How dare you? And why metrics fail

In the world dominated by data, we are increasingly overwhelmed by information and metrics to measure performance. Many writers address the complexities of data, throwing in big words in: big data, data analytics, machine learning, knowledge graphs, AI... and many more automatically pick new words to have the business dialogues, often missing the core aspect of information - value and insight.

So, how dare you miss the core aspect of value and insight from your data?

Pretty data visualisation / metrics of a 20 page report issued on a daily / weekly basis may look good, however does it really give you the return on the time invested in tools to produce it or on time taken to digest it?

How you know that the metrics you use is the right one?

The core, and somehow missing gap in conversations held about data is pretty basic - how well do you know your business? How you know that the metrics you have agreed with your C-suite executives / SVPs / Head of Departments / etc / is the right one? We need to take a step back and re-look at the information as the core block of the decision making processes and re-assess what it really means, re-assess it's inter-dependability of other variables and ask more questions why.

Too often rushed decisions are made based on the lack of understanding the underlying factors or the information simply eroding away before our eyes, thus making decisions on expired sources.

So, what can we do today to empower the decision making of tomorrow? Two components - accepting the elephant in the room and continuous learning.

No messenger should be shot down for speaking about matters that others may choose to ignore, and that's just as applicable to data and as to informed decision making. Similarly, learning and education should be the driving and supporting force of the decision making, re-iterating the focus of understanding both the information and the metrics which should be used to measure the success.

Metrics applicable to your business would vary from the business in the similar sector and operation. Metrics based on understanding the "footprint" information that your business generates are important. Equally, understanding what impact your "footprint" leaves on the wider market can also be critical. This understanding should not be limited to one person or one department, the underlying principles of information and its dependability should be widely understood across the whole business in order to enable better questions being asked about the information produced / gathered and subsequently what metrics would be right for you to measure the outputs.

We still have more questions to ask, and I would love to hear yours. Drop them in the comment box below.

Thank you.

Valentina