Goals, Objectives, and Measures - Measures

Measures indicate which key operations or processes we monitor and manage to keep performance aligned, period-over-period, to meeting Objectives and attaining the Goals.

Providing three to five Measures per Objective is a good rule of thumb. Select Measures that will provide an early warning mechanism if the organization is not on track to achieve a Goal. 

Remember, goals, objectives, and measures should be SMART:

S - Specific

M - Measurable

A - Achievable

R - Relevant

T - Time-Bound

When selecting Measures, it's best practice to provide visibility to the impacts on both the customer and the employee satisfaction or loyalty scores. Short-term gains can result in disproportionate long-term pain if customers or employees are adversely impacted by a new policy, practice, or process.

Measures vs Metrics: Measures provide the raw data, while metrics look at patterns within this data or relationships between measures to determine what you can improve or do differently. Use the most effective measure or metric to keep your activities aligned with the strategy.

Common Measures are: 

• Number of Marketing Impressions
• Number of Qualified Sales Leads (QSL) 
• # of Demonstrations or Pilots
• # of Contracts Signed
• # of New Features Shipped
• Product Quality Measure(s) 

Common Metrics:

• Customer churn rates
• Customer satisfaction or NPS over a period of time
• Market share across the industry
• Response time for inquiries on different services
• Average wait times for phone support lines
• Completion rates on online orders across different quarters
• Bug rates

Additional Considerations

• Top-level measures should be reported frequently and ideally published routinely on an executive dashboard.
• Also, having a well known process for progress review, including a method of noting underperformance on any measure is important to assure success.