I’ve been slowly reading through Douglas Hubbard’s How to Measure Anything.
So far it’s been a good read, nothing terribly groundbreaking. The advice seems to come down to this simple process:
Confronted with apparently difficult measurements, it helps to put the proposed measurement in context. Before we measure we should ask five questions:
- What is the decision this is supposed to support?
- What really is the thing being measured?
- Why does this thing matter to the decision being asked?
- What do you know about it now?
- What is the value to measuring it further?
All in all, simple stuff, but a great crash course and overview for finding metrics that matter, especially for new managers / leaders.
