Measure What Matters

I'm now reading Measure What Matters by Katie Paine. In the chapter one there is a section called dispelling the myths of measurement. My two favorite myths that Paine points out are: myth #3 measurement is expensive and myth #7 I know what's happening: I don't need research.

Probably my favorite among the two myths is the measurement is expensive myth. It baffles me that companies actually use this as an excuse to not measure the success of the programs they are running. If a company is running an unsuccessful program it could be costing them thousands or even millions of dollars. So maybe measurement is a little expensive or maybe it's not. Either way I can't believe a company would be willing to throw out that much money and not even know if their program is working or not. It reminds me of the saying "you have to spend money to make money". In this case sometimes you have to spend a little money to make sure the money you are dishing out is actually worth it. Do yourself a favor. Measure your programs. It could end up saving the company money.

Next is myth #7, I know what's happening: I don't need research. You may know what is going on with your company but you can not possibly know all the ways your programs are making or losing money. You can't know instinctively how the client or customer is reacting to your product. You have to do research to figure these things out! Don't just go around assuming that everything is fine just because your company's Facebook has a lot of followers. That doesn't mean anything in terms of measuring your product's success.

Companies everywhere, don't forget to research! You could find out some interesting things and you may just save a little money too.