Metrics — the ‘equal responsibility’ view
Asym stacks with existing optimization efforts to compound your results. The ‘equal responsibility’ model of metrics takes the same stacking approach.
This post is the fourth in our series on metrics. It introduces the idea that metrics can be seen as pillars, rather than a pyramid.
The other posts in the series provide different perspectives on which metrics are most valuable. The first post looks at a Harvard Business Review perspective on how Tesla shows existing metrics are outdated. The second post helps make sense of metrics by grouping them into 4 broad categories. The third post presents the traditional view of metrics, with consumption metrics driving everything else. The fifth and sixth posts look at the business view, and the ‘what pays the bills’ view, respectively.
Everything matters
The equal responsibility view goes somewhat counter to the traditional ‘start with lots of consumption and work from there’ view. With this less common approach, each metric is seen as equally necessary to ultimate success.
Each element stacks with the other, with no one category taking the lion’s share. The entire process contributes to business success. As we reviewed in our previous post, this approach can avoid some of the errors introduced when consumption metrics are seen as the most significant drivers of business success.
Categories as pillars rather than pyramid
The last post shared a compelling graph revealing how essential quality of attention is. Mobile users outnumber desktop users, yet desktop users are almost 3 times more likely to purchase than mobile users. Tablet users about 2 times more likely.
The difference between mobile and the rest? Not many people slip a desktop or tablet into their back pocket and read while doing 5 other things. Mobile suffers from poor quality of attention.
Which matters when prioritizing metrics because when quality of attention enters the picture, metrics that indirectly indicate quality of attention (metrics such as engagement, leads, and sales) deserve more investment.
When quality of attention enters the picture, metrics that indirectly indicate quality of attention (metrics such as engagement, leads, and sales) deserve more investment.
Especially with companies that have suffered through one of the 3 misleading patterns which we described previously, consumption metrics no longer hold that strong anchoring position that is traditionally given them. Instead, every category becomes a pillar, each contributing the same value to the business success. No one category drives the business, yet none are unimportant.
Summing up
There is an intuitive reasonableness to the ‘equal responsibility’ approach. Where other approaches to prioritizing metrics stress the importance of specific categories, the ‘categories as pillars’ model side-steps this bias. No one category of metrics is seen as paramount to the others.
When it comes to determining the model that is best suited for your company, both tradition and opinion are less-than-ideal guides. Insight, founded on data, can inform your decision. As we will see in the next article, a more aggressive model moves away from this moderate approach and completely inverts the traditional approach to metrics. Read on to uncover which approach best fits your needs.
