1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:05,360 Hello and welcome to Making Data Matter. Today we don't have a guest interview 2 00:00:05,360 --> 00:00:11,200 for you. With summer schedules and travel from both myself and Troy, no guest 3 00:00:11,200 --> 00:00:15,840 interview yet. More upcoming later this summer, but this week we have something a 4 00:00:15,840 --> 00:00:20,680 bit different. I did a presentation a couple of weeks ago on LinkedIn around 5 00:00:20,680 --> 00:00:25,840 measuring success for data teams. And so what you're hearing now is a recording 6 00:00:25,840 --> 00:00:30,840 of that presentation. If you're interested in seeing the presentation 7 00:00:30,840 --> 00:00:36,320 with the slide deck and visual elements, you can see that by the link in the 8 00:00:36,320 --> 00:00:39,920 show notes below. This is the audio recording of it and allows you to walk 9 00:00:39,920 --> 00:00:43,080 through just the framework that I've been talking about with people on LinkedIn 10 00:00:43,080 --> 00:00:47,680 and in my daily emails for a while around how do you measure success, what 11 00:00:47,680 --> 00:00:51,400 are the problems and challenges data teams face, what's a practical framework 12 00:00:51,400 --> 00:00:53,920 for thinking through how to do that better, and what are the results of when 13 00:00:53,920 --> 00:00:59,200 you do measure success well as a data team. So please enjoy this presentation 14 00:00:59,200 --> 00:01:03,680 on measuring success for data teams. So here we are, you're at the measuring 15 00:01:03,680 --> 00:01:09,560 success for data teams webinar or alternatively titled how to get 16 00:01:09,560 --> 00:01:14,560 leadership to pay attention to you. And so we're gonna get started here. My name 17 00:01:14,560 --> 00:01:18,600 is Sawyer Nyquist. I run the data shop solo consulting practice. I'm based in 18 00:01:18,600 --> 00:01:22,640 the beautiful woods of West Michigan. I'm firmly convinced that Michigan has a 19 00:01:22,640 --> 00:01:27,040 state with the best summers and we are in the peak middle of summer right now 20 00:01:27,040 --> 00:01:32,000 and I'm just savoring every minute of it. So I'm doing this live stream right 21 00:01:32,000 --> 00:01:34,520 before this. I was out mountain biking and right after this I'm probably gonna 22 00:01:34,520 --> 00:01:39,600 head back outside and enjoy some more beautiful afternoon in Michigan. So 23 00:01:39,600 --> 00:01:43,720 beautiful summer day here. I hope it's beautiful where you're at as well. But 24 00:01:43,720 --> 00:01:47,920 let's get rolling. So what is this conversation all about? And I'm 25 00:01:47,920 --> 00:01:50,900 gonna give us a little overview of where we're headed. So measuring success for 26 00:01:50,900 --> 00:01:55,240 data teams or how to get leadership to pay attention to you. I think these two 27 00:01:55,240 --> 00:02:00,560 ideas are closely related and we'll hopefully unpack that why as we get going. 28 00:02:00,560 --> 00:02:05,200 But I want to start here. Here's where we're headed for today. We're talking about 29 00:02:05,200 --> 00:02:10,600 the problem. The problem around measuring success in your data team, both what 30 00:02:10,600 --> 00:02:14,520 happens if you don't and why is it so hard to measure success. Talking about the 31 00:02:14,520 --> 00:02:19,000 problem. We're gonna talk about a simple framework, my framework for how you can 32 00:02:19,000 --> 00:02:24,240 work through success measurements and movement and progress towards success. 33 00:02:24,240 --> 00:02:28,160 Some basic, there's some simple tools for that. A simple framework. We're gonna 34 00:02:28,160 --> 00:02:33,480 offer you some practical advice about how to go about measuring success and 35 00:02:33,480 --> 00:02:36,560 working on these measurements that we're gonna talk about and implementing the 36 00:02:36,560 --> 00:02:39,400 framework that I'm gonna present. And then we're gonna talk about the results. 37 00:02:39,400 --> 00:02:45,200 What happens when you do this well? What happens when you know how to measure 38 00:02:45,200 --> 00:02:50,360 success and you implement it well? What happens to your team and to your career 39 00:02:50,360 --> 00:02:52,960 and to your organization? That's where we're headed for today. So problem, 40 00:02:52,960 --> 00:02:56,720 framework, some advice and then some results about what that's gonna look 41 00:02:56,720 --> 00:03:00,200 like. So let's dive in here first with the problem. What if you don't measure 42 00:03:00,200 --> 00:03:04,880 success? What if you just skip this part and say I don't have a measurement of 43 00:03:04,880 --> 00:03:08,060 success for my team, I don't need a measurement of success. What happens? 44 00:03:08,060 --> 00:03:11,840 Well a few things come to mind and there's probably dozens more that 45 00:03:11,840 --> 00:03:14,000 we could talk about but here are a few that come to mind right off the bat. I 46 00:03:14,000 --> 00:03:19,340 think your team morale suffers and I've seen this. Your energy and the 47 00:03:19,340 --> 00:03:23,440 enthusiasm of your team is, your team ends up with the enthusiasm and the 48 00:03:23,440 --> 00:03:28,640 energy of painters tape. There's no excitement, there's no clarity 49 00:03:28,640 --> 00:03:32,560 about where you're headed and so your team morale suffers. That inevitably leads 50 00:03:32,560 --> 00:03:37,480 to turnover on your team and inevitably also leads to difficulty hiring. I think 51 00:03:37,480 --> 00:03:39,600 your team morale suffers if you don't have a clear measurement of what 52 00:03:39,600 --> 00:03:44,520 success is. Number two, confidence wanes and in this I specifically mean the 53 00:03:44,520 --> 00:03:49,100 leaders confidence weight. So you as a leader of a team, your confidence, you 54 00:03:49,100 --> 00:03:53,440 start to lose confidence that you know what you are doing and why you're doing 55 00:03:53,440 --> 00:03:59,360 it. It becomes you get lost in kind of this busy work of tickets and reports 56 00:03:59,360 --> 00:04:03,080 and meetings and stakeholders and requirements gathering you like what are 57 00:04:03,080 --> 00:04:05,660 we actually doing? You start to lose confidence that you know what you're 58 00:04:05,660 --> 00:04:08,560 doing and you know why you're doing it. A closely connected to that I think is 59 00:04:08,560 --> 00:04:13,760 also you can't prioritize is you get overwhelmed with the number of requests 60 00:04:13,760 --> 00:04:18,280 that come in, the number of bugs that are present in the system, the number of 61 00:04:18,280 --> 00:04:21,640 opportunities for new things to do and you don't know how to prioritize all the 62 00:04:21,640 --> 00:04:24,080 different opportunities and all the different problems that are hitting you. 63 00:04:24,080 --> 00:04:26,360 You can't prioritize so when you don't measure success I don't think you can 64 00:04:26,360 --> 00:04:31,200 prioritize well and most importantly perhaps leadership ignores you. They 65 00:04:31,200 --> 00:04:36,000 don't know what you do. Your technical activities are meaningless to leaders 66 00:04:36,000 --> 00:04:39,800 who are one level and two levels above you. They really don't care how many 67 00:04:39,800 --> 00:04:42,800 pipelines you built, how many lines of code you wrote, how many visualizations 68 00:04:42,800 --> 00:04:46,680 you crafted. That all falls on deaf ears and so if they don't know what you're 69 00:04:46,680 --> 00:04:50,960 doing they start ignoring you and you struggle to get their attention and 70 00:04:50,960 --> 00:04:56,000 ultimately that either ends in frustration from you or elimination of 71 00:04:56,000 --> 00:05:01,320 your positions and your team. So great data teams know what success is, how to 72 00:05:01,320 --> 00:05:04,600 measure it and how to communicate it and that's what we're focused on here. Great 73 00:05:04,600 --> 00:05:08,080 data teams know what success is, how to measure it and how to communicate it and 74 00:05:08,080 --> 00:05:11,520 I think that speaks to all the different problems we face so far. So why is it so 75 00:05:11,520 --> 00:05:15,160 hard? So we talked about the problem of why this exists. Why is it so hard to 76 00:05:15,160 --> 00:05:18,320 measure success? Too many different answers here, so many different answers. 77 00:05:18,320 --> 00:05:22,200 So let's let's start here a little bit and explore what types of things people 78 00:05:22,200 --> 00:05:25,960 come up with. When I ask data leaders how they measure success I get things like 79 00:05:25,960 --> 00:05:29,200 this operational efficiency. They start to measure success by operational 80 00:05:29,200 --> 00:05:37,080 efficiency. Maybe that's data quality or no turnover on our team or the pipeline 81 00:05:37,080 --> 00:05:42,320 run times or down or we turn around tickets really fast. Maybe we do things 82 00:05:42,320 --> 00:05:47,040 like internal team culture and employee morale is really up and my team culture 83 00:05:47,040 --> 00:05:50,680 is great and maybe that's a success measure or maybe people measure success 84 00:05:50,680 --> 00:05:54,680 by technical goals like we completed our data warehouse, we decreased our cloud 85 00:05:54,680 --> 00:05:59,160 cost. Maybe it's about stakeholder perception of the data team. Maybe you 86 00:05:59,160 --> 00:06:04,240 start to measure your success based on the NPS score of your stakeholders. Maybe 87 00:06:04,240 --> 00:06:07,800 you you know somehow are judging how much the stakeholders like you and that's 88 00:06:07,800 --> 00:06:11,800 your success. I think we see data teams. I see and talk to data teams. I hear from 89 00:06:11,800 --> 00:06:15,560 data leaders constantly a variety of different things. Maybe no one's on the 90 00:06:15,560 --> 00:06:19,440 team is working overtime. That's a success. Maybe completing data quality 91 00:06:19,440 --> 00:06:24,600 checks at a higher percentage is that's success. These answers range so widely. So 92 00:06:24,600 --> 00:06:27,880 why is it such a hard question to answer? Does anybody confuse because it's a 93 00:06:27,880 --> 00:06:30,960 really hard question to answer. It seems like in our industry and in our 94 00:06:30,960 --> 00:06:33,840 space it's a hard question. I think everybody's a little bit confused about 95 00:06:33,840 --> 00:06:37,420 what we're doing here and with the splattering of answers that we get. So 96 00:06:37,420 --> 00:06:41,920 here are a few things that come to mind about why this is difficult. So first off 97 00:06:41,920 --> 00:06:47,480 I think data teams struggle with this because we don't have a clear vision for 98 00:06:47,480 --> 00:06:50,840 data in our organization. We don't have a clear vision for data in our 99 00:06:50,840 --> 00:06:54,560 organization. So is the data team a group of ticket takers that turn our reports? 100 00:06:54,560 --> 00:06:59,480 In what way or by what methodology are data people actually supposed to support 101 00:06:59,480 --> 00:07:03,320 decision-making? Can you tie any actual business results to something the data 102 00:07:03,320 --> 00:07:08,480 team delivered? There's no clear vision for what data does in an organization. 103 00:07:08,480 --> 00:07:12,040 So that's why our success metrics are the things that we're measuring 104 00:07:12,040 --> 00:07:14,880 success on range so widely because there's no clear vision of what it is. I 105 00:07:14,880 --> 00:07:18,720 think that's maybe one reason why this is so hard. A second reason why it's hard 106 00:07:18,720 --> 00:07:23,160 is because data teams align to many different functions in an organization. 107 00:07:23,160 --> 00:07:26,440 So data teams can be embedded in the business unit. They can be 108 00:07:26,440 --> 00:07:29,720 centralized. They could roll up to finance or marketing or IT or software 109 00:07:29,720 --> 00:07:33,840 engineering. And because of the numerous places that data teams sit in the 110 00:07:33,840 --> 00:07:37,840 organization and on the org chart, I see data leaders constantly shifting views 111 00:07:37,840 --> 00:07:41,480 about what success looks like based on who they report to. If it's finance, 112 00:07:41,480 --> 00:07:45,120 that dictates some of it. If it's engineering, that dictates some of it. If 113 00:07:45,120 --> 00:07:50,280 it's embedded or if it's centralized, those all dictate how we measure success 114 00:07:50,280 --> 00:07:53,400 on our team. And I think that leads to some of the confusion and the difficulty 115 00:07:53,400 --> 00:07:57,240 with this question. Another thing is, a third reason that I'll throw out of why 116 00:07:57,240 --> 00:08:01,320 this is so hard for us to do is that we haven't been asked to define success 117 00:08:01,320 --> 00:08:06,360 before. At least not in recent memory. So for the last decade of low interest rates 118 00:08:06,360 --> 00:08:10,520 and cheap cloud costs, data teams could build all sorts of fancy tools and 119 00:08:10,520 --> 00:08:15,040 exciting data projects. And the actual ROI of those projects was 120 00:08:15,040 --> 00:08:19,020 never really demanded because R&D budgets were flush. It was cash was cheap 121 00:08:19,020 --> 00:08:22,680 and it was easy. Well, that has changed. If you've been paying attention the last 122 00:08:22,680 --> 00:08:26,520 couple of years, the cheap money is gone and now the budgets and the staffing 123 00:08:26,520 --> 00:08:31,840 cuts are here and we're scrambling to define success in new ways or actually 124 00:08:31,840 --> 00:08:34,520 needing to define success for the first time. So I think that's another reason 125 00:08:34,520 --> 00:08:37,560 we struggle with this question because it's the first time in recent memory in a 126 00:08:37,560 --> 00:08:40,760 decade or so that we've had to answer this question well. Additionally, I 127 00:08:40,760 --> 00:08:43,600 think we love data too much. This one might sound a little bit 128 00:08:43,600 --> 00:08:46,080 counterintuitive, but I think we struggle with the question of measuring success 129 00:08:46,080 --> 00:08:50,080 because we love data too much. It's hard for us to find clarity about success 130 00:08:50,080 --> 00:08:54,920 when we have or we know where to find any data point we want. And our dashboards 131 00:08:54,920 --> 00:09:00,320 are crowded and clouded with KPIs that make any sort of uniform message really 132 00:09:00,320 --> 00:09:02,760 unclear. When you've got a dozen different data points you're looking at 133 00:09:02,760 --> 00:09:06,520 constantly, these six markers are going up and these six indicators are going 134 00:09:06,520 --> 00:09:11,280 down and these six over here are going sideways. Well, good luck sharing that 135 00:09:11,280 --> 00:09:15,600 progress clearly to your team or good luck sharing any sort of progress from 136 00:09:15,600 --> 00:09:20,160 those flattering of charts to leadership above you. I think we love data too much 137 00:09:20,160 --> 00:09:23,200 or we get overwhelmed with data because we love data points and we love charts. 138 00:09:23,200 --> 00:09:26,480 And finally, I think maybe one more reason why this is so hard for us is we 139 00:09:26,480 --> 00:09:29,440 have ambiguous definitions of measurement. So leaders will tell me they 140 00:09:29,440 --> 00:09:33,320 measure customer satisfaction or data quality or by contributing to business 141 00:09:33,320 --> 00:09:37,320 goals, but then they never clearly define what those terms mean and how they 142 00:09:37,320 --> 00:09:41,940 quantitatively measure or use them to track success. And so for as much as you 143 00:09:41,940 --> 00:09:46,800 love data, most of success measurements on data teams end up being we just trust 144 00:09:46,800 --> 00:09:50,600 our gut about our success. We just say, you know what, it feels good. We're 145 00:09:50,600 --> 00:09:54,760 moving the right direction. I can tell kind of how things are. Culture feels 146 00:09:54,760 --> 00:09:59,640 good. Teams excited. Energy. We're getting good vibes from the people around us. The 147 00:09:59,640 --> 00:10:02,960 business is maybe doing well overall. And so we just end up trusting our gut, 148 00:10:02,960 --> 00:10:06,080 which really kind of sounds like, trust me bro. Just trust me bro. Like we're 149 00:10:06,080 --> 00:10:10,720 good. And so for people who love data, this is our default standard, which is 150 00:10:10,720 --> 00:10:14,760 kind of surprising. Okay. So what if we made this easier? So it's a hard problem 151 00:10:14,760 --> 00:10:17,480 to solve. And I don't think it's a problem that we've solved very well in 152 00:10:17,480 --> 00:10:21,240 many cases. What have we made this easier? And I want to introduce here a simple 153 00:10:21,280 --> 00:10:24,560 framework for measuring success. Data teams are terrible at this. We come up 154 00:10:24,560 --> 00:10:27,600 with a splatter of metrics, throw them on a board and call it success. And so 155 00:10:27,600 --> 00:10:31,600 maybe we do KPIs or OKRs or smart goals or metric trees. But here's a simpler 156 00:10:31,600 --> 00:10:34,600 framework that I think allows us to speak to all the different parts that 157 00:10:34,600 --> 00:10:38,720 could go into success metrics. And so I call this the one, two, three, four 158 00:10:38,720 --> 00:10:41,960 road trip method. I recently went on a summer road trip with my family on 159 00:10:41,960 --> 00:10:47,000 vacation. We drove from Michigan down to Florida. It's a long ways, about 20 hours 160 00:10:47,040 --> 00:10:50,560 of driving. And so I've thought about road trips a lot recently. But let me 161 00:10:50,560 --> 00:10:54,480 introduce this to you. There's one, two, three, four. So one, you get one 162 00:10:54,840 --> 00:10:58,200 destination metric. Define one destination metric. This is your terminal 163 00:10:58,200 --> 00:11:02,760 goal for your team. This is the purpose your team exists for. It's not progress 164 00:11:02,760 --> 00:11:06,000 towards something else. It is the end purpose. So you define one destination 165 00:11:06,000 --> 00:11:09,600 metric, just like you would on a road trip. And then two, you get two 166 00:11:09,600 --> 00:11:13,880 away point metrics. So way points are those key indicators or key markers on 167 00:11:13,880 --> 00:11:17,040 the journey that track progress. They are crucial for tracking your progress 168 00:11:17,040 --> 00:11:20,800 towards your destination goal. So you define two way point metrics. And then 169 00:11:20,800 --> 00:11:25,400 you get three turn signals, three turn signals. Turn signals are also called 170 00:11:25,400 --> 00:11:30,920 decision metrics. They are specifically defined to alert you when you hit a 171 00:11:31,120 --> 00:11:34,680 decision point. And we'll talk a little bit more about how to define those a 172 00:11:34,680 --> 00:11:37,920 little bit later. But you get three turn signals. And then the last one, four 173 00:11:37,920 --> 00:11:43,680 gauges. So a gauge is an indicator of what's happening operationally on your 174 00:11:43,680 --> 00:11:47,280 journey. So what's your speed? How much gas is left in the tank? What's the 175 00:11:47,280 --> 00:11:52,200 temperature of the engine? These are important to have identified, important 176 00:11:52,200 --> 00:11:56,240 to maybe have available, but they're pretty pointless to stare at constantly. 177 00:11:56,360 --> 00:11:59,680 So gauge, there you go. One, two, three, four, one destination, two waypoints, 178 00:11:59,720 --> 00:12:03,680 three turn signals, four gauges. These are all the metrics you get. You get up 179 00:12:03,680 --> 00:12:07,080 to one, up to two, up to three, up to four. You can have less if you want, but 180 00:12:07,080 --> 00:12:11,520 you can't have more. These are the rules. I made them and I enforce them. So at 181 00:12:11,520 --> 00:12:15,680 first, this feels fairly easy. But where I see teams struggling specifically is 182 00:12:15,680 --> 00:12:18,640 with that destination metric. And so consequentially, the rest of the metrics 183 00:12:18,640 --> 00:12:21,840 can't fall down flat or don't come together until this first one comes 184 00:12:21,840 --> 00:12:25,120 together. So let's talk about destination metric. Destination metrics are the 185 00:12:25,160 --> 00:12:29,280 ultimate goal of your team. So let's talk about how to define a destination. I 186 00:12:29,280 --> 00:12:33,280 think you have three main options when you're picking a destination metric. And 187 00:12:33,280 --> 00:12:37,600 so before I explain these options, I need to introduce you to the box. All 188 00:12:37,600 --> 00:12:42,160 right. I need to understand the concept of the box. Okay. So humans are great at 189 00:12:42,160 --> 00:12:46,640 thinking in boxes. It's kind of a necessary coping mechanism for surviving 190 00:12:46,640 --> 00:12:50,720 in a really complex world is we put things in boxes. We're wired to draw a 191 00:12:50,720 --> 00:12:55,600 box around and to optimize our decision making for things that are inside our 192 00:12:55,600 --> 00:13:00,680 box. So we make choices based on what's best for us in our box, both biologically 193 00:13:00,680 --> 00:13:04,920 and psychologically. Like it's nearly impossible for us to not draw these 194 00:13:04,920 --> 00:13:10,200 boxes. Okay. So for example, in your personal life, your primary box might be 195 00:13:10,200 --> 00:13:15,400 yourself and then your family and then your neighborhood, your city, state, 196 00:13:15,480 --> 00:13:19,080 country, planet. All right. That's like the biggest boxes, the planet, maybe the 197 00:13:19,080 --> 00:13:22,080 universe, I suppose, but call it your planet. That's the biggest box possible. 198 00:13:22,480 --> 00:13:27,240 Those are kind of how boxes work. And so you make choices based on what's in the 199 00:13:27,240 --> 00:13:31,800 best interest of the smallest box first, and then you work your way out. So as 200 00:13:31,800 --> 00:13:36,880 you move out, it gets increasingly harder to make optimal choices that take into 201 00:13:36,880 --> 00:13:41,920 account the smallest box, yourself and your family, and the larger boxes, maybe 202 00:13:41,920 --> 00:13:46,040 your country or your planet. And so you end up with a little bit of attention 203 00:13:46,040 --> 00:13:49,760 sometimes between optimizing for the smaller boxes and the closer, more 204 00:13:49,760 --> 00:13:54,600 pertinent boxes to you and the larger boxes. And so if you are buying groceries, 205 00:13:54,600 --> 00:13:58,320 it's really hard and we can't simultaneously make optimal decisions for 206 00:13:58,320 --> 00:14:03,000 my family's health, my financial constraints, while also thinking about 207 00:14:03,000 --> 00:14:06,920 the economics and the environmental and the political factors of my state, 208 00:14:06,920 --> 00:14:11,520 country and planet all at the same time. It overloads the human psychology, 209 00:14:11,560 --> 00:14:15,960 overloads our decision making engine. And so we end up making some optimizations 210 00:14:15,960 --> 00:14:20,440 in smaller boxes. Okay. So we allow ourselves to be rational only in the 211 00:14:20,440 --> 00:14:24,640 smallest box, or potentially a slightly larger box. And so this is you end up 212 00:14:24,640 --> 00:14:27,040 making decisions around like, hey, well, I need to make a decision about my 213 00:14:27,040 --> 00:14:31,520 family, my health and my financial constraints. And maybe, depending on if 214 00:14:31,520 --> 00:14:33,920 you can optimize well on that, maybe you can take a step further, maybe start to 215 00:14:33,920 --> 00:14:38,280 think about some other other slightly larger boxes. Okay. And obviously enough, 216 00:14:38,280 --> 00:14:42,480 this probably shows up in our workplaces. Our boxes are ourself, then our team, and 217 00:14:42,480 --> 00:14:45,920 our department, and then our company. And so just like in our personal lives, we 218 00:14:45,920 --> 00:14:52,680 struggle to make optimal decisions for all areas of our life and all the world. 219 00:14:53,200 --> 00:14:56,080 Just like just like in our personal lives, and our corporate lives, we 220 00:14:56,080 --> 00:14:59,840 struggle to make optimal decisions for all of our company. And so we focus on 221 00:14:59,880 --> 00:15:04,120 optimizing smaller boxes. Okay, so this is similar to a concept in systems 222 00:15:04,120 --> 00:15:07,400 thinking called bounded rationality, where essentially we draw boundaries 223 00:15:07,400 --> 00:15:11,560 around what we are rational in, and we make decisions based on smaller boxes of 224 00:15:11,560 --> 00:15:16,920 rationality. So you as a team, you as a data team are a box, a contained unit of 225 00:15:16,920 --> 00:15:20,640 people with purposes, strategies, flaws, personalities, cultures, goals, and there 226 00:15:20,640 --> 00:15:23,320 are clear walls about what's in your box and what's not in your box. And so at the 227 00:15:23,320 --> 00:15:26,760 same time, your box exists also in the context of some larger boxes, and then 228 00:15:26,800 --> 00:15:30,320 maybe there's some gray lines between some of those, but generally, you know 229 00:15:30,320 --> 00:15:35,320 where your team ends, and where the other team begins. Okay, so fundamentally, our 230 00:15:35,320 --> 00:15:38,480 brains create these boxes with boundaries, so we can make sense of our 231 00:15:38,480 --> 00:15:42,000 world. And this is important when it comes to setting a destination metric, 232 00:15:42,040 --> 00:15:46,680 because boxes are all about what you're optimizing for success is all about what 233 00:15:46,680 --> 00:15:50,520 you're optimizing for, and all about what you're striving for the purpose. 234 00:15:50,920 --> 00:15:56,000 Alright, so I think you have three choices when it comes to picking a 235 00:15:56,000 --> 00:15:59,800 destination. And so let's talk about those you can pick inside the box. All 236 00:15:59,800 --> 00:16:02,920 right. And the box is your data team. So you can pick inside the box, you can 237 00:16:02,920 --> 00:16:07,440 pick on the edge of the box, or you can pick option three is outside the box. 238 00:16:07,440 --> 00:16:10,560 Alright, and let's let's break these down just a bit more here. So inside the 239 00:16:10,560 --> 00:16:15,360 box, there's three types of data teams. Inside the box, your destination metric 240 00:16:15,360 --> 00:16:18,360 is defined by the actions and the results inside the box. Inside the box 241 00:16:18,360 --> 00:16:22,520 metrics look like data teams that are things that the data team explicitly 242 00:16:22,520 --> 00:16:27,320 controls. So maybe that's decreasing the data cloud cost by x percent, maybe 243 00:16:27,320 --> 00:16:31,920 it's maintaining uptime of a data system by y percent. Maybe it's delivering 244 00:16:31,920 --> 00:16:36,480 data requests in x number of days, all new data requests. So things inside the 245 00:16:36,480 --> 00:16:39,560 box that you control, those are desiccated. That's what a destination 246 00:16:39,560 --> 00:16:42,720 metric looks like inside the box. In this scenario, that's what you're optimizing 247 00:16:42,720 --> 00:16:46,760 for. What's in the box, what you control. Edge of the box, your destination 248 00:16:46,760 --> 00:16:50,920 metric looks like connected to some element outside your box. So you don't 249 00:16:50,920 --> 00:16:55,160 control all metrics, all aspects of the metric, but it's also highly connected 250 00:16:55,160 --> 00:16:59,880 and related to work. So an example of this would be of an edge of the box 251 00:16:59,880 --> 00:17:02,760 destination metric might look like stakeholder satisfaction. Okay, so some 252 00:17:02,760 --> 00:17:07,640 sort of NPS score or some other method to assess a measure how happy our 253 00:17:07,640 --> 00:17:11,160 stakeholders are. That's an edge of the box metric where you control maybe like 254 00:17:11,160 --> 00:17:14,320 part of the equation, but not all the equation. The other parts are kind of 255 00:17:14,320 --> 00:17:17,640 like out of your control. And so in this scenario, you're optimizing for edge of 256 00:17:17,640 --> 00:17:22,120 the box interactions. The third scenario, and this is the scary one, is the 257 00:17:22,120 --> 00:17:25,760 outside of the box where your destination metric is not set based on 258 00:17:25,760 --> 00:17:28,680 what's inside the box. Now what's on the edge of the box that you have some 259 00:17:28,680 --> 00:17:33,480 control over? It's beyond your box entirely. And so very often when you set 260 00:17:33,480 --> 00:17:37,560 an outside the box destination metric for your data team, it's like the 261 00:17:37,560 --> 00:17:40,760 terminal metric of the whole organization or the whole company. That's 262 00:17:40,760 --> 00:17:45,640 net revenue, it's student outcomes, it's program participation, it's community 263 00:17:45,640 --> 00:17:49,160 impact, etc. It's usually like a terminal goal for the whole organization. 264 00:17:49,160 --> 00:17:52,840 And so in this scenario, you as the data team are optimizing your activities to 265 00:17:52,840 --> 00:17:57,240 impact something that's completely outside of the box. And so it's a scarier 266 00:17:57,240 --> 00:18:01,080 one, it's a harder one. And the natural question starts to come up is, well, 267 00:18:01,080 --> 00:18:04,680 which one should I pick? Which sort of destination metric should my data team 268 00:18:04,680 --> 00:18:08,440 have? Because this is how you're defining success and defining what you 269 00:18:08,440 --> 00:18:13,240 want to optimize for on your team. And so people struggle here to pick and they 270 00:18:13,240 --> 00:18:16,280 can't determine whether they should be inside, on the edge, or outside. But I 271 00:18:16,280 --> 00:18:19,640 think asking the should question might be the wrong question. I think better to 272 00:18:19,640 --> 00:18:22,760 start with what is already true about your data team. So let me tell you about 273 00:18:22,760 --> 00:18:25,960 the different data teams, the three different types of data teams that fall 274 00:18:25,960 --> 00:18:29,000 into these categories. And maybe one of these describes you better than the 275 00:18:29,000 --> 00:18:33,240 others. First, let's talk about the inside the box data team. Inside the box 276 00:18:33,240 --> 00:18:38,920 data team. This data team are what I call enablers. And their mantra is, here's 277 00:18:38,920 --> 00:18:43,320 your data, go be successful. This data team creates reports, ensures the data 278 00:18:43,320 --> 00:18:46,680 is accurate and available whenever needed. And they throw the data over the 279 00:18:46,680 --> 00:18:50,760 fence to the business team. And this team uses it. And their focus is on 280 00:18:50,760 --> 00:18:53,640 responding to tickets, optimizing data infrastructure and providing data 281 00:18:53,640 --> 00:18:57,400 quality. This is kind of the realm of DBAs and data engineers, people who 282 00:18:57,400 --> 00:19:01,240 ensure data quality and data availability. That's their world. And if 283 00:19:01,240 --> 00:19:05,560 that's your data team's definition of success, here's your data, go be 284 00:19:05,560 --> 00:19:09,640 successful, chuck it over the fence, call it good. That describes an enabler team. 285 00:19:09,640 --> 00:19:13,480 And these enable enabler teams are the type of teams that have success metrics 286 00:19:13,480 --> 00:19:17,560 and destination metrics that are inside the box. All right. Next is edge of the 287 00:19:17,560 --> 00:19:21,640 box teams. Edge of the box teams are what I call advisors. Advisors, this data 288 00:19:21,640 --> 00:19:25,560 team accomplishes the same tasks, all the same tasks as enablers, but they have a 289 00:19:25,560 --> 00:19:30,600 focus on engaging with stakeholders and providing context around the data and 290 00:19:30,600 --> 00:19:34,520 offering analytical insight. So this team includes things like data analysts or 291 00:19:34,520 --> 00:19:39,240 BI developers or data scientists. And their mantra is, let me help you be 292 00:19:39,240 --> 00:19:41,640 successful, right? Because they're optimizing for kind of this edge of the 293 00:19:41,640 --> 00:19:46,280 box relationships between stakeholders and data teams. And so their engagement 294 00:19:46,280 --> 00:19:50,280 with stakeholders is different. Let me help you be successful. There's a sort of 295 00:19:50,280 --> 00:19:55,000 advisor alongside you relationship. Those are advisors. And that's the second 296 00:19:55,000 --> 00:19:59,400 type of data team that often has destination metrics that are on the edge 297 00:19:59,400 --> 00:20:04,840 of the box. The third data team, third and final data team is what I call the 298 00:20:04,840 --> 00:20:08,920 partners. And partners have a different sort of mantra for success. Their mantra 299 00:20:08,920 --> 00:20:13,720 is we win or lose together. I don't win if you don't win and we win or lose 300 00:20:13,720 --> 00:20:17,960 together. And so this data team provides accurate data, offers context advice and 301 00:20:17,960 --> 00:20:22,840 strategic perspective around the data, but they also uniquely attach themselves 302 00:20:22,840 --> 00:20:26,920 to business objectives outside their data team. They are partners with the 303 00:20:26,920 --> 00:20:31,080 business and they are at the decision-making table. They measure their 304 00:20:31,080 --> 00:20:34,440 success by the organization as a whole. As we talked about, they are outside the 305 00:20:34,440 --> 00:20:38,680 box sort of metrics and destination metrics. Okay. So I think before you can 306 00:20:38,680 --> 00:20:43,640 pick a destination metric for your team, you really have to define, decide which 307 00:20:43,640 --> 00:20:47,080 type of data team you are. And so you can look like one of these three. Which data 308 00:20:47,080 --> 00:20:50,200 team are you? Are you an enabler data team? You already are one of these, so 309 00:20:50,200 --> 00:20:54,600 don't try to guess or don't try to make something up or get aspirational. You 310 00:20:54,600 --> 00:20:58,040 already are one of these. So first identify what you already are. Do you 311 00:20:58,040 --> 00:21:02,440 operate more as an enabler, as advisors or as partners? And that'll already help 312 00:21:02,440 --> 00:21:06,840 you answer this question of the destination metric. So, you know, I've given 313 00:21:06,840 --> 00:21:10,600 examples of these already, but enablers, their example destination metric might 314 00:21:10,600 --> 00:21:14,360 be data quality. Advisors might be stakeholder satisfaction. Partners might 315 00:21:14,360 --> 00:21:19,560 be like an overall business objective, net revenue, student outcomes, etc. It is 316 00:21:19,560 --> 00:21:25,080 possible to move from enabler to advisor or from advisor to partner. But that's, 317 00:21:25,080 --> 00:21:27,560 and that might be your aspiration. And we could talk about that another time, but 318 00:21:27,560 --> 00:21:31,640 that's probably another webinar that we can get into at a different time. So for 319 00:21:31,640 --> 00:21:35,000 now, I think it's best to kind of identify what you are when you're setting 320 00:21:35,000 --> 00:21:37,160 your destination metric. What is our team already like? It's going to be too 321 00:21:37,160 --> 00:21:41,080 hard to pick a destination metric that doesn't actually align with what your 322 00:21:41,080 --> 00:21:43,800 team is like. All right. So there's our boxes and there's how we think about 323 00:21:43,800 --> 00:21:48,360 destination metrics. And having a destination is crucial, and there's no 324 00:21:48,360 --> 00:21:51,480 way to be successful without a destination metric. But a destination by 325 00:21:51,480 --> 00:21:55,960 itself is a fluffy unicorn. It's mythical, imaginary, and kind of disconnected from 326 00:21:55,960 --> 00:22:01,080 reality. All right. So what we need to enable our destination metric are some 327 00:22:01,080 --> 00:22:04,600 other things. We need our other metrics. And so let's talk about those other 328 00:22:04,600 --> 00:22:07,800 metrics. The one, two, three, four, we cover the one, which is the destination. 329 00:22:07,800 --> 00:22:10,600 Now we've got the two, three, four. We've got the waypoints, the turn signals, and 330 00:22:10,600 --> 00:22:14,200 the gauges. So let's talk about principles for these. First is the waypoint 331 00:22:14,200 --> 00:22:18,840 metrics. These metrics are reliable indicators of progress towards your 332 00:22:18,840 --> 00:22:22,760 destination metric. These are the signs along the road that show you how many 333 00:22:22,760 --> 00:22:25,560 miles you are from your destination and be able to track progress towards your 334 00:22:25,560 --> 00:22:29,800 destination. So the key question you might be thinking about here is what 335 00:22:29,800 --> 00:22:33,800 things need to be true for our destination metric to be a reality. What 336 00:22:33,800 --> 00:22:37,320 things need to be true for our destination metric to be a reality. And 337 00:22:37,320 --> 00:22:41,640 then you choose, you're likely to go with numerous things that need to be true, 338 00:22:41,640 --> 00:22:45,320 but you narrow your focus down to identify the two most influential things. 339 00:22:45,320 --> 00:22:49,320 It's going to be subjective. That's okay. You might have to swap out your waypoint 340 00:22:49,320 --> 00:22:52,520 metric later on down the road. And that's fine too. I think the two things that 341 00:22:52,520 --> 00:22:56,120 right now seem to indicate and are the most influential towards your destination 342 00:22:56,120 --> 00:23:02,600 metric, those are your waypoint metrics. These tend to be a little faster 343 00:23:02,600 --> 00:23:06,200 feedback loop for you. Waypoint metrics will provide faster feedback than a 344 00:23:06,200 --> 00:23:08,840 destination metric will, which is great. So you can know that you're making 345 00:23:08,840 --> 00:23:12,200 progress even if the destination metric hasn't moved yet. Next, you've got turn 346 00:23:12,200 --> 00:23:14,920 signals and then we've got three of these. So a turn signal is tied to a 347 00:23:14,920 --> 00:23:19,560 specific decision. These metrics are designed as a decision statement. This 348 00:23:19,560 --> 00:23:26,520 isn't just a box with a big number on it. This says when X goes above or below Y, 349 00:23:26,520 --> 00:23:31,640 we'll make this specific decision. We'll make this specific decision. So what 350 00:23:31,640 --> 00:23:34,760 this looks like when you're trying to figure out what are our decision metrics 351 00:23:34,760 --> 00:23:39,240 is we think about what is the dilemma we face trying to make progress toward 352 00:23:39,240 --> 00:23:42,280 their destination? What is the dilemma that we face? What are these decisions 353 00:23:42,280 --> 00:23:45,000 that we're making that are going to influence our decision? As you start to 354 00:23:45,000 --> 00:23:48,760 identify what your destination is and what your waypoints are, now you can 355 00:23:48,760 --> 00:23:52,680 figure out what are the things that I'm doing week in, week out? What are the 356 00:23:52,680 --> 00:23:57,640 decisions that I'm making, maybe it's every month, that are really important 357 00:23:57,640 --> 00:24:00,120 and I need to optimize around those decisions that are going to actually 358 00:24:00,120 --> 00:24:04,440 move these other things. And you design a metric around decision making. 359 00:24:04,440 --> 00:24:08,040 There's all sorts of details we could dive into about how to design decision 360 00:24:08,040 --> 00:24:11,400 metrics and how to reduce the uncertainty and decisions that you're 361 00:24:11,400 --> 00:24:15,400 making using data. Again, that's a webinar for another time. But that's turn 362 00:24:15,400 --> 00:24:19,320 signals. The third one you've got is gauges. So gauges give you overall 363 00:24:19,320 --> 00:24:23,560 operational perspective, but they're not actively monitored. So you can just 364 00:24:23,560 --> 00:24:27,880 imagine staring at your speedometer for the length of a 10-hour road trip or 20-hour 365 00:24:27,880 --> 00:24:31,480 road trip all the way to Florida. It's pointless. You're staring at your 366 00:24:31,480 --> 00:24:34,440 or staring at your gas gauge and watching it just like slowly ticked out or maybe 367 00:24:34,440 --> 00:24:39,080 your electric charge slowly ticked down. These are not things you stare at. 368 00:24:39,080 --> 00:24:42,520 Gauges are not something you review every day. There are things that need to 369 00:24:42,520 --> 00:24:45,960 be available should something go wrong. If my car all of a sudden runs out of gas 370 00:24:45,960 --> 00:24:49,320 and I had no way of verifying that, that would be a problem. Or if I had no way 371 00:24:49,320 --> 00:24:52,520 of knowing how fast I was going when I was driving, that would be a problem. But 372 00:24:52,520 --> 00:24:55,800 it's not something I'm going to stare at the whole time. So they're reviewed on an 373 00:24:55,800 --> 00:25:00,040 infrequent schedule, maybe once a month or something or less, but they are not 374 00:25:00,040 --> 00:25:03,480 actively managed. You're not managing or optimizing towards your gauges. You're 375 00:25:03,480 --> 00:25:06,680 managing and optimizing towards your waypoints and towards your destination 376 00:25:06,680 --> 00:25:10,520 metric. And I could give some examples of these, but I think in the interest of 377 00:25:10,520 --> 00:25:13,880 time, we're not going to walk through it right now. So I want to give a little bit 378 00:25:13,880 --> 00:25:21,320 of a behold, like, wow, this could be great and beware. Watch out. Because once 379 00:25:21,320 --> 00:25:25,720 you start to define metrics and measurements for success, there's something 380 00:25:25,720 --> 00:25:30,280 to behold and there's something to beware of. Because designing success 381 00:25:30,280 --> 00:25:36,840 metrics for your team can unlock a new level of energy, clarity, and confidence 382 00:25:36,840 --> 00:25:42,280 for people on your team. It just does. Once they can see a destination and a 383 00:25:42,280 --> 00:25:45,720 goal and progress and they have visibility into what's happening and they 384 00:25:45,720 --> 00:25:50,200 can get on board with that vision and that purpose, you can unlock a new 385 00:25:50,200 --> 00:25:54,600 energy. But at the same time, you have to beware because metrics are the primary 386 00:25:54,600 --> 00:25:59,160 way your team members and organization is incentivized. Especially when these 387 00:25:59,160 --> 00:26:02,760 are our destination metrics and purpose metrics and success metrics. Success 388 00:26:02,760 --> 00:26:05,800 metrics are naturally and inherently something that your team wants to 389 00:26:05,800 --> 00:26:10,600 optimize for. And so without proper care and without your eyes being wide open, 390 00:26:10,600 --> 00:26:15,640 your metrics could introduce toxic dynamics and toxic incentives for your 391 00:26:15,640 --> 00:26:20,360 team. So incentives are all about what people optimize for. So a salesperson 392 00:26:20,360 --> 00:26:24,760 who's on a commission plan optimizes for closing the most deals to increase the 393 00:26:24,760 --> 00:26:28,040 commission. Regardless of anything else, they need to close deals. Regardless of 394 00:26:28,040 --> 00:26:30,280 their good deals, they need to close deals. Regardless of their great 395 00:26:30,280 --> 00:26:32,680 customers, they need to close deals. Regardless of if it's a good fit for the 396 00:26:32,680 --> 00:26:35,400 product, they need to close deals. Because that's what they're 397 00:26:35,400 --> 00:26:37,960 incentivized for and that's what they optimize for. Same thing with 398 00:26:37,960 --> 00:26:41,560 customers for people that are measured on how many support cases they close. 399 00:26:41,560 --> 00:26:45,640 And they're going to optimize for speedy resolution. Regardless of what might be 400 00:26:45,640 --> 00:26:49,960 ideal or optimal, on the big picture, their box gets very small and they start 401 00:26:49,960 --> 00:26:53,080 to optimize for speedy resolutions because that's their success metric. And 402 00:26:53,080 --> 00:26:57,080 so it's how do we turn tickets as fast as possible. Or a software engineer who's 403 00:26:57,080 --> 00:27:00,760 measured by some sort of toxic incentive, like how many commits they'd make or how 404 00:27:00,760 --> 00:27:05,400 many store points they deliver. And so they can optimize that in all sorts of 405 00:27:06,280 --> 00:27:11,720 poorly incentivized ways, suboptimal ways at the larger picture. But if you set 406 00:27:11,720 --> 00:27:14,920 the success metrics wrong, they're going to optimize it the wrong way. And at 407 00:27:14,920 --> 00:27:19,800 least it's toxic stuff. So these success metrics will be gamed. Promises 408 00:27:19,800 --> 00:27:23,640 for sure. These will be gamed. That's what people do when they want to, when 409 00:27:23,640 --> 00:27:27,320 they're incentivized to optimize something. You can't change that. So what 410 00:27:27,320 --> 00:27:31,160 can you control is make sure that your success metric is something you want 411 00:27:31,160 --> 00:27:35,560 people to game. All right. Don't hate the game. People are going to game your 412 00:27:35,560 --> 00:27:40,200 metrics. Play it. Play the game. Set up your success metrics and your 413 00:27:40,200 --> 00:27:43,640 incentives and what you're trying to get your team to optimize for. Set that up 414 00:27:43,640 --> 00:27:48,760 to be something that you want it to be. You want them to game the system to 415 00:27:48,760 --> 00:27:53,400 optimize and to think rationally and most optimal about what your metric is. 416 00:27:53,400 --> 00:27:57,160 And so make sure you set it well so that people don't introduce toxic 417 00:27:57,160 --> 00:28:00,200 incentives to play a game you don't want them to play. Set up the game that you 418 00:28:00,200 --> 00:28:04,200 want them to play. And then everybody gets excited and energized by the 419 00:28:04,200 --> 00:28:08,600 progress. Okay. Behold and beware your metrics. Next, we'll talk about 420 00:28:08,600 --> 00:28:13,320 designing your metrics. Once you've kind of defined those four things, one, 421 00:28:13,320 --> 00:28:18,280 two, three, four, your destinations, your waypoints, your turn signals, and 422 00:28:18,280 --> 00:28:21,800 your gauges, you have to think about designing them in detail. What data do 423 00:28:21,800 --> 00:28:26,200 you need? What information do you already have? And what information do you 424 00:28:26,200 --> 00:28:30,360 need to collect? You may not have all the information you need and you might need 425 00:28:30,360 --> 00:28:33,960 to figure out how do we actually collect the right details and the right 426 00:28:33,960 --> 00:28:37,320 information to track this metric. That's okay. You probably aren't going to have 427 00:28:37,320 --> 00:28:40,200 everything you need in front of us or very likely you're going to be 428 00:28:40,200 --> 00:28:44,600 collecting data and presenting data in a different way. Probably your turn 429 00:28:44,600 --> 00:28:48,600 signals specifically show up differently than you have in the past. Most people 430 00:28:48,600 --> 00:28:51,720 don't have turn signals. And your destination metric might look different. 431 00:28:51,720 --> 00:28:54,120 Your waypoints might look a little different. So how you're tracking and 432 00:28:54,120 --> 00:28:56,600 collecting that information kind of change. That's part of designing the 433 00:28:56,600 --> 00:28:59,400 metric is what are the data points required here? And it's usually not just 434 00:28:59,400 --> 00:29:02,360 one data point. It's usually a handful of data points that get aggregated or 435 00:29:02,360 --> 00:29:07,400 pieced together or optimized in a specific way to give you the holistic 436 00:29:07,400 --> 00:29:11,080 view that you want for each of these pieces. So part one is kind of like what 437 00:29:11,080 --> 00:29:15,400 data do you need? The second piece of this is how will you monitor these 438 00:29:15,400 --> 00:29:18,280 metrics? And there's a lot more details we could go into on all this. But how 439 00:29:18,280 --> 00:29:21,480 are you going to monitor? Is there alerting set up for your 440 00:29:21,480 --> 00:29:25,320 decision making, for your turn signals, for your decision metrics? Are they 441 00:29:25,320 --> 00:29:29,400 going to be reviewed weekly, monthly, quarterly? Where will they be visible? 442 00:29:29,400 --> 00:29:33,080 Who will review them? Whose metrics are these responsible for? Are there any 443 00:29:33,080 --> 00:29:37,160 external incentives also applied to these metrics in terms of promotions or 444 00:29:37,160 --> 00:29:43,080 bonuses or a team party or outing, et cetera? How will they be monitored and 445 00:29:43,080 --> 00:29:46,440 when are they reviewed and when are they communicated? We'll get to 446 00:29:46,440 --> 00:29:49,880 communicating more later. So that's about designing your metrics is making sure 447 00:29:49,880 --> 00:29:54,440 that you have some tools and you're thoughtful and strategic about keeping 448 00:29:54,440 --> 00:29:57,800 track of them. You go through this work of setting them all up and make 449 00:29:57,800 --> 00:30:01,640 sure you actually monitor them. And third, you're going to iterate. So 450 00:30:01,640 --> 00:30:06,600 schedule metric reviews. The metrics that you design at first, you're going to 451 00:30:06,600 --> 00:30:09,160 give out your best bet. You're going to do your best to think through this 452 00:30:09,160 --> 00:30:12,120 strategically and well, but they're not going to be perfect. And so 453 00:30:12,120 --> 00:30:16,840 scheduling reviews, maybe this is monthly, maybe this is quarterly. If you 454 00:30:16,840 --> 00:30:21,000 get feedback quickly on these, there's quick feedback loops. You might need to 455 00:30:21,000 --> 00:30:24,360 do this a little quicker or you might be able to review them faster. And your 456 00:30:24,360 --> 00:30:27,800 first metric won't be your final one. And your metrics will shift, which is what 457 00:30:27,800 --> 00:30:31,640 we're going to talk about in just a second. Because here's how this lays 458 00:30:31,640 --> 00:30:35,000 out. So your destination metric never changes. Best case scenario, your 459 00:30:35,000 --> 00:30:39,560 destination metric never changes. The only time it might change is if you are 460 00:30:39,560 --> 00:30:44,280 strategically moving your data team from perhaps an enabler and inside the box 461 00:30:44,280 --> 00:30:49,800 destination metric to a advisor and to an edge of the box destination 462 00:30:49,800 --> 00:30:53,480 metric. In that case, your destination metric might change. But unless you're 463 00:30:53,480 --> 00:30:55,720 making a strategic move like that, your destination metric never changes. 464 00:30:57,000 --> 00:31:00,120 It's very sticky. That's the destination. That's the purpose of our team and why 465 00:31:00,120 --> 00:31:06,600 we exist. The waypoint metric rarely changes. Occasionally, you will start to 466 00:31:06,600 --> 00:31:11,480 uncover through time and iteration and practice that certain things actually do 467 00:31:11,480 --> 00:31:15,160 influence, maybe other things influence the destination metric a bit more than 468 00:31:15,160 --> 00:31:18,920 your identified waypoints. And that's fine. Rarely these will change. But 469 00:31:18,920 --> 00:31:22,520 occasionally they will as you learn and get better. Turn signals will probably 470 00:31:22,520 --> 00:31:26,360 change more often. Those will often change as you evaluate, as you look ahead 471 00:31:26,360 --> 00:31:29,720 to the next quarter and realize what are the key decisions that are relevant and 472 00:31:29,720 --> 00:31:33,000 what are the key dilemmas we're facing in the next quarter and how do we optimize 473 00:31:33,000 --> 00:31:36,520 around those. And so maybe next quarter it's hiring decisions. Hey, we've got 474 00:31:36,520 --> 00:31:39,960 some really strategic hiring decisions to make and we need some turn signals 475 00:31:39,960 --> 00:31:44,280 around hiring and staffing and team structure. Maybe it's around cloud costs 476 00:31:44,280 --> 00:31:47,400 and you have some turn signals around cloud costs that are, again, connected to 477 00:31:47,400 --> 00:31:51,320 your waypoints. Or maybe it's around stakeholder engagement and et cetera. So 478 00:31:51,320 --> 00:31:56,120 those will often change. And by often I mean quarterly at most. These should 479 00:31:56,120 --> 00:31:59,800 not be changing weekly. They're quarterly metrics. And you actually might have, 480 00:31:59,800 --> 00:32:04,200 maybe you have 10 total turn signal metrics over time and they kind of like 481 00:32:04,200 --> 00:32:08,440 rotate through. You have three or four or you have three that show up every quarter 482 00:32:08,440 --> 00:32:12,040 and they kind of like slide in and out based on what the emphasis and the 483 00:32:12,040 --> 00:32:14,760 dilemma is that you face at different points in the year. Those will often 484 00:32:14,760 --> 00:32:17,640 change. And I think your gauge metrics will often change. Well, what you track 485 00:32:17,640 --> 00:32:21,480 operationally will probably change. Certain things will fall out of 486 00:32:21,480 --> 00:32:25,640 importance. Other things will slide into higher levels of importance. 487 00:32:25,640 --> 00:32:29,080 So your gauge metrics will change. But destinations never change. 488 00:32:29,080 --> 00:32:32,360 Waypoints rarely change. The lower ones often change. And so your quarterly 489 00:32:32,360 --> 00:32:36,680 reviews or your sprint reviews or your monthly reviews of your metrics are 490 00:32:36,680 --> 00:32:39,160 usually evaluated in the lower ones. Are these 491 00:32:39,160 --> 00:32:42,200 gauges, turn signals, and waypoints, are those actually still serving us well? 492 00:32:42,200 --> 00:32:45,240 Are there some adjustments and tweaks or some wholesale changes we need to make 493 00:32:45,240 --> 00:32:48,600 in those? All right. So here's the last part that I promised you. How to get 494 00:32:48,600 --> 00:32:52,440 leadership to pay attention to you. And so I want to share four ridiculously 495 00:32:52,440 --> 00:32:55,320 easy steps to sharing your progress and success with leadership. 496 00:32:55,320 --> 00:33:00,360 If you went through the work of walking through this one, two, three, four 497 00:33:00,360 --> 00:33:04,120 road trip method and thinking through how your team is designed to fit 498 00:33:04,120 --> 00:33:07,240 in relation to the box and the rest of the organization and what you're 499 00:33:07,240 --> 00:33:11,320 optimizing for and the incentives in your team, you will be well 500 00:33:11,320 --> 00:33:14,840 served to take some time to think about how that's going to 501 00:33:14,840 --> 00:33:18,120 accelerate the growth of your team and the attention that leadership gives you. 502 00:33:18,120 --> 00:33:22,680 Don't skip this part. The clarity and progress as a team, your 503 00:33:22,680 --> 00:33:25,560 clarity and your progress as a team is really short-sighted. 504 00:33:25,560 --> 00:33:29,080 If your leadership is not aware of how your team 505 00:33:29,080 --> 00:33:33,560 is successful, they're not aware and involved and attentive to how your team 506 00:33:33,560 --> 00:33:37,080 is successful. And communicating your success to 507 00:33:37,080 --> 00:33:39,800 leadership, that's the fastest way to not just get 508 00:33:39,800 --> 00:33:43,880 attention and recognition, but budget, project approval, promotions, career 509 00:33:43,880 --> 00:33:48,200 satisfactions. Listen, I'm a data guy. I spent my career 510 00:33:48,200 --> 00:33:51,800 in data. I am for you, data leaders. I am a fan of 511 00:33:51,800 --> 00:33:54,840 making you guys as successful as possible. 512 00:33:54,840 --> 00:33:58,440 I want to see data managers, directors, VPs 513 00:33:58,440 --> 00:34:02,120 grow and find ridiculous success in their career, 514 00:34:02,120 --> 00:34:04,920 at peak success in their careers and with their data teams. I want to see 515 00:34:04,920 --> 00:34:09,000 leaders getting on board with the data agenda and with the 516 00:34:09,000 --> 00:34:11,880 opportunities and the value of data. And so I'm on your team here. 517 00:34:11,880 --> 00:34:14,680 And that's why I care about how do you get leaders to pay attention to you. This 518 00:34:14,680 --> 00:34:17,480 is what matters. So here's four ridiculously easy steps to showing 519 00:34:17,480 --> 00:34:21,880 your progress. Number one, tell them how you are measuring success. 520 00:34:21,880 --> 00:34:25,080 Tell your leaders how you're measuring success. Once you've walked through this 521 00:34:25,080 --> 00:34:28,040 process, you will have clearly defined ways of 522 00:34:28,040 --> 00:34:31,800 measuring success. Tell them. Tell them how. Tell them about what you've 523 00:34:31,800 --> 00:34:36,040 defined. Second, tell them why you are measuring success this way. So 524 00:34:36,040 --> 00:34:38,760 knowing how naturally that's going to start to come up. 525 00:34:38,760 --> 00:34:42,360 Why are you measuring success this way? Talk to them about your thought process 526 00:34:42,360 --> 00:34:45,880 for why you defined the metrics the way you did. Your rationale, 527 00:34:45,880 --> 00:34:49,480 your decision points for picking the metrics that you did, how they 528 00:34:49,480 --> 00:34:52,760 how they fell into this one, two, three, four grid. That gives them 529 00:34:52,760 --> 00:34:55,880 not just knowing what's going on, understanding your 530 00:34:55,880 --> 00:34:59,400 thoughtfulness and strategy behind why you're measuring what you are. 531 00:34:59,400 --> 00:35:03,400 Number three, tell them when you will share progress with them. 532 00:35:03,400 --> 00:35:07,320 Your leaders probably won't be regularly checking in on your progress. 533 00:35:07,320 --> 00:35:10,840 Many leaders, especially as you go, if you think about leaders one, two, and three 534 00:35:10,840 --> 00:35:13,960 levels above you, they don't have time to regularly check 535 00:35:13,960 --> 00:35:17,480 in on your progress. So it is your job to communicate when 536 00:35:17,480 --> 00:35:21,320 you will share progress with them. Hey, I am going to share with you every 537 00:35:21,320 --> 00:35:24,200 month at our monthly one-on-one. I'm going to share with you at our quarterly 538 00:35:24,200 --> 00:35:27,480 reviews. I'm going to share with you weekly at our one-on-ones, etc. Figure 539 00:35:27,480 --> 00:35:30,280 out what the cadence is. Tell them when you will tell them. And then the last 540 00:35:30,280 --> 00:35:35,400 step, tell them the progress when you said you would. Don't waste your 541 00:35:35,400 --> 00:35:39,560 efforts on this process by then ignoring and failing to actually 542 00:35:39,560 --> 00:35:43,320 deliver on what you promised. One of the biggest problems that people run into 543 00:35:43,320 --> 00:35:46,600 is setting expectations and delivering on the expectations. 544 00:35:46,600 --> 00:35:50,520 And so here's this point here. If you don't tell someone what to expect, 545 00:35:50,520 --> 00:35:53,480 how will they know when they've won? And so a big part of that is telling them 546 00:35:53,480 --> 00:35:56,920 what to expect, coming through on that so that they 547 00:35:56,920 --> 00:35:59,800 know that they've won. If you don't tell someone what to expect, 548 00:35:59,800 --> 00:36:04,600 how will they know when they've won? You are being very deliberate 549 00:36:04,600 --> 00:36:09,800 and pedantic about how you are describing and explaining your team 550 00:36:09,800 --> 00:36:14,120 success, regularly sharing that with them, offering them, making it 551 00:36:14,120 --> 00:36:17,960 ridiculously easy for them to understand your success. 552 00:36:17,960 --> 00:36:20,920 And it makes it so much easier for them to then share your success, give you the 553 00:36:20,920 --> 00:36:23,720 recognition you deserve, and continue to invest a time and 554 00:36:23,720 --> 00:36:27,160 attention into what the data team is doing because they can see 555 00:36:27,160 --> 00:36:31,080 how it's moving the destination goal. They can see how it's 556 00:36:31,080 --> 00:36:33,240 connected to business outcomes. They can see how 557 00:36:33,240 --> 00:36:36,680 data is actually helping the organization as a whole. 558 00:36:36,680 --> 00:36:39,880 So tell them how you're measuring success. Tell them why you're measuring success. 559 00:36:39,880 --> 00:36:44,280 Tell them when you will share progress and then do it. Then tell them the 560 00:36:44,280 --> 00:36:49,080 progress when you said you would. So measuring success launch pad. So if 561 00:36:49,080 --> 00:36:52,680 you're looking for clarity for how to measure success for 562 00:36:52,680 --> 00:36:56,200 your data team, confidence about your progress towards your goals, 563 00:36:56,200 --> 00:37:00,200 renewed focus for prioritizing your work on your data team, 564 00:37:00,200 --> 00:37:03,480 tangible tools for sharing success with leaders so they can understand the value 565 00:37:03,480 --> 00:37:08,600 you bring, renewed energy from your team around tangible progress, 566 00:37:08,600 --> 00:37:12,760 and then maybe some peace. I love this mental peace after removing the noise 567 00:37:12,760 --> 00:37:15,400 and frustration of busy work, overwork, and overwhelming charts, 568 00:37:15,400 --> 00:37:18,600 which is like the definition of most data leaders I talk with. 569 00:37:18,600 --> 00:37:22,120 Noise and frustration of busy work, overwork, and overwhelming charts and graphs 570 00:37:22,120 --> 00:37:25,480 about what success is and the progress of their team. So if this has been 571 00:37:25,480 --> 00:37:28,680 interesting to you, if this is a compelling framework, interesting framework, 572 00:37:28,680 --> 00:37:32,600 and something that you see would benefit your team, that you need a 573 00:37:32,600 --> 00:37:36,520 definition of success. Currently you don't have one or you have an 574 00:37:36,520 --> 00:37:40,120 overwhelming one or you have just been hoping for the 575 00:37:40,120 --> 00:37:43,640 best and trusting your gut. If you want to explore this framework 576 00:37:43,640 --> 00:37:46,200 in depth, I do have an offer that I'm putting together. 577 00:37:46,200 --> 00:37:49,160 Measuring success launch pad. And what it looks like 578 00:37:49,160 --> 00:37:52,440 is in two weeks we can work through this framework 579 00:37:52,440 --> 00:37:56,760 and deliver success for your team, define and measure what success looks like for 580 00:37:56,760 --> 00:37:59,400 your team. And so let me show you what this, how this breaks down. 581 00:37:59,400 --> 00:38:03,160 The measuring success launch pad helps you define and measure peak success on 582 00:38:03,160 --> 00:38:05,960 your data team in just two weeks so you can execute, prioritize, 583 00:38:05,960 --> 00:38:09,880 and get noticed by leadership like never before. So defining peak success, 584 00:38:09,880 --> 00:38:12,760 measuring it in two weeks so you can execute, prioritize, and get noticed by 585 00:38:12,760 --> 00:38:16,040 leader. And here's how the program will work over the course of two weeks. 586 00:38:16,040 --> 00:38:19,320 First off we do a strategy session and that's working with 587 00:38:19,320 --> 00:38:23,320 myself. We call it, I call it the strategy of success 90 minute session and this is 588 00:38:23,320 --> 00:38:27,720 where we do the bulk of the outline of the defining metrics for 589 00:38:27,720 --> 00:38:30,680 destination, waypoint, turn signals, and gauges template. 590 00:38:30,680 --> 00:38:34,280 All right so that's the strategy of success. That's step one in this process 591 00:38:34,280 --> 00:38:37,080 is getting clarity on those and starting to work through. Then next you do a 592 00:38:37,080 --> 00:38:41,000 take-home exercise in this workbook or this workshop. You do this take-home 593 00:38:41,000 --> 00:38:43,960 exercise, takes you a couple hours where you identify 594 00:38:43,960 --> 00:38:48,360 the incentives that are at play and how the metrics that you are 595 00:38:48,360 --> 00:38:51,320 you defined during the strategy of success 596 00:38:51,320 --> 00:38:54,200 session, how those are going to show up on your team, and are they the incentives 597 00:38:54,200 --> 00:38:58,040 that you want. Next we'll do a define and design and 598 00:38:58,040 --> 00:39:01,560 define session. This is our 90 minute session where we get into the weeds now 599 00:39:01,560 --> 00:39:05,800 about how these metrics are going to, what shape, color, texture they're 600 00:39:05,800 --> 00:39:08,200 going to have and how they're going to be 601 00:39:08,200 --> 00:39:11,640 operationalized in your organization and in your team. 602 00:39:11,640 --> 00:39:15,000 And after that you have a communicating success 603 00:39:15,000 --> 00:39:18,360 template and this is another take-home exercise that you'll do on your own 604 00:39:18,360 --> 00:39:22,040 one to two hours of work again where you're basically working through a 605 00:39:22,040 --> 00:39:25,080 template of how to communicate success. A template for how to communicate 606 00:39:25,080 --> 00:39:28,920 success to your leadership. Take home that step four. Finally there's 607 00:39:28,920 --> 00:39:32,040 our 30 minute meeting where we work together to 608 00:39:32,040 --> 00:39:35,160 finalize and launch. So we review all your work, answer any final questions, 609 00:39:35,160 --> 00:39:39,160 make sure you have everything you need to launch out these metrics and start 610 00:39:39,160 --> 00:39:43,000 operationalize success for your team. So I have room to work with three 611 00:39:43,000 --> 00:39:46,120 data teams this summer through the measuring success launch 612 00:39:46,120 --> 00:39:49,960 pattern really across these five steps. And if that's 613 00:39:49,960 --> 00:39:52,920 interesting to you, if this framework looks like something that would benefit 614 00:39:52,920 --> 00:39:57,800 your team and you need this clarity and confidence as a leader, 615 00:39:57,800 --> 00:40:01,080 reach out, send me a DM, drop me an email if this is something you'd like to work 616 00:40:01,080 --> 00:40:03,880 with. I have room to work with three data teams this summer 617 00:40:03,880 --> 00:40:20,680 on this framework. This is called the measuring success launch pattern.