Results2Match

Hans van Nes has presented us his ideas regarding on what rules a Key Performance Indicator (KPI) should obey, and how that results in KPI's for Chief Information Officer (CIO) and Information and Computer Technology (ICT) organization. Curiosity raises the question whether a collection of KPI's is also a dashboard. Or do we need to do something extra for this to happen? And what is the answer to 'how'?

Many important and knowledgeable persons have given this implementation aspect their thoughts: How does a dashboard look like. Whole industries are devoted to it. Think of initiatives from European Foundation for Quality Management (EFQM) and the Business Balanced Score Card (BBSC). Some way or another, they have never given me the idea that reporting figures in a consistent way improves things drastically. It is a good step in the right direction, but something is lacking. But what?

Recently I have come across the blog Occam's Razor, where Avinash Kaushik discusses web analytics issues. In the view of Avinash only actionable analytics are interesting, and serve the purpose of progress: Goals, live the process, and provide feedback. And these efforts are only sensible if they result in action! His attributes of a dashboard:

• A metric needs a context to make sense, and context makes the metric actionable.
• Segmentation is king: It leads to context.
• Trends tell more than a single figure, because… Indeed, it provides a context.
• Metrics are fine, but phrase in words your interpretation: say something about performance, insights, and recommended actions.
• Limit your dashboard to 1 page, otherwise it becomes a report.

This is what works for Avinash and it appeals enormously to me! I am sure you have your own experiences. Let us know, and let us discuss. How do you approach this subject, metrics as well as dashboards? From your experience are there techniques in creating metrics and/or presenting dashboards that have worked particularly well for you? And what about a guest blog???! It would be great to have your insights and lessons. Thank you.

This blog is part of a series on Key Performance Indicators (KPI's):

1. Sense and Non-Sense of KPI's
2. KPI's For a Corporate Information Officer (CIO)
3. Can You Provide Me with some KPI's to Measure Innovation?
4. New! The Time Variant Business Balanced Score Card (BBSC)
5. From KPI's To an Actionable Dashboard Implementation (this blog)
6. MyRealTimePerformance: Your Real-Time Personalized Dashboard with Actionable Items!
7. How To Turn Business Intelligence (BI) Into a Management Instrument With a Real Return On Investment (ROI)

Results2Match has a strong vision on successful Key Performance Indicator strategies and result driven implementations.

This blog is written by Hans Lodder. Hans is a very experienced change management consultant and interim manager. You can contact Hans through his Results2Match email address.