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Lesson 2: Research & Measurement Basics
Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)
What Are KPIs?
KPIs, key performance indicators, are metrics that organizations select to measure their progress. There can be organization-wide KPIs, project-level KPIs, or even individual KPIs.
Not only do KPIs allow organizations to track their performance, but they also help establish clear benchmarks. Taking the time to carefully construct KPIs can help ensure that expectations are transparent.
In order to come up with KPIs, you should think about what your goals are. You should also consider how you will measure progress towards that goal and during what period of time.
First, let’s start with some personal KPIs. Then, later in the lesson, we’ll examine KPIs of a leading media company. Let’s say that your primary goal for COMM 310 is stay engaged in the course. Here are examples of KPIs you, a student in COMM 310, might come up with.
- Post one question to the non-graded discussion board each week.
- Meet with the instructor for office hours at least once per month.
What do we think of those KPIs? Luckily, we have a way to assess whether KPIs are SMART.
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SPEAKER: So what are SMART KPIs? SMART stands for specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound. So let's take a look at the KPIs we came up with for Comm 310 and see if they are SMART.
The first KPI is post at least one question to the non-graded discussion board each week. Let's examine whether this is SMART. First, is it specific? This is a fairly specific KPI in that it's asking you to do a specific task each week. Is it measurable? Well, yeah. You can count to see whether or not you've posted to the non-graded discussion board each week, and, in this case, it's only one time a week.
Is it achievable? This will depend on each individual student's time and abilities. But I would say that hosting one question a week wouldn't require a lot of time, and you would be setting yourself up for success by setting this type of KPI. Is it relevant? Well, in week one of Comm 310, we went over how to be successful and how to stay engaged in Comm 310, and one of the suggestions that was provided to you is to continue to post on the non-graded discussion boards in order to interact with your instructor and your peers.
Is it time-bound? Yes. It's very time-bound in the sense that we are focused on one semester of one course, and it's giving you a task to complete each week. Therefore, I would say that this is a SMART KPI. It is specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound. It wouldn't require much effort to complete this, but you'd be able to track whether or not you've reached this KPI in no time each and every week.
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Using the “SMART” principles, you can assess whether different types of KPIs are SMART, and those principles will help you construct meaningful KPIs as well.
Monday.com
Although tools come and go, a popular tool for project management is Monday.com. This platform is easy to use and can help organizations track their KPIs. Here is a blogpost on Monday.com’s website that explains how you can use their tool to track KPIs.
Although we spend some time in COMM 310 learning tools, like Google Analytics and Microsoft Excel, we spend more time learning about concepts and developing skills that can be transferrable across tools. Therefore, if you gain a mastery of KPIs and Monday.com and in your next role you are expected to learn a new tool, don’t panic! You’ve already learned one tool and the foundational skills needed to learn more. More importantly, you understand why KPIs are important and how to identify meaningful KPIs for your organization.