3. What you think you measure, and what you actually measure, surprisingly often doesn’t coincide

2012-09-25 21:42:00 +0000

It is worthwhile spending some time up front conceptualizing your KPIs.

What does success look like?

Look at your goals; this will guide you in selecting your KPIs. A clear understanding of your goals is vital to getting the data you need—and providing the insights and analysis your team relies on.

Your analysis will be garbage if your metrics don’t align with your goals, plain and simple. When defining KPIs against goals, remember that a KPI should be something that:

• Measures performance
• Measures success against stated business goals
• Should  contain the specific measurement scale

After jotting down a set of metrics, spend some time paring it back. Lots of variables is all nice and good, but analysis can get cumbersome with too many metrics. Remember, key signifies importance in relation to other indicators, so whittle your metrics down to the essentials. 

KPIs can be measured on any time interval (by minute, hourly, daily, monthly, etc.) depending upon the data collection for the metric and the value it provides at specific intervals. However, as a rule of thumb, the higher resolution, or more granular, data you can capture the better; it minimizes data loss down the line. You can always aggregate later, if your needs call for it. Go for as high a granularity as you can afford.