uncovers new insights and opportunities, driving continuous improvement and success.

Regularly reassess your chosen metrics and milestones based on evolving business goals and market dynamics. Ensure they remain relevant and align with your current strategic priorities. It is very dynamic and changes with each milestone, so it is normal to have the metrics changing over time. What should remain the same is the overarching ultimate goal of the company. Embrace a culture of continuous improvement, where optimisation is an ongoing process driven by data and feedback.

Remember that metrics are just a tool to help provide credibility and solidity to your story. Marketing and investing are about storytelling, not figures. Use figures to help tell your story don't make your story about the figures.

One key point is to revisit the metrics over time and update them if needed. As Jeff Bezos himself said in a recent interview, when some metrics are chosen by an organization at a certain time, they might be most relevant at that time period. In the world of Artificial Intelligence and rapid progress, those metrics may not be most relevant.

Consider incorporating storytelling into your presentation to make the data relatable and memorable. Share success stories or lessons learned from achieving milestones. Encourage a collaborative approach, inviting input and insights from team members. Make the presentation relatable to the target audience. This is more of an engaging storytelling than it is a presentation. Your goal is to capture the attention and engage their minds to be a part of the team. Remember that metrics and milestones are dynamic and should evolve with the business landscape.

A escolha de métricas padr?o do mercado é crucial, pois elas oferecem uma linguagem comum para avalia??o de desempenho, facilitando a compara??o com benchmarks estabelecidos. Métricas padronizadas, como CAC (Custo de Aquisi??o de Cliente), LTV (Lifetime Value) e MRR (Receita Mensal Recorrente), permitem que investidores e stakeholders avaliem rapidamente a saúde e o potencial de crescimento de uma startup. Ao alinhar as métricas com padr?es reconhecidos no setor, as startups podem demonstrar sua performance de maneira objetiva e comparável, destacando-se em um mercado competitivo e assegurando a confiabilidade e a precis?o das informa??es apresentadas.

Choosing standard market metrics is crucial as they provide a common language for performance evaluation, facilitating comparison with established benchmarks. Standardized metrics like CAC (Customer Acquisition Cost), LTV (Lifetime Value), and MRR (Monthly Recurring Revenue) enable investors and stakeholders to quickly assess a startup's health and growth potential. By aligning metrics with recognized industry standards, startups can objectively and comparably demonstrate their performance, standing out in a competitive market and ensuring the reliability and accuracy of the information presented.