The book Working Backwards explores this idea - Amazon calls them “input metrics” or “controllable input metrics”. From the book:
Input metrics are like measuring the left hand side of the equation! You’re measuring the things that supposedly impact the revenue. Today’s measure of revenue is not a good measure of tomorrow’s revenue - input metrics are better. (View Highlight)
metrics measure the business, when in fact input metrics help you learn about the business. By iterating and refining your input metrics you actually become a stronger operator - you learn more specifically which levers actually get results (View Highlight)
Senior executives - CEOs or founders even - who feel unable (or unwilling) to impose new dashboards and metrics on the business. Everyone is scared of micro-managing. Perhaps also senior executives don’t feel confident understanding the mechanics of the actual work well enough to oversee the creation of input metrics? (View Highlight)
Note: Leadership is scared?
I like this notion of “Player scoreboards” vs “Coach Scoreboards”. It reminds me that every single dashboard is, implicitly, an exercise in incentive design. By choosing what goes into the dashboard you’re emphasizing what’s important, and what’s not. (View Highlight)
Qualitative vs Quantitative
Is your dashboard raw data or is there some post-processing? Are you using expertise to create gradings or analysis on top of the data? Is there a voice of the customer segment for your reporting? (View Highlight)
Input vs Output
Are you reporting only on what has already happened or are you showing what’s happening now? Obviously you need both, but in my experience companies rely too heavily on output metrics. (View Highlight)
Flexible vs Fixed
How often do you update the metrics you’re reporting on? Are you explicitly designing your metrics to be updated? What’s your feedback loop for checking that inputs actually lead to the right outputs? (View Highlight)
Open vs Closed
Who gets to see the dashboard? How do you ensure that everyone is on the same page? Are you capturing the potential value in a world of orbital stakeholders from opening up the dashboard to a wider set of people? (View Highlight)
