Project-Specific KPI Development

Your project is not the goal. 𝗜𝘁 𝗶𝘀 𝗮 𝘁𝗼𝗼𝗹 𝘁𝗼 𝗳𝗶𝘅 𝗮 𝘀𝗽𝗲𝗰𝗶𝗳𝗶𝗰 𝗽𝗼𝗹𝗶𝗰𝘆 𝗴𝗮𝗽. If you cannot prove exactly which gap you fix, evaluators don't see an investment. They see a hobby. The #1 reason for low Impact scores is 𝗰𝗼𝗻𝗳𝘂𝘀𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗢𝘂𝘁𝗽𝘂𝘁𝘀 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝗢𝘂𝘁𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗲𝘀. OLD THINKING ❌ 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗢𝘂𝘁𝗽𝘂𝘁 𝗧𝗿𝗮𝗽 (What 90% people write in theri KPI table): • 50 teachers trained. • 1 platform launched. Evaluator reaction: "So what? 𝗬𝗼𝘂 𝗷𝘂𝘀𝘁 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗱 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝘄𝗶𝗹𝗹 𝗯𝗲 𝗯𝘂𝘀𝘆." NEW THINKING ✅ The Outcome Shift (𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗲𝘃𝗮𝗹𝘂𝗮𝘁𝗼𝗿𝘀 𝗻𝗲𝗲𝗱 𝘁𝗼 𝗵𝗲𝗮𝗿): • ≥ 20 % increase in novice teachers’ digital-teaching confidence after pilot (supporting Digital Education Action Plan). • ≥ 25 % improvement in mentors’ ability to use AI-supported mentoring dashboards (serving DEAP Obj 1) • ≥ 30 % reduction in perceived professional isolation among rural teachers (E+ Horizontal priority - Inclusivity) • 2 Ministries adopt the framework (serving Council Resolution 2022). Evaluator reaction: "𝗧𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝘀𝗼𝗹𝘃𝗲𝘀 𝗮𝗻 𝗘𝗨 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗯𝗹𝗲𝗺." Please take a look at the matrix below. Most proposals stop at the middle column. 𝗪𝗶𝗻𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗽𝗼𝘀𝗮𝗹𝘀 𝗮𝗱𝗱 𝗧𝗪𝗢 𝗰𝗼𝗹𝘂𝗺𝗻𝘀 𝗼𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗿𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁. The Rule: If you can't name the specific policy document your KPI serves, you don't have a result. You have a to-do list. -- PS: My name is Igor Razbornik, and I translate policies into actionable steps in my training on proposal writing. 600 people in the last two years went through 4-days in-person training to achieve 𝟯𝟬% 𝗯𝗲𝘁𝘁𝗲𝗿 𝘀𝘂𝗰𝗰𝗲𝘀𝘀 𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗲 in 30% less time

Advanced Project Portfolio Management Dashboard in Excel: https://lnkd.in/dndF5RbR Did you know that more than 60% of projects fail to meet time, cost, or scope expectations, and in many organizations the data used for decision-making is already 30–45 days outdated by the time it reaches leadership? This happens when project information is scattered across spreadsheets, emails, verbal updates, and isolated files. In this environment, leaders make assumptions instead of decisions, teams work harder than ever, yet visibility remains poor, and risks continue to grow unnoticed. A well-designed Advanced Project Management Dashboard in Excel changes this reality completely. It begins with one disciplined Data Sheet. Every project, milestone, budget line, risk entry, resource allocation, and issue log is entered in structured tables. Nothing fancy at the start—just clean, organized, reliable data. This becomes the engine room that drives the entire portfolio. From there, you establish your core KPIs: • Schedule Performance (on-time percentage) • Budget vs Actuals • Scope Delivery Status • Risk Exposure Levels • Issues & Change Requests • Resource Utilization • Overall Project Health Each KPI is supported by simple formulas, clear ownership, and a consistent update cycle. Once the data is refreshed, the entire dashboard reflects the changes instantly. Then comes the transformation: turning raw data into visual intelligence—traffic lights, trend lines, bar charts, and portfolio summaries. In a single view, decision-makers can immediately see: ✔ Projects slipping behind schedule ✔ Where costs are exceeding plan ✔ Which teams or roles are overloaded ✔ The decisions that require immediate attention Here is the truth many overlook: the real power is not in the charts—it’s in the consistency. A uniform structure for every project. Standard KPIs across the entire portfolio. One reliable source of truth inside Excel. When this system is implemented properly, the entire culture of project discussions changes. Meetings stop revolving around debating whose numbers are correct. Instead, 90% of the conversation shifts to actions—adjusting priorities, reallocating resources, and protecting projects that deliver the highest value. If you are responsible for leading projects, you don’t need to wait for an expensive enterprise tool. Start with Excel. Build one strong, advanced dashboard. Make it your control tower. Because the project manager who controls the information… controls the outcome.

How we turned an aspirational OKR into a realistic set of goals. On Q3 2024 we started working with a software development team already familiar with OKRs with quite an aspirational set of goals. One of their KR was “Increase monthly active user retention by 15%.” While ambitious and user-impact-driven, this outcome metric was challenging to translate into immediate actions for the technical team. Hint: user retention is a lagging indicator. The solution was breaking this KR into more specific KRs reflecting user behavior changes. We did it by splitting KR levels (product + team) and aligning at the KR level (rather than cascading). The result was: - “Increase the percentage of users completing successful onboarding from 70% to 85%.” - “Increase Activation Rate from 65% to 75% during the first two weeks of use.” These KRs provided clear, actionable focus areas, enabling the team to identify where to improve the user experience. Additionally, KPIs were set to track short-term indicators, like average response time to onboarding-related issues, helping monitor progress in real time. This approach allowed the team to work toward the aspirational goal while staying motivated by seeing tangible improvements for users and the business. Would that work for your teams too? #ProductManagement #ProductStrategy #OKR #ObjectivesAndKeyResults

If you're building a data career, mastering the art of measurement planning can be one of the most effective ways to differentiate yourself from your peers. Companies need people who are thinking about this every time they launch a new initiative. If you can develop strong skills here, it can be your ticket to getting involved earlier on, in more projects, and to becoming seen as a true strategic partner in your organization. Here's what you should focus on... 1. Think Business First -> Resist the urge to dive straight into the data. -> Understand how critical this project is to the business. -> Ask what the key goals for the initiative are. -> What are the most important questions you'll answer? 2. Know Your Audience -> Who is driving the project? Is this the primary audience? -> What are the goals and incentives of key stakeholders? -> What data can you provide that will help them? -> What types of info may inspire them to take action? 3. Define the Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) -> For the goals identified, translate them to metrics -> Prioritize metrics based on importance to stakeholders -> Go a layer deeper, and think about KPI driving levers -> How do you picture optimizing the businesses KPIs? 4. Identify the Data Sources You'll Need -> Where will you get each data point you need? -> Who owns or manages each existing data source? -> Are the data sources available real-time? -> Are there gaps in existing data? How do you fill them? -> How can you automate or streamline reporting? If you can follow this framework, you should be able to break down any project and build a measurement plan that will help your organization identify goals, understand outcomes, and optimize performance to drive the business to new heights. We've got a free guide that goes deeper on this, called 'How to Build a Measurement' plan. CHECK IT OUT: --> https://bit.ly/3eaXGmq @ Data Pros - what else would you add here? #data #analytics #businessintelligence #measurement #planningforsuccess

What kind of data (if any) are you pulling out your project management software right now? Have you ever stopped to consider if your PM tool could be giving you more intel on where you should focus your efforts? Here is what the highest performing agencies do: They design their project management processes and tools to feed directly into key metrics and KPIs that matter most. ❌ That means they don’t start by just picking a project management tool and running with it. Instead, they start by: ⚙️ identifying their most important metrics and goals, ⚙️ building their scorecards, ⚙️ and only then designing their PM system to give them that data. These metrics may include: 📊 Utilization Rates - percentage of total hours spent on billable work. 📊 Gross Margin - profit margins for client work. 📊 Client retention rate - percentage of clients retained quarter to quarter. The list goes on, but the point is identifying the 5-10 metrics most vital to your agency. Leadership needs to define these first, and then share them with team leads and managers. All of this should then trickle down throughout the organization to define individual scorecards metrics to track against larger goals. After the end goal is in mind, that’s when you'll implement project management tools and processes to consistently capture the data required to calculate those KPIs. For example: In order to measure profitability per client or project… …your tasks and time tracking need to tie back to both specific projects and clients. This sounds like an easy solution, but it relies heavily on your project management system hierarchy and where you track your time. If your hierarchy and time tracking solution are disconnected and not built in a way that relates time to specific clients, projects, and deliverables, you'll struggle to get the data you need to measure against your scorecard metrics. That lack of visibility into key metrics makes it impossible to manage your agency's health and growth effectively. Are you able to get these key metrics reliably with your current system?