Data Core · KPI management · Module
Definitions
What each measure means precisely enough that two people calculating it independently get the same answer.
The idea
How it works
A measure without a written definition is defined differently by each team using it, and the difference surfaces as a discrepancy every reporting period.
The test is reproducibility: give the definition and the raw data to two people and compare their answers. Disagreement means the definition is incomplete, not that one of them is careless.
Working with it
In practice
- 01
Write inclusions and exclusions
What counts and what does not. The exclusions are where the disagreements live.
- 02
Specify the timing
When something is counted — on order, on delivery, on payment — changes the number substantially.
- 03
Test on two people
Same definition, same data, independently calculated. Any difference is a definition problem.
- 04
Version the definition
When a definition changes the trend breaks, and a reader needs to know where.
One level in
The components of definitions
A component is something that exists afterwards which did not exist before — a deliverable or a mechanism, not an intention.
Give the definition and the data to two people. Any difference in their answers is a definition problem.
The other modules in kpi management
Choosing what to measure
Narrowing to the few measures the organisation is actually run on, balanced across what matters rather than across what is easy to collect.
LearnTargets and thresholds
What good looks like, at what level, and what happens when the reading crosses it — because a measure with no threshold produces observation rather than action.
LearnThe review
The rhythm in which measures are actually read and something is decided — because where the review is presentation, the whole measurement effort is decorative.
Learn