Colleen Benko
CX Director Data and Insights
14 Apr 2025, 3 min
Colleen Benko
CX Director Data and Insights
14 Apr 2025, 3 min
Introduction
The subject of KPIs and data analytics - nowadays inseparable from terms like AI, predictive modeling, and data engineering - has become overcomplicated.
Data meetings can get marred in slingshotting buzzwords and quoting the latest segmentation tools, or assumptions that every team just needs a data scientist performing advanced analytics. And for many, this is relevant - helpful even. If you are developing a robust loyalty program reliant on tracing the in-depth behavioral patterns of your users, please invest in that segmentation model!
But I have witnessed when these concepts feel like a barrier-to-entry for clients who are just entering their era as a data-driven organization.
Gartner Research
We aim to simplify the process: reinforce the power of business KPIs and day-to-day data usage in allowing companies to steer their businesses, drive towards measured, unified objectives, and empower employees to assume ownership.
KPIs are quantifiable goals that help you track and measure success. They enable you to set clear targets, measure the impact of your platform or product, and identify growth opportunities that guide your day-to-day work. In its simplest form, the goal is to build a unified set of metrics understood across the business, which will then be translated into forecasts, dashboards, and weekly trade reports.
Typically, the complexity lies in the size and data maturity of an organization. Common questions arise such as: Who owns the KPIs and is responsible for meeting targets? Who should report on the results to the rest of the organization? How can we share one framework when the teams operate in siloes?
We start from the ground up. We hold workshops to get the teams talking, explain the what and why behind KPIs, and share use cases - and in some cases steer them away from bad habits such as wanting ‘page load speed’ and ‘gross revenue’ to carry the same weight in the Monday trade report. We aim to instill a data-led mindset while bridging known gaps, ensuring everyone is working towards the same results and speaking the same terminology.
Often, stakeholders I speak with are eager to join the workstream, enthusiastic that they need KPIs, and then hesitant when asked: “for what purpose?”. I notice some do not ask the most relevant and fundamental questions. To name a few:
As an added benefit, a structured KPI framework empowers teams to own their channels with clear metrics, goals, and data access. Once the metrics are aligned, we take action to ensure employees have the knowledge to ask the right follow-up questions to their data partners. For example, while Marketing dives into the click-through rate of the campaign, Product can examine the drop-off rate at each stage in the checkout funnel, all in the advancement of one conversion rate.
We help clients recognize the impact of creating a business focus and drilling down into what is important by applying measurable metrics. Here are a few ways to kickstart the process:
Of course, insights-driven dashboards and a data team that works in lockstep with the rest of the organization are also critical elements. But that’s for another article.