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KPI goals and alerts, the sword and shield of a killer marketing dashboard

PUBLISHED ON 30 OCTOBER, 2013

Quite simply, there is hardly a better way to see how your KPIs are performing than defining meaningful goals and evaluating how close to meeting them you are.

Now, What are meaningful goals? Without a doubt, those that stem from the business objectives associated with your everyday job. That said, objectives may not be that clearly stated at personal level, and discerning what your fair share of responsibility is for a “50% increase in sales” imposed upon an entire department can prove challenging.

The solution? I believe you should make the effort to tie each of your KPIs to a goal that:

• Represents the potential of your own contribution to the team’s goal for the stated period of time
• Is achievable on the basis of your sole efforts: it does not depend on other people meeting their goals, although it may be subject to external factors

And if it all goes wrong?

What if none of your KPIs achieve the goals defined? One of two things normally stem from such a non-performing scenario:

• Your deadline for meeting them is extended, perhaps even adjusting the goal to more realistic (lower) expectations
• All hell breaks loose…  🙂

The latter being true is an unbeatable validator of your goal. And, should it be so clear that your job is on the line (tied to such performance), you are looking at a perfect candidate for dashboard alerts.

 

 

What to expect from alerts?

Expect to receive a direct notice (email, SMS…) as soon as your KPI is falling below a given threshold, indicating that you are likely to miss your goal or target by the time your deadline is reached. The purpose is clear: You are still on time to do something about it!

But you could of course get creative with alerts as well and use them when you DO meet your goal ahead of time (so that you can focus on other priorities).

Needless to say, alerts could be used in much less drastic scenarios, but I had to bring some excitement into the whole thing… 🙂

 

Open to your thoughts!