Don’t get angry. I’m not saying you need to write a new job posting for a Chief Metrics Officer. (Besides, our marketing leaders have claimed all CMO titles, right @Mike Rome?)

But in order to have a highly functioning leadership team, you need a culture of accountability, And you can’t have accountability if you aren’t measuring and reporting your numbers. (You also can’t have accountability without trust, but that’s a different post.)

High-performing teams love numbers. OKRs, revenues, bookings, new ARR and logos, churned ARR and logos, expansion ARR, booking to revenue cycle time, margins, leads, marketing and sales conversions (at many stages, and by channel). And we haven’t even gotten to product analytics like engagement metrics, onboarding numbers, and specific task completion metrics. (I really want to include story points as a joke, but my Product colleagues still don’t find it funny.)

All of these numbers are ‘owned’ by different functional groups. But you need to set compatible goals, create a common understanding across functional teams, and provide a unified report card (ahem, monthly and quarterly business reviews). You are always course-correcting, throwing gas on the fire, or pivoting away from something that isn’t working.

So what does it mean to own the metrics?

1. Partner, partner, partner. Partner with functional leads to define the metrics to track that are true KPIs, and the health metrics. This person should have a view of the quarterly and annual goals, and how the functional metrics feed into those goals.
2. Provide context. The owner forms (with input) the presentation of the metrics. Metrics need context. Imagine if you were driving a race car and your dashboard changed all of the time. Or showed stale data. Or bad data. Ensure your metrics are digestible and actionable.
3. Tie data to the big picture. Reinforce why the metric matters. How does it tie to the mission? Financial goals? Other OKRs? Annual goals?
   

So who owns it?

You probably don’t have the luxury (size, balance sheet, cash flow, etc.) to have a full strategy/ops team or a finance team. But someone on your team should be owning this. Here is what I believe works best:

The CEO owns it. Advantages — the metrics tell a story, and the CEO is the chief storyteller. Disadvantages – might not be in the CEO’s wheelhouse.

The COO owns it. Advantages — in many situations, the COO is the connection across functional groups. She may be thinking about organizational design, communication, and how to operationalize strategy. Disadvantages — a full-time COO is expensive, and she can’t just own “metrics.”

The CFO owns it. Advantages — numbers are everything to a good CFO. Good operational measurement helps direct cash investment to the right parts of the business. Disadvantages – often, startup CFOs may not have the level of operational experience across disciplines that you need.

Hire an interim COO/CFO. I’m talking my book here. But in this case, you can work with someone more experienced and not pay for an executive FTE salary. You can get your metrics set up, which is an immediate win. Also, you can partner with your COO/CFO to move ownership to the CEO or someone else in the future.

But whatever you do, give your metrics more thought. Oh, and don’t hire a Chief Metrics officer. That’s just a dumb idea.