Metric Madness

So the dreaded metrics..!

A question I always ask my clients is do they believe that the metrics they capture add value to their business? More often than not the answer is no.. What I tell them then is that it looks like they are measuring the wrong things..

This is always a point of contention with my clients and people generally see this as a black art to get right, some are lucky and some are not.. It also is a complete mind field for them as they know they should measure things, they read about how they drive performance but then when it comes to implementing, a number of things can happen

• They read about some metrics that sound good and they implement them, but could be of no value to their own unique way of doing things
• They purchase software to help measure things and then they measure everything and then some, missing the key ones
• They hit a brick wall and don’t do anything as they are just so confused with all the contradictory information out there

And I totally get the confusion! When you go online you’ll read all about these fancy jargon buzz words like, business development scorecard metrics,key metrics business model canvas, business analysis metrics, business intelligence metrics that matter, business kpi metrics, business development kpi metrics and the list can go on, it’s pure and utter metric madness!

However there is a simple and effective way of building strong metrics in your business and that starts with business metric definition and what it means to your business and unique way of working.

Like anything you hear me talk about, you have to be continually improving no matter what you are doing, and when it comes to building metrics, its no different.. Everything changes so therefore what you need to measure, and how, will also change and evolve over time, so don’t get complacent thinking you’ve developed metrics recently and think that’s good enough, keep iterating and improving as when you do, they will have a substantial part to play in your business performance.

When you get metrics working for you, as opposed to against you, you will not be dreading the metric sessions as you’ll be looking forward to seeing how they will guide you in what you need to do next to improve many things for your business

• Value for your clients
• Value for your business and
• Value for your team(s)