Defining success metrics, explained without the jargon

It comes up on almost every project, usually later than it should. Here is defining success metrics without the vocabulary that usually surrounds it.

The projects that go badly are rarely the ones with the hardest technical problems. If two people in the business would answer this differently, that gap is the actual problem.

The short version

Agree the numbers before the work starts. Small and consistent beats large and occasional here. If it only works because one person remembers to do something, it does not work yet.

Why people complicate it

Most of the confusion comes from tooling rather than from the idea itself. The teams that handle this well are rarely the ones with the biggest budgets.

Traffic is not a business outcome. There is a version of this that is over-engineered, and it is worth avoiding. It is the sort of thing that looks like polish right up until it costs you an enquiry.

Turning this into a decision

Pick metrics you can actually influence. The teams that handle this well are rarely the ones with the biggest budgets. The teams that stay on top of it are the ones who put it on a calendar rather than a wish list.

How to tell if yours is fine

Clear scope protects the client at least as much as it protects the agency. Three things worth confirming about defining success metrics before you move on:

• Someone can say what the current setup is without going to look
• Agree the numbers before the work starts — and you know whether that is true here
• There is a way to tell whether the last change to this helped

If you are not sure where your systems currently stand on this, it takes us about an hour to find out.