A flying lesson, or why it's important to connect KPIs to clear objectives - Adrian Kingwell

Adrian Kingwell, Mezzo LabsNovember 2013

A flying lesson.Or, why it’s important to connect KPIs to a clear objective

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Why is this date so important?

17th December 1903

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On 17th December 1903, Wilbur and Orville Wright achieved the first sustained, controlled, powered heavier-than-air manned flight…

But it wasn’t the first powered flight…

Samuel Pierpont Langley (1834 – 1906)American astronomer, physicist, inventor of the bolometer and pioneer of aviation. • Professor of mathematics

US Naval Academy• Director, Allegheny

Observatory • Professor of astronomy,

Western University of Pennsylvania

• Third Secretary, Smithsonian Institution

• Founder, Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory

Langley received US War Department grants of $50,000 and $20,000 to develop a piloted airplane.

They wanted something to help them win the Spanish-American War – a spy plane.

He connected his project with their strategic objective.

On May 6, 1896 Aerodrome 5 was catapulted from a boat on Potomac River.It flew over 1000m.

Proved that stability and sufficient lift could be achieved in an aircraft.

But it was un-manned.

Next challenge: put a man in it.

So Langley scaled up the original models.

He developed a more powerful engine.

But it didn’t work.

Two launches in October 1903 both immediately crashed into the water.

It wouldn’t fly. It was uncontrollable.

Result: no more state funding.

Langley taught us some valuable lessons:1. There’s always

someone, somewhere who has the budget you need

2. Align yourself with business objectives

3. Don’t set unachievable milestones, or KPIs that don’t measure progress

4. Give stakeholders regular updates of progress

5. One man’s opinions may work when you are small, by they rarely scale

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So how did the Wright brothers beat Langley?

Wright brothers started with a more achievable objective…

Get a man and an engine in the air and keep it there.

• They started with man on-board a glider

• They did not waste time developing a more powerful engine

Their objectives were to find more lift and better control

• They built a wind tunnel to test their hypotheses before committing to the full-scale world.

• They used data from the wind tunnel to improve the efficiency of the wings and propellers.

• They created a different sort of “model”.

• Their fundamental breakthrough was invention of three-axis control.

The Wright brothers were first – but not by much.

• 1 man

• 1 engine

• 37 metres

• 12 seconds

What did the Wright brothers teach us?

• Set achievable objectives

• Test and learn

• Optimise (they refined the principles of flight, rather than build a bigger engine)

• You don’t necessarily big budgets

But they were NOT a commercial success.

The Wright brothers made no flights at all in 1906 and 1907.

They spent their time trying to persuade the US and European govts to buy their flying machine.

Replying to the Wrights' letters, the U.S. military expressed virtually no interest in their claims.

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So how does this help us web analysts?

5 steps to Data-Driven Marketing

This is your vision

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• Your vision may be clear– The objective is to get marketing driven by data,

not misinformed personal opinion

• But this journey will fail if it is not closely aligned with board-level objectives

• So how do we align objectives, activity and data?

Business objectives

Your objectives

Your activities

KPIs

Metrics

You need a model -- one that will scale to board level

Business objectives

• Win the Spanish-American war

Your objectives

• Build a spy plane

Your activities

• Scale our model• Build a more powerful

engine

KPIs • Distance flown

Metrics • Metres

This is how it looked for Langley

Business objectives

• Be the first manned, powered flight

Your objectives

• Build a plane that gets a man off the ground

Your activities

• Build better wings• Build better propellers

KPIs • Lift• Power used

Metrics• Lbs/ft• HP

This is how it looked for the Wrights

Business objectives

• Sell more product at lower cost

Your objectives

• Sell more online, with less budget

Your activities

• Improve SEO• Increase social reach

KPIs• Increased visitors from

Google• Increased visitors from

Twitter

Metrics• Google

visitors • Twitter

visitors

This is how it could look for you

This is how it looks once you’ve planned it out

Data Layer

C-Level

Campaigns

Management

Content

Nail the requirements and get the right data.

Dashboards align with audience types• C-level needs very

simple metrics and lots of pictures

• Management need some depth but not too much

• Campaigns and content KPIs are deep

KPIKPI

Objective

What Langley should have done…• Clearer alignment

between US Govt objectives and Langley’s KPIs

• More testing and learning

• Better reporting of progress to all stakeholders

The result…• The funding continues• The Aerodrome flies• America wins the war

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Conclusion• Digital objectives must be aligned with

business objectives• Objectives must be realistic and achievable• Decide tactics, agree KPIs• Report progress back to the board via a few

simple KPIs• Don’t be afraid to make mistakes, test and

learn, pivot or persevere