If your measurement cycle is too long, it can be hard to tell if you are having a clear impact.  Moving to an Input KPI approach can give you faster feedback and tell you if you are moving in the right direction early on when you plan and launch new products.

Long measurement cycles that focus on financal KPIs are often not responsive enough for your Product Development teams. Leading indicators, which we call Input KPIs, can tell you if you are moving in the right direction when you launch new products and features. 

It can be hard to measure your product’s Impact

Many businesses are complex systems, where cause and effect aren’t always clear or separable. Many companies perceive this effect through persistent difficulty in measuring the longer term product impact on the P&L.

Poor cause and effect can lead to poor product budgeting and forecasting or product teams feeling disconnected from company goals. In our experience, measuring how customers are doing is different from having lots of dashboards. Metrics that represent improvement for customers get you closer to your goal, but adopting this mindset can mean a big shift from traditional management practices. Key differences include:

1. Customer-facing KPIs that give you insight into how inputs in your product will lead to growth/revenue. They measure the improvement for customers now, with causality linkages coming later.

2. Input KPIs let product teams tune while they actively work towards your North Star. 

3. Performance has to shift from traditional, (largely) financial trailing indicators to using Input KPIs. This includes the team’s work being measured against these KPIs.

How can New Day help?

At New Day, we offer a toolkit that allows product orgs to work on the right topics autonomously and measure their contribution to company goals. We work with management and product teams alike to define ‘Input KPIs’ that are direct levers on growth, but that lead output indicators in the P&L.  We also implement OKR processes that help with goal consistency and communication.  Our toolset also works for larger organisations to keep multiple product teams working on their individual goals while also keeping the product consistent. We can set up processes that let your teams work faster, more independently, and that lead to the right decisions.

We have experience setting up these processes at companies like Amazon, Friday, Vivino, HolidayCheck, and many more. We understand what top management wants, as well as what drives product teams to deliver their best. Our toolkits ensure you work on the right topics efficiently.