As a small business consultant, this is my life. Clients want a fancy dashboard, but don't even know what should be on there, because they haven't defined what success looks like.
When we discuss this and I eventually hear, "Well, uh... what do most people do?" I know they don't have any strategy.
When we finally do get good metrics set up, the reliable failure point is to explain away the bad ones (seasonality, personnel changes etc), and take credit for the good (their hard work, insight etc).
Occasionally I will be delighted by the exceptional ones who will have a business strategy, define success in alignment with that, choose reliable metrics that measure progress towards their goals without producing perverse incentives, then take action on the results. But they are so rare.
As a small business consultant, this is my life. Clients want a fancy dashboard, but don't even know what should be on there, because they haven't defined what success looks like.
When we discuss this and I eventually hear, "Well, uh... what do most people do?" I know they don't have any strategy.
When we finally do get good metrics set up, the reliable failure point is to explain away the bad ones (seasonality, personnel changes etc), and take credit for the good (their hard work, insight etc).
Occasionally I will be delighted by the exceptional ones who will have a business strategy, define success in alignment with that, choose reliable metrics that measure progress towards their goals without producing perverse incentives, then take action on the results. But they are so rare.
Thanks for the article! The examples really resonate.