4 Metrics

 

This chapter covers

  • Defining metrics to set your projects up for success
  • Identifying bad metrics that measure the wrong things
  • Evaluating the effects of your chosen metrics

At some point in your career, you will likely be asked to create and maintain a dashboard that tracks key performance indicators (KPIs) for the business. That’s because there is so much going on in a business that simple, summary-level metrics are the most common way to measure and analyze what is happening. Rather than getting detailed verbal summaries from every business unit or employee, executives look at which direction figures such as turnover, profit, or margin are trending.

4.1 The importance of well-defined metrics

4.2 Project 3: Defining precise metrics for better decision making

4.2.1 Problem statement

4.2.2 Data dictionary

4.2.3 Desired outcomes

4.2.4 Required tools

4.3 Applying the results-driven method to different metric definitions

4.3.1 Questions to consider

4.4 An example solution: Finding the best performing products

4.4.1 Combining and exploring product data

4.4.2 Calculating product-level metrics

4.4.3 Finding the best products using our defined metrics

4.5 Closing thoughts on metrics

4.5.1 Skills for defining better metrics for any project

Summary