Distinguishing metrics from strategy

Do you feel like you have the information you need to make smart decisions for your organization?

Do you feel like maybe you have too much information? As in, more information than you can use? As in, so much information that it's just overwhelming?

If that's how you feel, you're not alone. Not according to this study released by Oracle last month.

Tons of business leaders are reporting that data-driven decision making isn't a slam dunk win for them — it's just a headache they wish they could avoid.

70% of them said they wish they had a robot to make all their decisions for them. Others said that there's so much data to consider that they've gone back to just trusting their gut.

It all sounds pretty bleak to me.

But here's the thing:

Metrics by themselves are easily overwhelming.

Their meaning and value only appear in the context of strategy.

What's your goal? What's your strategy to achieve it?

Find the metrics that matter in that strategy.

The rest is, for now, just noise. You can look it over later when you're trying to identify your next big goal.

And there will always be one of those.

All the best,
A.

Your helicopter’s facing the wrong way

I've had leadership reject my battle plans because the helicopter was facing the wrong way in the stock photo in my PowerPoint deck.

— Retired Navy SEAL Andy Stumpf* explaining some of the frustrations of trying to get leadership on board with good ideas

Whatever your organization's mission or structure, when it comes time to get things done you're going to have to get buy-in from other people.

Maybe it's your ED or membership director; maybe it's your board; maybe it's your department heads. Maybe it's just the summer intern or a couple of volunteers at an event.

We want to believe that all decisions are based on evaluating each idea on its merits, or on a common commitment to mission and objectives. But people are complicated.

Before they can really buy into your plans, they want to believe that you're also on board with the things that really matter to them.

Sometimes their concerns can seem petty, or asinine, or irrelevant.

But if you need these people in your plan, the only way to reach your goal is to take a step back and do what it takes to show that you share their concerns.

Here’s the thing:

Andy Stumpf says, “In the end, I was selling myself.” It’s about building trust by demonstrating shared concern.

It's the same thing that you're probably already doing for your donors and potential members: demonstrate that you care about their priorities.

If you can do that, they'll be a lot more ready to work with you to achieve the goals that really matter.

All the best,
A.

* I’ve paraphrased Stumpf’s comment for brevity and context. You can hear his actual comment on Jocko Wilink’s podcast, discussing the importance of “mental Judo” and dealing with the political and bureaucratic reality of organizations, right about here: https://youtu.be/uUC8Heiae9I?t=4526

Success

Success is defined by reaching goals. If you're not setting goals, or you're not measuring whether you've met them, you can't say you've been successful.

And if you are setting goals, and reaching them, take a moment to celebrate. Gold star for you.

Now on to the next one.

All the best,
A.

Spooky duplicates in CiviCRM

The ghost story goes like this:

1. Duplicate records are not usually a major headache on your site, but one day you find a collection of dozens of duplicates contacts that contain no data, except an identical email address.

2. Baffled, you merge all those duplicates and double-check to be sure they're all taken care of.

3. A week later, you find another dozen duplicate contacts in the same situation: they all have no data except an identical email address.

4. Rinse and repeat. No matter how often you merge them, they keep coming back.

What the heck is going on?!

Nope, your site is not haunted. There are no ghosts.

This frustrating and mysterious behavior gets reported now and then, in a few different places in the CiviCRM community. You can find it in the CiviCRM Stack Exchange, in the public issue queue, in the MatterMost chat logs.

The explanation is not simple, but I will simplify:

The linkage between your CiviCRM contacts and your CMS users is corrupted and needs repair.

It may not affect all your users, but it's clearly affecting some of them. And every time those users log in, CiviCRM creates a duplicate record using only their email address.

This is one of the dozens of common issues and I scan for in my CiviCRM Diagnostic Scan. I've seen it come up on several sites, one just recently.

The fix is also hard to describe, but pretty simple from a technical viewpoint: We just need to identify the users that have this problem, and repair the link to their CiviCRM contact.

No ghosts. No exorcism.

Everything happens for a reason. And once we find the reason, the fix reveals itself.

All the best,
A.

Nothing’s faster than paper

Printed reports and paper forms are amazing.

• They're super quick to read. It's right there in your hand!

• They're amazingly flexible. You can take note of anything even remotely relevant with just a pen!

• They're easy to share. Just hand it to somebody!

No complicated searching, no rigid validation errors, no complex permissioning scheme. It's paper!

Of course — in real life — speed, simplicity, and ease of access aren't the only priorities.

At some point, you'll have to make a trade-off. Nothing is perfect for everything all the time.

All the best,
A.

Duty to protect

In the business services world, where every client knows they have a bottom-line profit motive, providers may be able to support the success of their clients by just doing what they're told. Maybe.

But in the world of CiviCRM, that's not enough. In this world:

• Organizations are very often not run by business-minded folk;

• The organization itself does not exist to turn a profit;

• The definition of success for the organization is often hazy.

In such a world, providers who are dedicated to the success of their clients cannot afford to simply do what they're told.

Building features, conducting trainings, custom development, configuration, etc., all need to be tied to actual success metrics based on the mission and business goals of the organization.

And it's the provider’s duty to identify those measurable goals before diving in on billable work.

Anything less is a disservice.

All the best,
A.

Jammed up with choices

Having more options doesn’t always make life easier. It often makes decisions harder.

Maybe you’ve heard of this commonly cited study on decision-making in the face of many options:

In a popular local grocery store, researchers set up a tasting table offering samples of jam: at certain times the table offered a selection of 24 different jams, and at other times only six different jams. The researchers reported that shoppers were about 10 times more likely to purchase from the table with only six options in comparison to the table with 24 options.

Their report presents several theories, but one often cited is that decisions become harder as more options are available; as a result, people are more likely to avoid making any decision at all.

Here's the thing:

Obviously your organization is not in the position to simpy do nothing at all. Decisions must be made.

It's natural to think, "My goodness look at all these different jams! How can I possibly know which one is the best?"

But you can make your life easier by focusing on two simple points:

1. I need jam.

2. I have a limited amount of time and money to make this purchase and leave the store.

With that in mind, you can indeed just grab the first jam that meets your needs and fits your available resources (time and money), and be done.

When you've got a decision to make, you can choose focus on the many choices available, or you can focus on your goals and avaiable resources, and get the thing done.

Your choice.

All the best,
A.

No time to stop for gas.

You're probably not so hectic that you run out of gas because you didn't have time to stop on the way to work. Like the lady I stopped to help on the side of the road today.

But I have spoken with several clients lately who seem so busy with the day-to-day activity of running their organization that they don't take time to think about the opportunities that they're missing.

The everyday work of managing a CRM system is — hopefully — part of your ongoing process to improve your systems, improve your relationships with your constituents, and further the mission of your organization.

As Seth Godin says, you don't get points for being busy.

But you do get a lot of points for planning carefully, setting smart goals, and making the world a better place.

All the best,
A.

Busy?

Do you feel busy in your work?

Productivity is good. But remember there's no real value in being busy.

The real question is, are you focused on — and actually achieving — goals that matter?

All the best,
A.

"If you don't know what to measure, measure anyway.”

Here's another gem from Douglas Hubbard's How to Measure Anything:

If you don't know what to measure, measure anyway. You'll learn what to measure.

- David moore, 1998 president of the American Statistical Association

Knowing what to measure can be hard, when you don't have much quantified information.

But measuring itself — as a way to remove uncertainty — is critical.

If all you have is a gut feeling, wouldn't it be valuable to have some hard numbers — any at all — on the matter?

That will either let you confirm or refute your gut feeling, or it will point you to things you could measure to get that insight.

There are many things you don't know. But you can't let that stop you in your tracks.

All the best,
A.

Problem solving as a learnable skill

Here's a little story from my "smart client decisions" honor roll:

This client is making great use of CiviCRM and his organization’s CMS on a regular basis. He's not a software developer, but he does make sure he's familiar with the features that are available to him through the CRM, the CMS, and the community provided extensions, of which he uses many.

He doesn't only reach out to me for emergencies. He'll often check in with me early in the process of planning a new project, to be sure he's on the right track with a good strategy.

But yesterday he reached out with an urgent task.

The problem:

In the midst of a large and important event registration campaign, many registrants — but not all — were getting a “white screen” fatal error.

The credit card payments went through, but they never saw a completion message. Just a white page that said, in effect, "Something went wrong. Please try again."

So they would try again, getting the same message each time.

Meanwhile, their credit card was being charged on each attempt. And they'd still not have confidence that they were registered.

So organization staff were getting dozens of requests for help, and complaints about multiple charges, and an ongoing uncertainty about who's actually registered.

Getting it fixed:

My client did a great job of trying to debug this himself, carefully reproducing the bad behavior with a known set of steps. But as well versed and competent as he is, hes still could not find the source of the problem.

So he reached out to me with an urgent request. He described the problem clearly, and told me how to reproduce it. He told me the solutions he had tried. He told me this was an urgent matter, and explained the business impact.

I took it from there.

I cloned the site offline for in-depth debugging. I discovered that the bad behavior was caused by a bug in a particular CMS extension. I patched the bug on his live site, and tested to be sure it was fixed. I also reported the bug for the extension author, sharing my fix. And I let my client know the problem was resolved.

They're now back up and running, with confidence that people are actually able to register without error.

Lessons:

Why is this on the honor roll? Because my client did several things right:

• As a general practice, he keeps abreast of what's generally possible and what's not.

• He's hands-on managing the site himself, and therefore well aware of how the side is configured and what extensions it relies on.

• He took steps to debug the problem himself first. This way if he fixes it, he retains the knowledge of the solution and lets it inform his configuration work going forward.

• He was methodical in reproducing the bad behavior, and in documenting the steps to do so. This gives him a clear indication of where the problem may lie, as well as a test case he can use to verify the effects of any corrective action.

• He noted the business impact of the problem. This allows him to assess both the urgency and the business value of getting a solution.

• He shared all this with me very clearly so that I could take action without ambiguity.

• Most of all, because of all of these things, he was able to make an informed decision about the cost/benefit calculation to determine whether it was worth pulling in an outside expert.

Overall, this reads like an absolute winner to me.

Here's the thing:

Naturally we all hope that nothing ever goes wrong. Naturally we look for software systems that are well designed and robust.

But no matter what system you're using, surprises will happen.

Dealing with them effectively is a matter of diligence, careful analysis, and smart business driven cost/benefit calculations.

These are all learnable skills. Practice, coaching, and care will move you in the right direction.

All the best,
A.

My response to "Should I spend X hours on this?"

Yesterday, a client wrote me with this question. She discovered a bug in a CiviCRM extension, and the extension author has given her an hourly estimate of “5-6 hours” to fix it.

So she asked me:

I’m not sure if we want to spend this many hours on this. What are your thoughts?

Here’s my response, edited lightly for a more general audience:

Hello [dear client],

It's a good question — a great question, really!

Most importantly I would say: Don't get caught up in the number of hours here.

The more important question is to identify the business value of getting this fixed — which is probably equal to the business liability of not fixing it.

In other words, how painful is it to just leave this alone as it is? How often does this problem come up? What does it cost you (e.g. user goodwill, lost event fees, staff time, etc.) on average, each time it happens? You may not know exactly, but you might be able to make some kind of rough estimate of this cost.

If that cost is greater than what you'd pay to get it fixed, then you've got a good business case to fix it.

If it's not, then you have a good business case to just leave it alone and deal with any related problems as they comes up.

One more thing:

Hourly estimates are notoriously fuzzy. He may get it done in 5-6 hours as he said, or it may be less, or it may go over. If it would help you by reducing uncertainty, I'd be happy to make sure he fixes it for a fixed total price equivalent to his 8 hours, whether it takes more than that or not. This might be a desirable way for you to reduce the risks of additional cost if it should go far over the estimate.

I hope this helps! Let me know if you have more questions.

Thanks,
Allen

“Should I spend 50 hours on this?”

Should you hire somebody to spend 50 hours fixing a problem?

It might sound like a simple question, but you probably noticed already that it leaves a lot of room for uncertainty.

The uncertainty is in almost every word of the question:

• Should: Who's to say? By what standard are we measuring? What are the alternatives? What are the risks?

• You: What's your role in this project? What is your knowledge of the problem at hand? What's your experience handing off tasks to other people? How would success or failure in this effort impact you personally?

• Hire: What kind of business relationship are we actually talking about? Are you conducting a talent search or do you have someone in mind?

• Someone: Who is this person? What knowledge do they have of the problem and of how it's affecting your situation? How much do you trust them to actually get the results you're after?

• To spend 50 hours: Do you really want them to spend 50 hours? Are you hiring them to log hours? Do you care how long it takes them? What happens if it takes them longer, and what reason do you have to believe that it won't?

• Fixing: Do you know exactly the outcome you're trying to achieve? Do you know what a home run would look like? Are you really just looking for a technical "fix", or are you hoping to achieve a measurable business outcome?

• A problem: What's the problem you're trying to fix? What's the business benefit of resolving it? What's the business downside of just leaving it unresolved and focusing on other issues?

This question was paraphrased from one that a client asked me today. She's discovered a bug in a CiviCRM extension, and the extension author is giving an hourly estimate to fix the bug.

Tomorrow, I’ll share a paraphrase of my response.

Meanwhile, ask yourself:

What would you tell her? What would you tell yourself in a similar situation?

All the best,
A.

Work in progress

To folks who don't know where it's going, any work in progress can look a little off.

Like the new restaurant going up across the street from me: while they were just putting up the framework, I thought it looked awful. The shape of it was just all wrong.

This week they started putting on the facade, and it's actually pretty nice.

Trying new things in your CRM system can feel like that too. But as long as you know where you're going with it, that's okay.

If you have a clear goal in mind, and you know how you plan to get there, don't be bothered if it's not obvious to everyone else.

All the best,
A.

The rubber duck

Sometimes just talking through a problem can be enough to point to one or more solutions.

You could talk it through with a coach or mentor, but with a little practice you can also find ways to talk it through on your own.

The trick is to expose all of your underlying assumptions by explaining it to someone who doesn't know much about your situation, and who doesn't have a personal stake in the outcome.

It doesn't even have to be a real person.

This duck has no ears, but is a fine listener. (Source: Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0)

I know some software developers who work through difficult coding problems by explaining it all to a rubber duck they keep on their desk.

That's why the duck is there. It's his only job.

Here's the thing:

Some of the biggest impediments to our success are our own unspoken assumptions.

Forcing yourself to slow down enough to explain it to a disinterested party, even an inanimate one, can help you to examine those assumptions frankly, and get to a clear understanding of how everything fits together.

It just takes a little practice, but it's usually worth the effort.

All the best,
A.

Crisis vs opportunity

I have a few clients who come to me only when they have urgent problems. Maybe they're opening a new event registration next week, but it's not all working as expected and they're worried that it will be a disaster.

So I help them get it working properly, until they're comfortable opening registration. And then I don't hear from them again until some other problem comes up.

I have other clients who come to me early, to work out a strategy for tackling some new opportunity they’ve seen. We figure out their goals, workout a strategy, and either I'll help them with the implementation or they'll go back and do it themselves.

It's just a difference in working style.

Some people focus on putting out fires. Others focus on reaching for new opportunities.

Which working style do you have?

Which one would you like to have?

All the best,
A.

The perfect bug killer

A while back I read about a fellow who placed ads in magazines advertising the perfect bug killer.

It offered some amazing claims, all of which were true:

• Safe to use around children and pets

• No harmful chemicals

• So simple a child could use it

• Guaranteed 100% effective

• Delivered to your door for the low cost of $15

Here's what was delivered:

Two blocks of wood, one marked with an X. Printed Instructions: “Place bug on X; strike bug firmly with second block.”

That bug killer is perfect. 100% effective, and very inexpensive.

Of course, if you want something that's going to work in the real world, you’re going to have to make some trade offs.

All the best,
A.

Perfect systems

Can you imagine the perfect CRM system?

Perfect is hard to define, but I imagine the perfect CRM system would meet these requirements:

• Easy to use by everyone in all situations without training

• Able to handle every conceivable use case for every conceivable user

• 100% guaranteed to be free of bugs

• Beautiful and pleasing to the eye

• Maximum cost of ownership: $0

Obviously, this doesn't exist.

You can tweak the requirements and trade off one for another, but you're not going to find one CRM that checks all of those boxes.

There's no right answer. It's just a question of where you want to place your priorities.

All the best,
A.

Defining the problem

I've just started reading How to Measure Anything by Douglas Hubbard.

I'm not ready to recommend it yet. I'll let you know.

But here's a little gem that stood out to me:

A problem well stated is a problem half solved.
- Charles Kettering, 1876-1957

Sometimes we get a sense of an opportunity.

Or that something's not quite right and probably should be addressed.

So we know there's a problem. And we'd like it solved.

But what is it exactly that we'd like to solve?

Hubbard’s statement matches my experience. I see it quite a lot with my clients. I even see it going through homework with my kids:

The mere act of thinking the thing through enough to state it clearly can be enough, all by itself, to make the solution obvious.

Here's the thing:

The sense that something needs to be addressed is only the seed of opportunity.

Stating clearly what you'd like to achieve gives you a specific objective on which to focus your efforts.

It tells you what you can measure to determine whether you've succeeded or not.

And often, it will show you exactly what you need to improve.

Once you know that, you can decide much more easily how to do it, how hard that will be, and whether it's worth the effort.

If it's not worth the effort, you can just move on to something else.

But if it is, you can practically put a win in your schedule. How cool is that?

All the best,
A.

Expect to guess wrong

The “very best” way to organize your data will depend a lot on how you're going to use it.

Reporting and segmentation are some of the most high-value uses of your CRM. Obviously you're not just tracking and entering all this data just for fun.

You want to be able to examine it later and use it to advance your mission.

Naturally you’ll want to store this data in a structure that's going to be most useful when it comes time for reporting an analysis.

The reality, though, is that you won't always know all of the ways this data can be used later on.

Sooner or later, you’ll look back and say, “I wish this data were organized differently.”

The future is hard to see. Sometimes you’ll guess wrong.

But here’s the thing:

When that time comes, when you realize that the data has been stored in a way that's hard to use for one need or another, all is not lost. You can restructure it.

You, or your staff, or some expert that you bring in can reorganize that data.

Don't let that stop you from collecting the data in the first place.

A little forethought is helpful, but don’t let “analysis paralysis” create needless delays.

When a new needs arises, or your insights become clearer, your effort can be well placed in light of your new strategies and understanding.

All the best,
A.