A Common Metric of Success
Getting everyone on the same page is important for any company.
It becomes especially important in the beginning of a startup when you have small teams working on small projects in different departments. This helps everyone know exactly what metric of success you are going after. It also helps align groups to determine whether or not the work that they are doing aligns with the quantified goals of the company.
These metrics could be anything such as; pageviews, sign ups, paying customers, shipments made, monthly accounts activated, downloads, etc… The common number helps people in any team from business development to engineering know and understand that what they are doing has an impact on the business.
This type of clarity also helps people decide whether the next task they are going to work on aligns with the vision.
Here is an example of what Panic did
You certainly don’t need a flat panel display pulling in APIs to get the job done (although this is a beautiful way to do it). A shared Google Spreadsheet does the trick just as well, and you can jump in to see the data behind a graph.
When you question what you are working on, or what the CEO finds most important, you should be able to consult this document, graph, or screen and know the answer. Its great to help multiple departments start to understand how each team works together towards a common metric of success.
