Alexandra Levits Water Cooler Wisdom Do You Know How to Measure Success

Alexandra Levit's Water Cooler Wisdom Do You Know How to Measure Success How do you effectively measure the success of a project and then how do you communicate that success to stakeholders? In this interview with program manager Adam Kowal, from Intuit QuickBase, we asked him about ways to help you make sure you’re using and reporting on the “right” metrics. Alex: Adam, what should you do at theplanning stages of a projectto ensure that you are able to effectively measure success later? Adam: Ensure the team and leaders are aligned on what you are trying to achieve with the project. Think about why you are trying to affect change. If you don’t have alignment here, all is lost. Then, facilitate a session to brainstorm the quantitative or qualitative metrics that will be goodleading indicators of successand final indicators of success. Understand what your dials are and how you are going to turn them â€" so you can watch if turning the dial makes any difference. Limit the important success metrics to no more than three. If you have too many, you probably don’t really know how to measure success. Also, watch out for people trying to solve for the “number,” which could result in bad business decisions made to ensure hitting metrics. Alex:Do you have an example of this? Adam: Sure, how about measuring call centers on “time on phone” without realizing that reps are creating terrible customer experiences and not up-selling/cross-selling in an effort to get the customer off the phone faster. Alex:What metrics are most eye-catching to senior leaders and why? Adam:This is a three-part answer. 1) The most eye-catching metrics to senior leaders are ones that don’t add up! You must ensure you have good data and have tested your instrumentation process.2) In my experience, a good PM will align with senior leaders on what metrics are most important to their group and the business as a whole. Make sure you’re notwasting timecrunching numbers no one cares about. 3) Information that means something is eye-catching. Don’t put the onus on senior leaders to distill all your data into action. Do it for them and talk through your logic. For the rest of Adams interview, check out Intuits Fast Track blog.