What Are You Really Tracking?
At the first startup I worked at, the CEO put up the same slide at every all-hands. On it there were always at least twelve KPIs. I remember sitting there thinking I had no idea what we were trying to achieve. If you'd asked anyone in that room why each number mattered for the company, let alone what it meant for their work that week, I don't think anyone could have told you, including the CEO.
Most of us think, the more information I have about my company, the better I can run it. Every metric we track feels like one more piece of the business we can hold in our hands, a little more control, a little more progress.
This isn't wrong. The right metrics will tell you whether you're getting closer to the company you imagined, or farther away from it. That information is essential in determining how you move forward.
But too much data does the same thing as too little. If you're tracking twelve KPIs, nobody knows what matters, including you. If you're waking up in the middle of the night to check those numbers, do you know what movement you're looking for? Or what you'd do if you saw it? At some point the data stops being information and becomes a way to manage our fear. That's when it starts hurting the company.
I used to check my kids' location something like 25,000 times a day. Every time I picked up my phone I'd open the map before anything else, and if a dot hadn't moved I'd check again a few minutes later. It's a parent's job to protect her kids. That isn't what I was doing. The monitoring was me managing a fear I couldn't let myself feel. When the fear came up, checking gave me something to do.
But “something to do” is very different from “doing something.” In all those thousands of checks there was never a plan for what I'd do if the dot was somewhere it shouldn't be. My vigilance never came with action.
We do the same thing with our companies. The fears are bigger than we can sit with: what if I fail, what if I lose all the money, what if I'm the one who can't do this. We need something to do, and tracking our numbers feels like the perfect, responsible thing. We never catch it for what it is. We're not looking for information, we're trying to feel okay.
When a number is used as information, it translates into action. Below this line, we do that. Above this one, we stop. Triggers like that are easy to set with three numbers and impossible with twelve. Past a certain point, the numbers stop telling you what to do and start describing. They’re more a picture of the company, and not a direction for it.
Over-tracking isn’t just detached from meaningful action, it can act as a substitute for that action. When you know it’s time to let someone go, for example, you can put off the conversation in the name of data. Setting up a system to track their performance feels like addressing the problem. It sounds responsible, but the tracker is a place to put your attention so you don’t have to face the conversation.
The vigilance doesn’t even calm you down. Every number you add and every time you look, you teach yourself that you need to. The checking gives the anxiety somewhere to go and feeds it at the same time. Every unneeded number builds the belief that you're not okay unless you keep checking, so you reinforce the fear and never face it.
The best thing for your company and for you is to stop. Drop every number you aren't using as information.
List every number you looked at last week. All of them: the dashboard, the bank balance, the thing you refresh on your phone. For each one, ask: Why do I need this right now? Then try to fill in four blanks:
The question it answers
The level that means act
Who acts
What they do
If you can't fill in all four, the number is working as reassurance, not information. You can cut it. What you're left with should be short. Two or three numbers that tell you if you're heading in the right direction and what needs to change if you're not.
I start with the number that has the biggest impact on the business, usually a growth metric, and pair it with one that measures efficiency. At Butlr, the growth number was booked therapy sessions and the efficiency number was revenue per consumer. That was it. Everyone in the company knew those two numbers, so they could tell which initiatives made sense for the company.
Finding the right metrics isn’t hard, but leaving the wrong ones alone is painful. When I started this, I had to say to myself, more or less: I'm not going to die. I can hold this. That's how wrong it felt not to look. It will feel worse before it feels better.
But every time you don't check and nothing breaks, you learn that the business can hold without your vigilance, and that you can too. That's when the company starts becoming what you hoped. With the right data it's easy to judge and adjust your direction, your team can move on their own, and you get your attention back for the work only you can do.
I'll ask you what I've been asking myself: which number do you check most, and what are you afraid it will tell you? Reply or comment and tell me. I read every one.
-Christine
If you want to go deeper
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