Metrics and measures are frequently used interchangeably. They are frequently mistaken with one another and presented as the same item.
It is easy to mix the two since, in some ways, a metric is a kind of measure, although a more useful and informative measure. While a measure is a basic number - for instance, how many kilometers you have driven—a metric contextualizes that measure - how many kilometers you have traveled per hour. This added information increases the usefulness of the same statistic by several orders of magnitude, particularly when looking at commercial KPIs.
Conversions per thousand impressions are an illustration of a vital metric for an internet business. Understanding you have twenty conversions is a restricted measure in and of itself. A really positive KPI is knowing that those twenty conversions came from a hundred impressions. It is less beneficial if they came from a thousand impressions - context is crucial.
| #1 Ranking: Read how InetSoft was rated #1 for user adoption in G2's user survey-based index |
|
Read More |
What Exactly is a Metric?
A metric is a quantitative measure. They are used to track certain operations, such as a marketing or sales initiative's conversion rate. Metrics allow organizations to evaluate the effectiveness of these processes.
To apply our previous example of kilometers traveled, you can only ascertain how far a person has traveled by using the measure (kilometers). You can determine how far they went, how much time it took them, and how quickly they were travelling by factoring in time. In a nutshell, a metric is a measure that includes an additional data point. Metrics, which are often shown on dashboards, are critical in measuring how effectively a firm is doing. They effectively repackage the raw measures into useful-yet-easy-to-digest chunks of data.
What Exactly is a Measure?
A measure is a raw data representation, for instance a number or a value. They can be computed using sums or averages and include numbers indicating business-specific indicators such as goods sold, website visits, items returned, and phone calls. In manufacturing processes, measurements such as speed, operational temperature, and cycles are commonly used.
Continuing with our example of travel. We have stated two pertinent measures: distance and time. The aggregation of these measures yields a metric, but the measures individually are effectively blind data, in that they make no claims about the entity being measured other than the measurement itself. If we claim a person traveled 30 kilometers, we can only state how far they traveled. We'd need the extra time to know if they were moving quickly or slowly.
 |
“Flexible product with great training and support. The product has been very useful for quickly creating dashboards and data views. Support and training has always been available to us and quick to respond.
- George R, Information Technology Specialist at Sonepar USA
|
What Is the Distinction Between Metrics and Measures?
The most evident distinction between metrics and measures is that measures are fundamental units that convey relatively minimal information on their own. If you received a report that simply stated, "We sold three hundred units," it would not be very informative. What are three hundred units of? How long did it take? Were all of the units sold or were some returned?
Metrics combine measures with some other types of data to construct a story. If the previous report stated, "we sold 300 units of product X during the last quarter," you have a more complete overview of how things are progressing. When this data is combined with the same metric from the prior quarter, you get a worthwhile KPI. If you sold 100 units of product X the last quarter and 300 units this one, your sales increased by 200% quarter over quarter. You can tell that this is a significantly more relevant metric right away.
A report that says you sold 400 units of a given product in the last two quarters offers you the same data, but it doesn't inform you about the progress from the previous quarter to this one, much like that measure alone doesn't give you much details. Consider a measure just as an ingredient in your favorite recipe. You can't create the dish without that ingredient, but you would not want to consume it on its own.
Which One Should You Choose for Your Dashboard?
There is seldom a one-size-fits-all response to a subject like what measures and metrics to employ in a company. The appropriate KPIs to focus on will be determined by the type of business you run. For example, a company that operates on a loss-leader business strategy, such as razor blade makers, would be foolish to consider razor profitability as a KPI. The business concept is based on selling razors at a loss (or even handing them out free of charge!) in order to entice clients to buy razor blades. Attach rate would be a significantly more helpful indicator in this type of business model because it would represent how effective your company is at getting people to buy that primary product.
Alternatively, for a computer repair shop, the turnaround rate is a lot better metric to use as a KPI. The success of this type of business is heavily reliant on volume. The more computers that are serviced, the more money the company will make. Given that you can only hire so many employees before your organization becomes unsustainable, quicker turnaround periods are a worthwhile aim to strive for.
Identifying and Tracking Your Metrics and Measures
Knowing what is vital to your business is essential to selecting the proper KPI metrics. It is beneficial to take a broad view of your business; to see the larger picture. It is all too easy to become fixated on metrics and measures that, while far from useless, are insignificant in the broader scheme of things. For example, focusing all of your efforts on increasing sales while a significant amount of your goods are returned as defective or of low quality is not the greatest plan of action.
The significance of a certain KPI is not fixed. The most important statistic to focus on for profitability this year may be completely different from the most important metric the year before. Business is a changing game, and the key to continual business progress is reevaluating the metrics and measurements that drive it. If your business used to produce a lot of faulty items and has reduced that error rate to a manageable level, it is definitely time to shift gears and focus on other aspects of your organization. Though distinguishing between metrics and measures may appear difficult at first, it is really a straightforward distinction.
What is more difficult is determining which indicators to emphasize when emphasizing KPIs for your firm. Having a visual representation of your measures and metrics with KPI Dashboards can help with this because it organizes the necessary data in an easy-to-digest way.