Metrics_ How to Improve Key Business Results - Martin Klubeck [41]
People are the greatest risk to having accurate data.
You will need a safe and secure location to store your data, your analysis, and your reports. You will need to safeguard it from others who may innocently tamper with it. You will also need to keep it safe from yourself. When was the last time you worked on something well past your bedtime? When was the last time you made errors keying data? When was the last time you lost over an hour’s worth of work because you forgot to save regularly?
You will make mistakes—it’s inevitable. The key is to mitigate this reality as much as possible.
How should you mitigate the inevitable mistakes you will undoubtedly make? Save early, save often, and save your work in more than one place. It won’t hurt to have a hard copy of your work as a final safeguard. Along with backing up your data, it’s important to have the processes documented.
Another tool for mitigating mistakes is to use variables in all of your formulas. If you’re using software to perform equations, avoid any raw data in the formulas. Put any values that you will reuse in a separate location (worksheet, table, or file). Not only does it allow you to avoid mistakes, it makes modifying the formulas easier.
Reference all values and keep raw data out of the equation.
The following are a few other pointers to help you as you document your plan:
Don’t work when tired. Seriously. You should know yourself well enough to know when you’re tired. Put the work down and come back to it when you are refreshed. There are some things you can do when tired—metrics is not one of them.
Stick to your process. Don’t allow short deadlines to force you to deviate from your process. You may be tempted to take shortcuts just to get the metric updated fast enough to meet an unexpected deadline. Resist this. Resist the person requesting the data before the agreed-upon schedule. Whenever you deviate from your process you run the risk of making mistakes.
Start with “no.” Refuse to rush.
Use version control. It doesn’t have to be extensive—just effective. As long as you can track the work you’ve done and any changes you’ve made, you’ll need to be able to “undo” any changes you’ve made and return to an earlier version you have faith in.
Create and use templates whenever possible. Templates allow you to make your process more repeatable and to ensure you collect the same data, the same way. I use templates for surveys, interviews, and questionnaires. I use them for analysis and creating graphs and charts. One caution—double-check the template for accuracy.
Reuse is great! Why re-create the wheel? Just double-check that the wheel isn’t riddled with broken spokes.
A Note on Process Byproducts
When you worked on the root question, you identified byproducts like goals, objectives, tasks, and measures of success, which were not essential to the metric’s design. As you worked on the abstract picture of your metric, other thoughts came to mind. When you captured possible measures you’d need to fill out the picture, you identified more than what was required. The excess items you parked or stored in a to-do list. All of these byproducts have potential to help you improve your organization and could be very valuable. They should be captured and shared. Don’t waste them.
Don’t waste anything! Your intellectual property is valuable—treat it with respect.
Recap
I have introduced a taxonomy so that we can communicate clearly around the subject of metrics. In the second chapter, I covered the theory and concept of designing a metric and the high-level process for collecting, analyzing, and reporting the data, measures, and information that go into making up that metric. In this chapter, I covered the basics of how and where to begin. I have purposefully kept the information at a high level so that you can feel