Measures

Two types of metrics to measure success in achieveing goals:

• Lag measure - a measure of the thing you are ultimately trying to improve. This is the metric that tells you if you've actually achieved the goal. Called lag because by the time you see them, the action taken to achieve those goals has already passed. You see it after the fact
  • Difficult to use for growth, since the data comes when it's too late.
  • Cannot be directly influenced, since it has already happened.
  • Can be tempting to focus on, since they are easier to measure, and they represent the result we ultimately want.
  • ex. - weight loss, revenue growth
• Lead measure - Tells you if you are likely to achieve the goal. These are the metrics that serve as predictors of success
  • ex. - eating healthy and exercising predict a healthy body and mind, while tracking weight is too detached from the actions that lead to being healthy.
• analogy lead/lag indicators in economics