Numbers, numbers, numbers
Having meetings, talks and speeches I realized that many start up entrepreneurs are not paying attention to numbers. I don’t want to hurt anybody but many people are not talking about goals, dreams, successes in aspect of numbers they achieved, will achieve or want to achieve.
I think old rule was lost somewhere: “you can’t manage what you can’t measure”.
My every day struggle are numbers – when I open web analytics Ms Excel files I see my critical numbers. Our project www.totutam.pl is a young web app which serves only this events which people prefer. The questions I ask myself is: how do I know that people see what they want, saying other words, how do I know that people do find events they prefer. Answer source - numbers, numbers, numbers….. For example if my users loyalty rate is more than 80% and, furthermore, 50% of users come back more than 9 times a week it means I can be smiled. If these numbers are low, doesn’t matter how sunny is the day, I can’t be very proud of myself.
Moreover there is another number I especially like – how many tickets (according to scrum methodology) do programmers close per sprint and how many upgrades there are able to close. Number of tickets is the indicator of the programmers ability to close tasks. Number of upgrades can states for the speed of web app changes. More upgrades more changes for users (doesn’t mean more features – we want app to be simple).
Next area is marketing activity – number of fans, number of positive feedback, number of negative feedback.
Having metrics established in specific areas, I personally believe, helps to keep business on the right track. It helps to evaluate progress objectively.
If you don’t agree or you have something to share please feel free to comment.
Have a nice day
Arek
