Three myths about defining success metrics

We end up explaining this on discovery calls often enough that it deserved writing down. A few things about defining success metrics that get repeated more often than they get checked.

Clear scope protects the client at least as much as it protects the agency. The teams that stay on top of it are the ones who put it on a calendar rather than a wish list.

“It only matters for big sites”

Agree the numbers before the work starts. Small and consistent beats large and occasional here. It is worth deciding this deliberately rather than inheriting whatever the last person set up.

“We can deal with it after launch”

Sometimes true, usually expensive. The cost of getting this wrong is rarely visible on the day it happens.

“Our platform handles it”

Pick metrics you can actually influence. The reasoning matters more than the rule, because the rule has exceptions. The failure mode is not doing it wrong, it is doing it once and assuming it stays done.

The short version

Strategy work is mostly deciding what not to do, and writing it down so it stays decided. Three things worth confirming about defining success metrics before you move on:

• Someone can say what the current setup is without going to look
• Traffic is not a business outcome — 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.