Job Aid: Selecting Key Performance Indicators

Job Aid: Selecting Key Performance Indicators

Purpose: Use this job aid to review the steps for selecting appropriate key performance indicators.

Key performance indicators (KPIs) are indispensable for measuring the success or failure of business activities. To select appropriate KPIs for your organization, you should
follow four key steps.

Step 1: Define your organization's goals

Some questions to ask when defining your organization's goals might include

What will maximize my department's productivity?

What will enable us to grow this segment of the market by more than 10%?

What will enable us to increase our customer satisfaction scores?

Step 2: Define your organization's objectives

When defining objectives, it's important to ensure that they're SMART:

Specific – Is your objective specific?

Measurable – Can you measure progress toward the goal?

Attainable – Is the goal realistically attainable?

Relevant – How relevant is the goal to your organization?

Timely – What is the time frame for achieving this goal?

Step 3: Determine how to reach the objectives

Before choosing a strategy, consider customers' perceptions and your organization's overall marketing performance. Ask where the gaps are and how you can strategically
"show up in the right place at the right time" to improve customers' perceptions of your brand and boost marketing performance.

Step 4: Choose key performance indicators

Once an organization's goals and objectives have been clearly defined and an approach for achieving them has been determined, it's time to select KPIs for measuring
relevant aspects of performance.

Questions to ask when defining KPIs include

What is your desired outcome?

Why does this outcome matter?

How are you going to measure progress?

How can you influence the outcome?

Who is responsible for the business outcome?

How will you know you've achieved your outcome?

How often will you review progress toward the outcome?