How Measuring the Wrong Metrics Can Cost You Your Business

The title seems eerily frightening. As Founders, we spend days and nights, with our business in our mind. All that matters is, taking this baby and seeing it succeed. We experiment, measure, optimize, coach teams, rinse, and repeat. Despite all the literature out there on what not to do, there continue to be ‘data debacles’ that one can fall into just on the charade of moving towards decisions backed by data.

Three years ago, when we started speaking about OKRs, folks would shrug their shoulders and say "What are OKRs?" and "How do I use your product?" Selling our OKR product would have been more like chasing rainbows, when the real leprechaun keeping us from the pot of gold, was the lack of awareness around OKRs.

For those new to OKRs, it stands for Objectives and Key Results. OKRs are well known as a strategy execution framework, which shifts companies to think like a team, focus on outcomes, and connect and align to strategic priorities. You can read our Ultimate Guide to OKRs here.

So, here’s what we did.

We spent most of our early days in coaching teams. As certified OKR coaches, we got into the trenches and coached teams on ‘How to write effective OKRs?’ With copious coaching hours spent, we observed how leadership or next-level teams faced similar fallacies on how strategic goals should be written.

Here’s another: During the 10,000+ team check-in meetings that we conducted, we noticed that as much as the infatuation around metrics, courting the wrong ones could sour relationships in the team, and even come dangerously close to destroying a growth path or just keeping the business status quo, which sometimes is worse than slow growth.

Here are our learnings on how to not fall into the trap of measuring wrong!

Measuring a Bunch of Lag Metrics in your OKRs

What are Lag indicators? These are metrics that are measured post facto. There is little you can do to control them, as they are outcomes of other smoke signals, which are the lead indicators (the ones that can be controlled and measured a lot sooner than later). For instance, churn is a lag indicator, but product adoption is a lead indicator, which can help teams manage churn.

Cherry-Picking Metrics, Like the ‘Solitary Reaper'

One of the frequently asked questions is the difference between KPIs and OKRs. It takes two to tango, and indeed, KPIs can be part of OKRs. The difference is how they are written and managed. If KPIs are set between a manager and a team member, there is a silo that gets created in the old-school way of goal setting. But as we know, OKRs are written as teams, and picking KPIs that have a strategic impact can help you move the business forward.

Check out our full article here to get into the depths of cherry-picking the right metrics for your business.

We can help you achieve your OKRs

At Fitbots, our mission is to help companies drive transformational growth with OKRs, KPIs, and initiative/milestone management, by simplifying how they connect their mission to metrics. Fitbots has worked with over 5,000+ teams, helping them get OKRs right and tracking powerful insights on our OKRs software.

With Fitbots, your teams can achieve 10X more by setting and tracking the right outcome metrics, save an average of 450 hours each quarter on report-making and clumsy powerpoints, and increase transparency by 100%. We have consistently rated as a High Performer on G2 and are the proud recipients of multiple G2 badges. Our top-rated offerings include:

• 5-Step Method to reduce Strategic/Company OKRs writing to a matter of hours, helping leaders focus on action rather than verbose discussions
• AI-assisted OKR Writing to reduce the time spent by teams in crafting effective OKRs that reflect company strategy
• Alignment and Misalignment Modules that ensure complete alignment such that there is no wastage of time, effort, revenue
• OKRs and KPIs management alongside a vast number of integrations
• Progress Boards, Trends Boards, Insights, and Reports at the organization and team level for effective decision-making and performance improvement
• Individual reports and insights to support performance-related conversations
• On-demand OKR Coaching and Certification?

Click here to book a call with our OKRs expert on how we can help you get OKRs right, and manage them with powerful insights.