Worksheet

Data Core

What do we measure, how often, and what result would change our mind?

How to use it

Each area of the Data Core gets its own page. Its working parts are set out as prompts — not a form to complete, but the things worth having a view on. The last part of each page lists what the area touches in the other cores, because a position taken here usually commits something there.

Read about the Data Core

The Omnigoal · Data Core · What do we measure, how often, and what result would change our mind?

KPI management

Choosing the few measures the organisation is actually run on, defining them so two people would agree, setting what good looks like, and reviewing them honestly.

ForDate

  1. Choosing what to measure

    Narrowing to the few measures the organisation is actually run on, balanced across what matters instead of what is easy to collect.

  2. Definitions

    What each measure means precisely enough that two people calculating it independently get the same answer.

  3. Targets and thresholds

    What good looks like, at what level, and what happens when the reading crosses it.

  4. The review

    The rhythm in which measures are actually read and something is decided.

What this touches elsewhere

  • Goal Core — A KPI without a goal behind it is a number; a goal without a measure is an intention.

  • Data Collection (Data Core) — A measure that cannot be collected reliably is not a measure, whatever the definition says.

  • Business Core — Most operational KPIs are process measures, and they belong to whoever owns the process.

  • Time Core — The review rhythm has to sit inside the organisation’s existing cycle rather than beside it.

The Omnigoal · theomnigoal.com · CC BY 4.0 · Andreas Baggesen

The Omnigoal · Data Core · What do we measure, how often, and what result would change our mind?

Data Collection

Where the numbers come from: which sources, how they are captured, whether they can be trusted, and on what basis the organisation is entitled to hold them.

ForDate

  1. The sources

    Where data actually comes from — systems, forms, third parties, manual entry — and which of it is authoritative where several disagree.

  2. Instrumentation

    What is deliberately captured and how.

  3. Data quality

    Whether the data is complete, accurate, timely and consistent — measured rather than assumed, since the assumption is always that it is fine.

  4. Consent and basis

    What the organisation is entitled to collect and hold, on what basis, and what it has told people.

What this touches elsewhere

  • KPI management (Data Core) — A measure is only as good as the collection behind it, and the definition has to be collectable.

  • Data Governance (Data Core) — What may be collected and how long it may be held is settled in governance.

  • Omni Core — Much behavioural data is collected at touchpoints, and instrumentation is part of designing them.

  • Business Core — Regulatory obligations on data collection are compliance obligations like any other.

The Omnigoal · theomnigoal.com · CC BY 4.0 · Andreas Baggesen

The Omnigoal · Data Core · What do we measure, how often, and what result would change our mind?

Performance Analysis

Turning numbers into understanding: starting from a question, choosing a method that can answer it, reading the result honestly, and doing something.

ForDate

  1. The question

    What decision the analysis is meant to inform, and what answer would change it.

  2. Method

    How the question will be answered, and whether that method can actually answer it.

  3. Reading the result

    What the finding does and does not say, including the alternative explanations.

  4. Acting on it

    What changed as a result, and whether the change worked.

What this touches elsewhere

  • KPI management (Data Core) — Analysis usually starts because a measure moved, and the definition of that measure constrains what can be concluded.

  • Reporting (Data Core) — Reporting says what happened; analysis says why, and the two are frequently confused.

  • Goal Core — The decision an analysis informs is usually about whether a goal is achievable or has been achieved.

  • Market Core — Attribution and incrementality are analysis problems, and they are where causal claims most often exceed the evidence.

The Omnigoal · theomnigoal.com · CC BY 4.0 · Andreas Baggesen

The Omnigoal · Data Core · What do we measure, how often, and what result would change our mind?

Reporting

The machinery that gets numbers from data to a reader: what is produced, in what form, how it reaches people, and whether any of it is actually read.

ForDate

  1. What gets reported

    The inventory of reports and dashboards, what each is for, and who asked for it.

  2. Dashboards

    How numbers are presented so that a reader can tell what is normal, what is not, and what to do.

  3. Distribution

    How reports reach people, in what rhythm, and whether they arrive while they are still useful.

  4. Whether it is read

    Usage measured, not assumed, and the retirement of what nobody opens.

What this touches elsewhere

  • Business Core — The financial pack’s content is settled there; this object covers how it and everything else is produced and delivered.

  • Stakeholders (Business Core) — What external stakeholders receive is decided with them; the mechanics of producing it sit here.

  • Data Governance (Data Core) — Consistent definitions are what make self-service reporting safe rather than merely fast.

  • Time Core — Reporting rhythm has to match the decision rhythm, or the numbers arrive after the decision.

The Omnigoal · theomnigoal.com · CC BY 4.0 · Andreas Baggesen

The Omnigoal · Data Core · What do we measure, how often, and what result would change our mind?

Data Governance

Who owns which data, what each term means, who may see what, and how long any of it is kept — the unglamorous rules that make everything else in this core possible.

ForDate

  1. Ownership

    Who is accountable for each data set being right, current and appropriately used.

  2. Definitions and lineage

    What each term means, where the figure comes from, and what happens to it on the way.

  3. Access

    Who may see what, on what basis, and how that is reviewed.

  4. Retention and deletion

    How long each kind of data is kept and what causes it to be removed.

What this touches elsewhere

  • Data Collection (Data Core) — What may be collected and how long it may be kept are governance questions applied at the point of capture.

  • Business Core — Data-protection obligations are compliance obligations and belong in the same register.

  • Business Assets (Business Core) — Accumulated data is an intangible asset and belongs on the schedule with a replacement cost.

  • Reporting (Data Core) — Shared definitions are what make self-service reporting produce consistent answers.

The Omnigoal · theomnigoal.com · CC BY 4.0 · Andreas Baggesen