Month: May 2014
How to measure “difficult to measure” things.
What lipstick, the Panama Canal and toilet breaks can tell you. There are some things that are difficult to measure, maybe even impossible to measure directly. The key with ‘difficult to measure’ things is to look at something that either affects or is affected by the thing you are interested in. Here are three examples of…
Painful report production? Why you should be worried…
The problem with a good Reporting/MI/Analytics team is that they make it all look too easy. They will often go through a very painful report production process (particularly for executive meetings) and deliver against all the odds. This usually involves heroic efforts of chasing, data manipulation and spreadsheet gymnastics. The reports get generated and the Reporting/MI/Analytics…
Defining KPIs: How the wrong KPI shut schools
Defining KPIs clearly is crucial. Badly defined KPIs have unfortunate side effects. The cobra effect is one of my favourites. Most people agree that going to school is good for children. This means that there is a government focus on truancy as a measure. Sometimes there are legitimate reasons why children cannot get to school. One such reason is snow. A singular focus on truancy…